At last in 1548, when all the Netherland provinces had been brought under the direct dominion or control of one sovereign prince, a convention was drawn up at the diet of Augsburg, chiefly by the exertions of the Regent Mary and her tried councillors Viglius and Granvelle, by which the unity of the Netherland territories was recognised and they were freed from imperial jurisdiction.

Nominally, they formed a circle of the empire,--the Burgundian circle--and representatives of the circle were supposed to appear at the diets and to bear a certain share of imperial taxation in return for the right to the protection of the empire against attacks by France.

As a matter of fact, no representatives were ever sent and no subsidy was paid, nor was the protection of the empire ever sought or given.
This convention, which in reality severed the shadowy links which had hitherto bound the Netherlands to the empire, received the sanction of the States-General in October, 1548; and it was followed by the issuing, with the consent of the Estates of the various provinces, of a "Pragmatic Sanction" by which the inherited right of succession to the sovereignty in each and every province was settled upon the male and female line of Charles' descendants, notwithstanding the existence of ancient provincial privileges to the contrary.

In 1549 the emperor's only son Philip was acknowledged by all the Estates as their future sovereign, and made a journey through the land to receive homage.
The doctrines of the Reformation had early obtained a footing in various parts of the Netherlands.

At first it was the teaching of Luther and of Zwingli which gained adherents.