Welcome to the MedLibrary.org Wikipedia Supplement on Union of Atrecht -- Please Click to Return to Front Page

Map of the Spanish Netherlands, the Union of Utrecht and the Union of Arras (1579).

The Union of Arras (Dutch: Atrecht) was an accord signed on January 6, 1579 in Arras (Atrecht), under which the southern states of the Spanish Netherlands, today in Wallonia and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais (and Picardy) régions in France and Belgium, expressed their loyalty to the Spanish king Philip II and recognized his Governor-General, Don Juan of Austria. It is to be distinguished from the Union of Utrecht, signed later in the same month.

These were the conditions:

• There should be no more garrisons of foreign troops;
• The Council of State should be organized like that of the time of Charles V;
• Two thirds of the council members should be installed by all member states consenting.
• All privileges that were in force before the Dutch Revolt should be reinstated.
• Catholicism was the only religion. Any other religion (i.e. Calvinism) should be abolished.

The regions that signed it were:

• County of Hainaut
• Artois
• Lille, Douai and Orchies (Walloon Flanders)

Artois is now an integral part of France. Lille is now mostly part of France. The County of Hainaut is now part of the Belgian provinces of Hainaut and Namur and the French Oise and Nord départements.

These parts finally ended up in support of the Spanish king Philip II.

The regions that favored the Union, but did not sign it, were Namur, Luxembourg and the Duchy of Limburg. Limburg should not to be confused with the provinces in present-day Belgium and the Netherlands: Belgian Limburg was part of the Bishopric of Liège and while historical Limburg partly coincides with present day Dutch Limburg, it was smaller then. Alexander Farnese, the duke of Parma, started his conquest of the separatist parts (members of the Union of Utrecht) in these parts.

See also

• List of treaties

History of the Low Countries
Bishopric of Liège 985-1790	Burgundian Netherlands			Duchy of Luxembourg integrated 1441
	1384-1477
	Habsburg Netherlands 1477-1556
	Spanish Netherlands 1556-1581
	Spanish Netherlands	United Netherlands 1581-1795		1581-1713
	Austrian Netherlands			1713-1790
United States of Belgium				1790
Bishopric of Liège 1790-1795	Austrian Netherlands			1790-1794
French Republic		Batavian Republic 1795-1806		1795-1804
French Empire		Kingdom of Holland 1806-1810		1804-1815
United Kingdom of the Netherlands 1815-1830				Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Kingdom of Belgium since 1830		Kingdom of the Netherlands since 1830		(in personal union with the Netherlands until 1890)
Edit

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 24 July 2008, at 01:27.

Wikipedia Authorship and Review

Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.

Wikipedia Usage Guidelines

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Union of Atrecht".

The URL for this specific entry is:

• http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Union_of_Atrecht

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.