What did the States of Holland decide at their meeting in Dordrecht in July 1572?

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Portrait of William I, Prince of Orange, by Adriaen Thomasz Key. He wears a dark embroidered coat, a white ruff collar, and a black cap, with a trimmed beard and mustache. — William I Portrait of William I, oil on panel by Adriaen Thomaszoon Key, c. 1579; in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

At their meeting in Dordrecht in July 1572, the states of Holland proclaimed William I (William of Orange) as the stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland.1

This decision was part of a strategic effort to provide a legal basis for the ongoing revolt of the Netherlands against Spanish rule. To maintain this legal framework, the assembly operated under the fiction that the revolt was directed not against the king himself, but against his "evil advisers," specifically the governor, the Duke of Alba.1