STADTHOLDER, the principal magistrate or governor of the United provinces. The Stadtholder seems to be empowered, either directly, or by his influence, to change both the deputies, magistrates, and officers in every province and city. He is president in the states of every province, though he has not so much as a state or vote in the states-general; but as he influences the states of each province to send what deputies he pleases to the assembly, he has in fact the appointing of the persons that constitute it, and may be deemed sovereign of the United Provinces. The stadtholders had once a very great power; so that we find one of them appointing what towns should send deputies to the assembly of the states of Holland: but the stadtholdership was never hereditary till the year 1747, when it was made so in the family of Orange.
It is observed, that the States passed by the stadtholder's eldest son, and appointed his younger son prince Maurice of Orange their stadtholder. At other times they have suppressed the stadtholdership entirely. The stadtholder always in the council, where there happens to be an equality of votes, has a decisive voice.