The confederates were to assemble at Utrecht whenever summoned by those commissioned for that purpose.  A majority of votes was to decide on matters then brought before them, even in case of the absence of some members of the confederacy, who might, however, send written proxies.  Additions or amendments to these articles could only be made by unanimous consent.  The articles were to be signed by the stadholders, magistrates, and principal officers of each province and city, and by all the train-bands, fraternities, and sodalities which might exist in the cities or villages of the union.

Such were the simple provisions of that instrument which became the foundation of the powerful Commonwealth of the United Netherlands.  On the day when it was concluded, there were present deputies from five provinces only.  Count John of Nassau signed first, as stadholder of Gelderland and Zutfen.  His signature was followed by those of four deputies from that double province; and the envoys of Holland, Zealand, Utrecht and the Frisian provinces, then signed the document.

The Prince himself, although in reality the principal director of the movement, delayed appending his signature until May the 3rd, 1579.  Herein he was actuated by the reasons already stated, and by the hope which he still entertained that a wider union might be established, with Matthias for its nominal chief.  His enemies, as usual, attributed this patriotic delay to baser motives.  They accused him of a desire to assume the governor-generalship himself, to the exclusion of the Archduke—­an insinuation which the states of Holland took occasion formally to denounce as a calumny.  For those who have studied the character and history of the man, a defence against such slander is superfluous.  Matthias was but the shadow, Orange the substance.  The Archduke had been accepted only to obviate the evil effects of a political intrigue, and with the express condition that the Prince should be his lieutenant-general in name, his master in fact.  Directly after his departure in the following year, the Prince’s authority, which nominally departed also, was re-established in his own person, and by express act of the states-general.

The Union of Utrecht was the foundation-stone of the Netherland Republic; but the framers of the confederacy did not intend the establishment of a Republic, or of an independent commonwealth of any kind.  They had not forsworn the Spanish monarch.  It was not yet their intention to forswear him.  Certainly the act of union contained no allusion to such an important step.  On the contrary, in the brief preamble they expressly stated their intention to strengthen the Ghent Pacification, and the Ghent Pacification acknowledged obedience to the King.  They intended no political innovation of any kind.  They expressly accepted matters as they were.  All statutes, charters, and privileges of provinces, cities, or corporations were to remain untouched.  They intended to form neither an independent state nor an independent federal system.  No doubt the formal renunciation of allegiance, which was to follow within two years, was contemplated by many as a future probability; but it could not be foreseen with certainty.