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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Stadtholder

Stadtholder \Stadt"hold`er\ (st[a^]t"h[=o]ld`[~e]r), n. [D. stadhouder; stad a city, a town + houder a holder.] Formerly, the chief magistrate of the United Provinces of Holland; also, the governor or lieutenant governor of a province.

Wiktionary
stadtholder

n. 1 The chief magistrate, then later, hereditary chief-of-state of the Dutch Republic. 2 An office formerly held by Danish and Swedish officials best translated as Governor-general.

Wikipedia
Stadtholder

In the Low Countries, a stadtholder (, ) was a medieval function, which during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries developed into a rare type of de facto hereditary head of state of the thus crowned republic of the Netherlands. It is comparable with the French title Lieutenant and England's 16th century Lord Lieutenant. Additionally, this position was tasked with maintaining peace and provincial order in the early Dutch Republic. The Dutch Monarchy is a cognatic descendant of the first Stadtholder of the young Republic, William of Orange. He was the leader of the successful Dutch Revolt against the Spanish Empire.

Usage examples of "stadtholder".

In the beginning of the year, the court of London was overwhelmed with affliction at the death of the princess dowager of Orange and Nassau, governante of the United Provinces in the minority of her son, the present stadtholder.

In Holland, all the authority and influence of the stadtholder were scarcely sufficient to allay the ferments excited among the people by the provisional taxation, which had succeeded the abolition of the patchers, and was indeed very grievous to the subject.

Father the moon-hanger the eye-in-the-sky the old meister the bey window the bit chammer the gaekwarder the incaling the khando kid the neatzam the shotgun of kyotowing the principal stadtholder the voivode the top wali, this Being, I say, being a Being of the highest anthropocentrictrac interest, as well as the one who keeps the corn popping from the fine green fields and the like and the like, is maybe being abruised and lese-majestied by us poor galoots over many meters of hard cheese days in and out but even a galoot has a brain to wonder with and what we wonder is to what end?

William the Silent while Stadtholder had also held the Stadtholderships of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht.

South-west of Brussels, in the village of Braine-le-Comte, His Royal Highness the Prince William, Prince of Orange, heir to the throne of the Netherlands, and Duke, Earl, Lord, Stadtholder, Margrave and Count of more towns and provinces than even he could remember, leaned forward in his chair, fixed his gaze at the mirror which stood on the dressing-table and, with exquisite care, squeezed a blackhead on his chin.

The Prince of Orange issues his orders and proclamations as the stadtholder and lieutenant of the king, and declares that he is warring for Philip, and designs only to repel those who, by their persecution and cruelty, are dishonouring the royal cause.

That dull, inglorious empire had antedated or outlived Venice and Genoa, Florence and Siena, the England of Cromwell, the Holland of the Stadtholders, and the France of many revolutions, and all the fleeting democracies which sprang from these.

The Stadtholder gave curt acknowledgement to the greetings of Mynheer Beresteyn, of his family, and of his friends, and then strode deliberately into the banqueting-hall.

My soldiers remain here under the command of one Jan, who obeys all my behests implicitly and without question, because he hates the Stadtholder as much as I do, and hath a father's murder to avenge against that tyrant, just as I have.

The Stadtholder, Diogenes, the two caitiffs, all standing round the one horse.

What we have lately read in the history of Holland, in the chapter on the Stadtholder, would have sufficed to set me against a chief magistrate eligible for a long duration, if I had ever been disposed towards one: & what we have always read of the elections of Polish kings should have forever excluded the idea of one continuable for life.

It will be the Stadtholder himself who, with a comparatively small force, will push on toward Barneveld and the molen, and at once cut off all communication between Ede and Amersfoort.

Toward the west, whence the Stadtholder would come, a gentle, undulating slope led down to Barneveld and Ede, Amersfoort and Utrecht.

The eldest son of John of Barneveld was awaiting final trial and inevitable condemnation, his brother Stoutenburg was a fugitive, and their accomplices Korenwinder, van Dyk, the redoubtable Slatius and others were giving away under torture the details of the aborted conspiracy against the life of Maurice of Nassau, Stadtholder of Holland, Gelderland, Utrecht, and Overyssel, Captain and Admiral-General of the State, Prince of Orange, and virtual ruler of Protestant and republican Netherlands.

When the Stadtholder sent John of Barneveld to the scaffold he committed a crime which can only be atoned for by his own blood.