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Map of the Spanish Netherlands, the Union of Utrecht and the People of Arras (1579).

The People of Arras (Dutch: Atrecht) was an accord signed on 6 January 1579 in Arras (Atrecht), under which the southern states of the Netherlands, today in Wallonia and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais (and Picardy) régions in France and Belgium, expressed their loyalty to the Spanish king Philip II and recognized his Governor-General, Don Juan of Austria. It is to be distinguished from the Union of Utrecht, signed later in the same month.

These were the conditions:

• There should be no more garrisons of foreign troops;
• The Council of State should be organized like that of the time of Charles V;
• Two thirds of the council members should be installed by all member states consenting.
• All privileges that were in force before the Dutch Revolt should be reinstated.
• Catholicism was the only religion. Any other religion (i.e. Calvinism) should be abolished.

The regions that signed it were:

• County of Hainaut
• Artois
• Lille, Douai and Orchies (Walloon Flanders)

The regions that favored the Union, but did not sign it, were Namur, Luxembourg and the Duchy of Limburg. Alexander Farnese, the duke of Parma, started his conquest of the separatist parts (members of the Union of Utrecht) in these parts.

See also

• List of treaties

History of the Low Countries
Austrasia				Frisian kingdom
Carolingian Empire ca 800–843
	Cty of Flanders 9th century – 1384	Lotharingia, then Lower Lorraine 855–954–977
Bishopric of Liège + Imperial Abbey of Stavelot- Malmedy + Duchy of Bouillon 10th century – 1795		Other feudal states	County of Luxembourg 963–1384	10th–14th centuries
	Burgundian Netherlands		Duchy of Luxembourg 1384–1443	1384–1482
	Habsburg Netherlands 1482–1795 (Seventeen Provinces, Burgundian Circle)
	Spanish (Southern) Netherlands 1549–1713
				Dutch Republic 1581–1795
	Austrian Netherlands 1713–95
Liège Revolution 1789-1792	United States of Belgium 1790
French Republic 1795–1804				Batavian Republic 1795–1806
French Empire 1804–15
				Kingdom of Holland 1806–10
United Kingdom of the Netherlands since 1815
Kingdom of Belgium since 1830			Grand Duchy of Luxembourg since 1839	Netherlands