Stadtholder

Stadtholder, government official in the Low Countries, from the 15th to the 18th centuries. Initially, stadtholders were noblemen appointed by the ruling dukes as viceroys in each province of the Low Countries. In the late 16th century, when the provinces that later became the Netherlands won their independence from Spain, the stadtholderates were recognized as belonging to the House of Orange. In 1747 Prince William IV was elected to all the stadtholderates, effectively making him ruler of the Netherlands. The system of stadtholder rule was replaced in 1795 by the so-called Batavian Republic, modelled on the revolutionary French republic.