The Seventeen Provinces were the Imperial states of the Habsburg Netherlands in the 16th century. They roughly covered the Low Countries, i.e., what is now the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and most of the French departments of Nord (French Flanders and French Hainaut) and Pas-de-Calais (Artois). Also within this area were semi-independent fiefdoms, mainly ecclesiastical ones, such as Liège, Cambrai and Stavelot-Malmedy. The Seventeen Provinces arose from the Burgundian Netherlands, a number of fiefs held by the House of Valois-Burgundy and inherited by the Habsburg dynasty in 1482, and held by Habsburg Spain from 1556. Starting in 1512, the Provinces formed the major part of the Burgundian Circle. In 1581, the Seven United Provinces seceded to form the Dutch Republic. Composition After the Habsburg emperor Charles V had re-acquired the Duchy of Guelders from Duke William of Jülich-Cleves-Berg by the 1543 Treaty of Venlo, the Seventeen Provinces comprised: the County of Artois the County of Flanders, including the burgraviates of Lille, Douai, Orchies, the Lordship of Tournai and the Tournaisis the Lordship of Mechelen the County of Namur the County of Hainaut the County of Zeeland the County of Holland the Duchy of Brabant, including the Lordship of Breda, the counties of Leuven and of Brussels, and the advocacy of the Abbey of Nivelles and of Gembloux, and the "Overmaas" lands of Brabant (Dalhem, Valkenburg and Herzogenrath) the Margraviate of Antwerp the Duchy of Luxembourg the Lordship of Utrecht the Lordship of Frisia the Duchy of Limburg the Lordship of Groningen (including the Ommelanden) the Lordship of Overijssel the Duchy of Guelders with the Lordship of Drenthe, Lingen, Wedde, and Westerwolde the County of Zutphen It was not always the same seventeen provinces represented at the Estates-General of the Netherlands. Sometimes, one delegation was included in another. In later years, the County of Zutphen became a part of the Duchy of Guelders, and the Duchy of Limburg was dependent on the Duchy of Brabant. The Lordship of Drenthe is sometimes considered part of the Lordship of Overijssel. On the other hand, the French-speaking cities of Flanders were sometimes recognised as a separate province. Therefore, in some lists Zutphen and Drenthe are replaced by burgraviates of Lille, Douai, Orchies (also called Walloon Flanders) Tournai and the Tournaisis There were a number of fiefdoms in the Low Countries that were not part of the Seventeen Provinces, mainly because they did not belong to