However, when the stadtholder chose the side of the new royal governor-general of the Netherlands, John of Austria, he was replaced by the States General by Philippe III de Croÿ, duke of Aarschot, who was mistrusted by Calvinists like Hembyse (and also by the Prince of Orange).

Hembyse and Ryhove conspired with Orange to stage a coup d'état on 28 October 1577 in which Aarschot and a number of other provincial notables were arrested.

Also, monks of a local monastery were accused of practicing sodomy and after a show trial burnt at the stake.

When Hembyse armed the citizens of Ghent and also hired Scottish mercenaries, the Ghent regime began a campaign of conquest of other Flanders cities, that resulted in the founding of a number of other Calvinist city republics, governed by other councils of Achttienmannen.

This caused the reaction of Catholic partisans, known as the Malcontents, that eventually resulted in the secession of the Walloon provinces in the Union of Arras.

[5] Hembyse remained in exile until he was recalled by the Ghent government after another coup in August 1583, and restored in his function of First Schepen.