Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a question and a context passage. You have to answer the question based on the given passage.
Q: What controlling entity might the low countries been afraid of?, Context: In 1579 a number of the northern provinces of the Low Countries signed the Union of Utrecht, in which they promised to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. This was followed in 1581 by the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence of the provinces from Philip II.
A:
provinces from Philip II