Calvinist Republic of Ghent

And in the 16th century Ghent rebelled against Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor after which it lost many of its privileges and had to accept a citadel, called the Spanjaardenkasteel, or Castle of the Spaniards, in its center, while losing its city walls.

[1] On 8 November 1576 the States General of the Netherlands concluded a peace treaty, called the Pacification of Ghent, with the rebelling provinces of Holland and Zeeland.

This threw down the gauntlet to the government of the overlord of the Habsburg Netherlands, Philip II of Spain (who was count Philip III of Flanders); the royal stadtholder of Flanders Jan van Croÿ chose the side of the rebels and helped the citizens of Ghent subdue the Spanjaardenkasteel in the city.

Philippe III de Croÿ, Duke of Aarschot, who served as the grootbaljuw (the Grand Bailiff) of Ghent, was arrested, as well as the bishops of Bruges and Ypres.

Previously a similar coup had taken place in the capital of the Duchy of Brabant, Brussels and there the city government had been taken over by a Council of 18 members, called the Achttienmannen.

Hembyse and Ryhove orchestrated an Iconoclastic Fury in Ghent in May 1578 after rumors of sodomy by monks of a local Catholic monastery had spread.

These persecutions, and also the terror of the Scottish mercenaries who mercilessly looted the Flanders countryside, provoked a Catholic reaction, led by the faction of the Malcontents, that eventually would cause the secession of the Walloon provinces, who were united in the Union of Arras and concluded a separate peace with the Spanish Crown at the Treaty of Arras in May 1579.