The conservative Catholic southern Netherlandish states (today mostly in France and part of Wallonia) fear the dominance of more urban, more commercial, and therefore more progressive provinces.

The southern states, prompted by Farnese’s political concessions and upset by aggressive Calvinism of the northern states, on January 6, 1579, sign the Union of Atrecht (Arras), based on a Catholic reading of the pacification and tending toward reconciliation with Spain, expressing their loyalty to the Spanish king.

This means the end of the cooperation aimed at a level of independence among the seventeen Netherlands, agreed upon only three years previously in the pacification of Ghent.

The regions that sign it are the County of Hainaut, Artois (today a part of France), Lille, Douai and Orchies (Walloon Flanders).

The southern regions that favor the Union, but do not sign it, are Namur, Luxembourg, and the Duchy of Limburg.