List of stadtholders in the Low Countries

This is a list of stadtholders (Dutch: stadhouders, German: Statthalter) or governors (French: gouverneurs) in the Low Countries, or historical Netherlands region.

The stadtholders or governors were appointed from the ranks of the high nobility, and acted as deputies of a monarch, such as the dukes of Burgundy, Saxony and Guelders, the kings of Spain, or the archdukes of Austria.

The County of Artois (Dutch: Artesië) was a province of France, held by the Dukes of Burgundy from 1384 until 1477/82, and a state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1493 until 1659.

The Spanish Habsburgs therefore appointed governors (stadtholders) over Cambrai who were not answerable to the prince-bishop residing in Le Cateau-Cambrésis.

During the First Stadtholderless Period, the provinces of Holland, Zealand and Utrecht were governed by their States free from autocratic intervention.