De Witt was the “Pensionary of Holland,” that is, the secretary and chairman of the legislature of the most important of the Seven Provinces constituting the Dutch Republic (or United Provinces) during most of Spinoza’s adult life. De Witt held this powerful position from 1653 until the summer of 1672 when, during the French invasion of the Republic, he and his ruling faction were overthrown by the Orangist opposition. The Orangists supported the claims of the princely house to hereditary right to the stadholderate, the presiding office in each of the Seven Provinces of the United Provinces combining military command with key roles in the seven legislatures and their highest committees, giving the young William III (stadholder 1672–1702) presiding political power as well as full military and naval command. Since the late 1660s especially, De Witt, his followers, and their anti-Orangist ideology known as the “True Freedom” rejecting the hereditary stadholderate, had faced deepening opposition.