In 1581 delegates from the provinces in the North and the South met in The Hague. They came to the revolutionary conclusion that they did not feel they were subjects of Philip II, their King. In the conclusion, the Plakkaat van Verlatinghe, they recorded why they had renounced their loyalty. The King had not looked after the provinces as a father would have cared for his children or a shepherd for his sheep but, on the contrary, he had acted as an oppressor. The provinces united in the Staten-Generaal, the States General, carried on independently without him.