Union of Utrecht

In addition, some important political matters were regulated in areas such as defence, taxation and religion, which is why the treaty in question is also seen as a first version or precursor of a later constitution.

These areas – except for Amsterdam and Middelburg, among others – were largely free of Spanish troops in the years 1572–1576, and there leaders with the Calvinist faith gained the upper hand.

And returning Calvinist exiles who had once fled from Alva sometimes caused serious religious disturbances in the then church- and king-faithful regions outside Holland and Zeeland after 1576.

The governor finally agreed by signing the Eternal Edict on 12 February, after which Spanish troops began to withdraw, largely to the Duchy of Luxembourg, which had always remained royalist.

The Union of Utrecht is regarded as the foundation of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, which was not recognized by the Spanish Empire until the Twelve Years' Truce in 1609.

The city of Groningen shifted in favor under influence of the stadtholder for Friesland, George van Rennenberg, and also signed the treaty.

[3] The Union of Utrecht allowed complete personal freedom of religion and was thus one of the first unlimited edicts of religious toleration.

[4] An additional declaration allowed provinces and cities that wished to remain Roman Catholic to join the union.

It was only through Parma's military conquests in the 1580s and the political developments in the rebellious region that it gradually became, in practice, a 'Northern Calvinist alliance', but it certainly did not start that way.