Perpetual Edict (1667)

During the First Stadtholderless Period, the States-Party faction of the Dutch Regents, led by Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his uncle Cornelis de Graeff, tried to prevent the elevation of young William III, Prince of Orange to the office of Stadtholder in the province of Holland.

Since then there had been increasing agitation by the Orangist adherents of the Prince to give him a high office, like a seat in the Raad van State.

[1] To this proposal an addendum was added by Gaspar Fagel, then Pensionary of Haarlem, Gillis Valckenier and Andries de Graeff,[2] two prominent Amsterdam regents, which abolished the stadtholderate in Holland "for ever.

The three main points were abolition of the stadtholderate, permanent separation of the offices of captain-general of the Union and stadtholder (in all provinces), and the formal transfer of the prerogatives of the Stadtholder of Holland to the provincial States (confirming the transfer that had provisionally been made in December 1650, after the death of William II of Orange).

This met with much resistance of some of the Orangist city governments, because those opposed the doctrine of provincial supremacy espoused by the De Witt regime.

[4] By January 1668 the provinces of Utrecht, Gelderland, and Overijssel agreed to accept the political compromise, and it was enacted with four votes against three (Zeeland, Friesland and Groningen) by the States-General of the Netherlands.