Fourth Fragment:
Next in the list of grievances is the story of the mutinies and >>the Spanish Fury at Antwerp during the governorships of Alva and Requesens. What follows is a brief account of the events leading up to the Pacification of Ghent (8 November 1576). Next is a passage on the misbehaviour of the new governor-general, Don Juan of Austria, who upon his arrival swore to uphold the Pacification but hopes of a settlement, so the document goes, were soon to be destroyed because of his deceit. It is alleged that Don Juan's real intentions had always been to start the war again. >>The author then claims that the rebel provinces had never ceased to attempt to reconcile themselves to the king - the latest demonstration of their goodwill was at the Cologne peace-conference in 1579.
[fragment:] Therefore, despairing of all means of reconciliation and left without any other remedies and help, we have been forced (>in conformity with the law of nature and for the protection of our own rights and those of our fellow-countrymen, of the privileges, traditional customs and liberties of the fatherland, the life and honour of our wives, children and descendants so that they should not fall into Spanish slavery) to abandon the king of Spain and to pursue such means as we think likely to secure our rights, privileges and liberties.
Therefore we make it known that for all these reasons, forced by utter necessity, >we have declared and declare herewith by a common accord, decision and agreement that the king of Spain has ipso jure forfeited his lordship, jurisdiction and inheritance of these provinces, that we do not intend to recognise him in any matters concerning him personally, his sovereignty, jurisdiction and domains in these countries, nor to use or to permit others to use his name as that of our sovereign.
This decree was the culmination of the Revolt which had now come to be a war of independence. Within a few years it would also come to be a fight between a independent republic (in the North) where the Catholic Church had been swept away and the nobility exercised little influence against a region (in the South) with strong aristocratic traits, a dominant role for the Catholic Church and an increasingly centralised state structure under the tight control of Habsburg rulers.