In the same year Gabriel Bethlen, the Calvinist Prince of Transylvania, died.

Around the middle of the 16th century, the city became an important Calvinist center in the Spanish Netherlands.

After the Elector and his Calvinist court officials drew up plans for mass conversion of the population to the new faith in February 1614, as provided for by the rule of Cuius regio, eius religio within the Holy Roman Empire, there were serious protests, with his wife backing the Lutherans.