The Union of Utrecht

Behind this facade lies a hall that now belongs to the university and was then the meeting room of the States of Utrecht.

At the end of January 1579 the treaty that made the Netherlands was announced here. The Union of Utrecht was first of all a military alliance: whoever was attacked would get help, everyone was bound by joint decisions on war and peace, and nobody was allowed to sign a treaty alone any more. Taxes were to be the same everywhere, and men between eighteen and sixty could be called up.

There was a clause about religion as well. Nobody would be persecuted for their faith again, and each province could decide for itself how to arrange that.

In Utrecht the promise lasted less than a year. Within twelve months Catholic worship was banned in this city, and anyone who still wanted to hear mass had to do it where nobody could see.

Two years later the States of Utrecht signed the document in which they renounced the king of Spain.

We step out onto the square, towards the empty space between the tower and the church.