A person or group opposed to the stadholders, the chief magistrates of provinces in the Dutch Republic.
From anti- + stadtholder (from Dutch stad 'city' + houder 'holder'). This word is specific to Dutch Golden Age politics, from roughly the 1600s-1700s.
The Dutch fought internally for centuries over stadtholder power—the Orange family (stadholders) and republican merchants battled for control, and these political divisions literally shaped the founding of New Amsterdam (New York).
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