stadholder

Noun

stadtholder (plural stadtholders)

1. (historical) The chief provincial magistrate, military commander, and, as a member of the House of Orange, highest-ranking noble in the Dutch Republic, who often served as a de facto head of state alongside the States General; the position became hereditary in 1747
   • In keeping with the decentralization principe, each province had, in any case, to appoint its own Stadholder, who might not necessarily be the same prince of Orange, or stem from the dynastic trunk. (…) Sovereignty, it was affirmed, lay with the States General, whose bidding the Stadholder was to...1988, Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches: an Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age, Berkeley: University of California Press, pages 64-65
2. (historical) An office formerly held by Danish and Swedish officials, best translated as governor-general.