Arras, Union of

Arras, Union of 

union of Walloon provinces of the Netherlands (Hainaut, Artois, Dovai) formalized by a treaty signed Jan. 6, 1579, in Arras (Artois Province); later Lille, Orchies, and others adhered to the union. The initiative for the treaty came from the reactionary Catholic Walloon nobility embittered by the successes of the Netherland bourgeois revolution of the 16th century. The union provided for the observance of the points of the Pacification of Ghent (1576), the inviolability of Catholicism (which was recognized as the only tolerated religion), the continuation of Philip II of Spain’s sovereignty over the Netherlands on the condition that he observe the privileges of the nobility of the Netherlands, and others. On May 17, 1579, an official treaty was signed with the Spanish viceroy Alexander Farnese, reestablishing Philip’s authority over the Walloon provinces on the above conditions; thus the Walloon provinces in effect detached themselves from the revolutionary provinces. The revolutionary provinces of the north responded to the Union of Arras by signing the Union of Utrecht (1579).