When the Union of Utrecht was signed in 1579, the Lordship of Groningen also joined. But there was much more enthusiasm in the Ommelanden, who saw this as an opportunity to regain their independence from the city, than in Groningen itself. In March 1580, Stadtholder George van Lalaing succeeded in convincing the city of Groningen to leave the Union of Utrecht and to remain loyal to the King of Spain. The city now became a northern bastion for the Spanish in the Eighty Years' War, but they lost more and more territory until the city was taken in the during the siege in 1594.