Large number of religious refugees had arrived by ship at Cadzand and other coastal ports in the Netherlands. The edict, which reflected a hands-on practical approach by the Prussian leadership, provided for Prussian diplomats in Amsterdam to arrange ships to transport these by sea to the Free City of Hamburg where Prussian representatives would be on hand to arrange transport up the Elbe to their chosen destinations in the Brandenburg-Prussia heartland. For people fleeing from eastern and southern France provision was made for a land route via Sedan and the Duchy of Cleves, which had become a territory of Brandenburg-Prussia in 1666, and where the Great Elector (as the Prussian ruler is identified in English language history books) had arranged for them to be settled locally or transported on via the Rhine to new homes further east. In its third section the edict spelled out a succession of suggested places where the migrants might wish to live, and went on to promise "free choice to their place of settlement... wherever they find it most convenient to practice their professions and trades".