 Charles united Guelders with the Seventeen Provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands, and Guelders finally lost its independence.Charles V abdicated in 1556 and decreed that the territories of the Burgundian Circle should be held by the Spanish Crown.When the Netherlands revolted against King Philip II of Spain in the Dutch Revolt, the three northern quarters of Gelderland joined the Union of Utrecht and became part of the United Provinces upon the 1581 Act of Abjuration, while only the Upper Quarter remained a part of the Spanish Netherlands.