Seventeen Provinces Stadtholders in the
Middle Ages were appointed by
feudal lords to represent them in their absence. If a lord had several dominions (or, being a
vassal,
fiefs), some of these could be ruled by a permanent
stadtholder, to whom was delegated the full authority of the lord. A
stadtholder was thus more powerful than a governor, who had only limited authority, but the
stadtholder was not a vassal himself, having no title to the land. The local rulers of the independent
provinces of the
Low Countries (which included the present-day
Netherlands,
Belgium and
Luxembourg) made extensive use of
stadtholders, e.g. the
Duke of Guelders appointed a
stadtholder to represent him in
Groningen. In the 15th century the
Dukes of Burgundy acquired most of the Low Countries, and the constituent parts (duchies, counties, lordships) of these
Burgundian Netherlands mostly each had their own
stadtholder, appointed by the Duke in his capacity of duke, count or lord. In the 16th century, the
Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, also King of Spain, who had inherited the Burgundian Netherlands, completed this process by becoming the sole feudal overlord: Lord of the Netherlands. Only the
Prince-Bishopric of Liège and two smaller territories (the
Imperial Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy and the
Duchy of Bouillon) remained outside his domains.
Stadtholders continued to be appointed to represent Charles and King
Philip II, his son and successor in
Spain and the Low Countries (the electoral Imperial title would be held by his brother
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his heirs in the separate Austrian branch of Habsburgs). Due to the centralist and
absolutist policies of Philip, the actual power of the
stadtholders strongly diminished, compared to the
landvoogd (es) or governor-general.
Dutch Republic When, in 1581, during the
Dutch Revolt, seven of the Dutch provinces declared their independence with the
Act of Abjuration, the representative function of the
stadtholder became obsolete in the rebellious northern Netherlands – the feudal lord himself having been abolished – but the office nevertheless continued in these provinces who now united themselves into the
Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. The United Provinces were struggling to adapt existing feudal concepts and institutions to the new situation and tended to be conservative in this matter, as they had after all rebelled against the king to defend their ancient rights. The
stadtholder no longer represented the lord but became the highest executive official, appointed by the
States of each province. Although each province could assign its own
stadtholder, most
stadtholders held appointments from several provinces at the same time. The highest executive and legislative power was normally exerted by the sovereign States of each province, but the
stadtholder had some prerogatives, such as being the
commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The stadtholder also appointed lower officials and sometimes had the ancient right to affirm the appointment (by
co-option) of the members of
regent councils or choose
burgomasters from a shortlist of candidates. As these councils themselves appointed most members of the States, the
stadtholder could very indirectly influence the general policy. In
Zeeland, the
Princes of Orange, who after the Dutch Revolt most often held the office of
stadtholder there, held the dignity of
First Noble, and were as such a member of the States of that province, because they held the title of
Marquis of Veere and Flushing as one of their patrimonial titles. On the Republic's central 'confederal' level, the
stadtholder of the provinces of Holland and Zeeland was normally also appointed
Captain-General of the
Dutch States Army and
Admiral-General of the confederate fleet, though no
stadtholder ever actually commanded a fleet in battle. In the army, he could appoint officers by himself; in the navy only affirm appointments of the five admiralty councils. Legal powers of the
stadtholder were thus rather limited, and by law he was a mere official. His real powers, however, were sometimes greater, especially given the martial law atmosphere of the 'permanent'
Eighty Years War.
Maurice of Orange after 1618 ruled as a military dictator, and
William II of Orange attempted the same. The leader of the Dutch Revolt was
William the Silent (William I of Orange); he had been appointed
stadtholder in 1572 by the States of the first province to rebel, Holland, as a replacement of the royal
stadtholder (He had previously held the post as an appointee of Philip II). His personal influence and reputation was subsequently associated with the office and transferred to members of his house. After his assassination, however, there was a short-lived move to install
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester as governor-general of
Elizabeth I before Maurice in 1590 became
stadtholder of five provinces, a position he would hold until his death (his cousin
William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg held the post in the remaining two provinces, Friesland and Groningen). Tensions nonetheless persisted between Orangists and republicans in the United Provinces, sometimes exploding into direct conflict. Maurice in 1618 and
William III from 1672 replaced entire city councils with their partisans to increase their power: the so-called "Changings of the Legislative" (
Wetsverzettingen). By intimidation, the
stadtholders tried to extend their right of affirmation, while they also attempted to add the remaining stadholderships like Friesland and Groningen to their other holdings. and banned his son William from the stadtholdership by an
Act of Seclusion, something overcome by popular feeling during the catastrophic events of 1672, the Dutch Year of Disaster (
Rampjaar), when the future
William III of England was swept to power. After the death of William III in 1702 they again abstained from appointing a
stadtholder. These periods are known as the
First Stadtholderless Period and the
Second Stadtholderless Period. After the French invasion of 1747, the regents were forced by a popular movement to accept
William IV, Prince of Orange,
stadtholder of
Friesland and
Groningen, as
stadtholder in the other provinces. On 22 November 1747, the office of
stadtholder was made hereditary (
erfstadhouder) everywhere (previously only in Friesland). As William (for the first time in the history of the Republic) was
stadtholder in all provinces, his function accordingly was restyled . After William IV's death in 1751, his infant son was duly appointed
stadtholder under the regency of his mother. The misgovernment of this regency caused much resentment, which issued in 1780 in the
Patriot movement, seeking to permanently limit the powers of the stadholderate. The Patriots first took over many city councils, then the
States of the province of Holland, and ultimately raised civil militias to defend their position against Orangist partisans, bringing the country to the
brink of civil war. Through
Prussian military intervention in 1787, Prince
William V of Orange was able to suppress this opposition, and many leaders of the Patriot movement went into exile in France. The stadtholderate was strengthened with the
Act of Guarantee (1788).
Abolition and transition to sovereign kingdom The exiles returned with French armies in the winter of 1795 and overcame the frozen
Dutch Water Line. William V fled to England, and the office of
stadtholder was abolished that year, when the
French revolutionary forces installed the
Batavian Republic. Similarly, while from 1572 in the
Southern Netherlands the Habsburg lords continued to appoint provincial
stadtholders for the region, this ceased when they were annexed by France in 1794. In 1806,
Napoleon established the
Kingdom of Holland, putting his younger brother
Louis on the throne. He abdicated his throne in 1810 in favour of his son
Louis II. He ruled for nine days, until his uncle Napoleon took charge himself, annexing the kingdom to the French Empire, until its fall in 1813. Soon after the French army withdrew from the Netherlands,
William Frederick, the son of
William V, was invited by the
Triumvirate of 1813 to become the first 'Sovereign Prince'. William had been living in exile in London during the French occupation. On 13 November 1813 he returned to the Netherlands to accept the invitation. On 16 March 1815 he assumed the title of King of the
United Kingdom of the Netherlands. == Timeline of Stadtholders during the Dutch Republic ==