Perpetual Edict (1667)

The Perpetual Edict (Dutch: Eeuwig Edict) was a resolution of the States of Holland passed on 5 August 1667 which abolished the office of Stadtholder in the province of Holland. At approximately the same time, a majority of provinces in the States General of the Netherlands agreed to declare the office of stadtholder (in any of the provinces) incompatible with the office of Captain general of the Dutch Republic.

During the First Stadtholderless Period, the States-Party faction of the Dutch Regents, led by Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother 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. After the Treaty of Westminster (1654) they enacted the Act of Seclusion, which would prevent a member of the House of Orange being appointed to the office, without abolishing the office itself. This Act was revoked in 1660, after the Restoration of William's uncle Charles II of England. 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.

In July 1667, just before the Treaty of Breda (1667) ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War De Witt presented a political compromise to the States of Holland in which he proposed that William would be assigned a seat in the Raad van State, and would be appointed Captain-general, but only on reaching the age of majority: 23, not 18, as the Orangists wanted. All of this on condition that William would be excluded from the stadtholderate in every province (In Friesland and Groningen William's cousin Henry Casimir II, Count of Nassau-Dietz was already stadtholder).

...
Wikipedia