few Spanish lives had been lost, the Germans were excused but had to make camp in neighbouring villages. The Spanish Fury of October 1576 refers to the subsequent punishment of the city with a pillaging bloodbath.<ref name=SF1-Maastricht_1 /> By abandoned military on looting expedition Upon Requesens' death in March 1576, the Spanish king appointed his own half-brother Don Juan as Governor-General of the Netherlands, but hesitated several months before notifying him. Even then, Don Juan did not hurry to proceed to Netherlands. The abandoned officers and ordinary soldiers were not being paid, and started a mutinous looting campaign. The Spanish Fury at Aalst, a city that had always been loyal, showed that the military insurgencies that had occurred more than occasionally since 1573, had totally run out of hand by July 1576. Rampant soldiers sacked about 170 places in the County of Brabant.<ref name=SF1-Maastricht_1 /> The Spanish Fury at Antwerp, the most famous event by this name, also known as the Sack of Antwerp, occurred when the forces coming from Aalst and those from Maastricht met in November 1576. A thousand buildings were torched and as many as 17,000 men, women and children killed. Aftermath The Pacification of Ghent by which both Calvinists and Catholics decided to expel all Spanish troops, and for which negotiations had been going on since the sack of Aalst, was signed a few days after Antwerp's fate.<ref name=SEE-BIBLIOGRAPHY_MO-sub1 /> It was acceded to on 12 February 1577 by governor-general Don Juan when he signed the Perpetual Edict. A few months later, despite the agreed terms, Don Juan began planning a new campaign against the Dutch rebels, who found an ally in England's Elizabeth I. Though never recognized by Philip, an arrangement by Catholics put his nephew Matthias of Austria, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, in the position of governor of the Netherlands until 1581.<ref name=SF-Mechelen_3 /> By uncontrolled victorious military Alexander Farnese, son of Margaret of Parma, reconquered a large part of the Netherlands by methods found honourable by friend and foe. Thereupon the Union of Arras was signed and only weeks later, on 23 January 1579, the Union of Utrecht, at which the separation between southern and northern Netherlands became a fact. But the War was not finished. Between 12 March and 1 July 1579 both sides suffered hard in the Siege of Maastricht. The victorious attackers then held a second Spanish Fury at