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The so-called "walloon provinces" loyal to Spain are almost all located in France now (Arras, Douai, Lille, Cambrai...), only little bits of Hainaut were part of it.
The religious persecutions in Liège in the 16th century were very mild compared to elsewhere (like Flanders and Hainaut)... because there was few protestants, and the local version of Catholicism was very "liberal", persecutions for heresy were rare; Smith guilds were very powerful and traded with the Dutch Republic a lot even during the "inquisition". They would have fitted in IMO (there are a few protestant churches), because commerce was already more important than faith back then in Liège; which has always been yet a very Catholic city (one of the highest number of churches per km²).
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