 If a lord had several dominions (or, being a vassal, fiefs), some of these could be ruled by a permanent "stadtholder", to whom was delegated the full authority of the lord.A "stadtholder" was thus more powerful than a governor, who had only limited authority, but the stadtholder was not a vassal himself, having no title to the land.The local rulers of the independent provinces of the Low Countries (which included the present-day Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) made extensive use of "stadtholder"s, e.g.