By the estates-general they meant the same body before which, in 1555, Charles had resigned his sovereignty to Philip.

The royal commissioners made an extremely unsatisfactory answer, concluding with a request that all cities, fortresses, and castles, then in the power of the estates, together with all their artillery and vessels of war, should be delivered to the King.

The Roman Catholic worship, it was also distinctly stated, was to be re-established at once exclusively throughout the Netherlands; those of the Reformed religion receiving permission, for that time only, to convert their property into cash within a certain time, and to depart the country.
Orange and the estates made answer on the 21st March.

It could not be called hard, they said, to require the withdrawal of the Spanish troops, for this had been granted in 1559, for less imperious reasons.

The estates had, indeed, themselves made use of foreigners, but those foreigners had never been allowed to participate in the government.