Formerly, the chief magistrate of the United Provinces of Holland; also, the governor or lieutenant governor of a province.

A stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder, German Statthalter, a translation of Latin locum tenens or French lieutenant), means an official who is appointed by the legal ruling monarch to represent him or her in a country, and may have a mandate to govern it in his or her name; in the latter case, it roughly corresponds with the position of governor (-general).