Alessandro Farnese, the Duke of Parma, reestablished Spanish authority in the southern part of the Low Countries. He was able to restore Spanish sovereignty with the support of the people, many of whom were Catholic. A desire to root out Protestant heresy and retain Papal tradition facilitated the support of Spanish sovereignty. 

However, despite ongoing conflicts between the Protestant North and Spanish Catholic South, the fundamental religio-political framework of the modern nations of the Netherlands and Belgium was already in place by the late 1580s. 

The newly minted Dutch Republic was officially Protestant, yet in keeping with his desire to preserve religious liberty William of Orange refrained from imposing Protestantism on his citizens. Soon, the Netherlands saw the proliferation of various religious movements. Among these groups were Catholics, Anabaptists, and others.