pensionary, powerful political office in the Dutch Republic (United Provinces; 1579–1795). Pensionaries, originally the secretaries and legal advisers of the town corporations, were first appointed in the 15th century. They were members of the town delegations in the provincial States (assemblies). The pensionaries of the provinces of Holland and Zeeland were particularly influential and, by the end of the 16th century, virtually dominated certain city governments.
In Holland the nobility had its own pensionary who served as chairman of the States. This land advocate, as he was then known, held a position of national power in the period 1586–1618, when Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, a former pensionary of Rotterdam, dominated the domestic and foreign policy of the republic. His power came not from his office but from his being the leader of the ruling oligarchy of Holland, the preponderant province. With the fall of Oldenbarnevelt in 1618, the office, renamed councillor pensionary (raadpensionaris) in 1619, declined as that of the stadtholder increased in power. During the first stadtholderless period (1650–72), the office again became ascendant with the appointment of Johan de Witt, the pensionary of Dordrecht from 1650 and of the province of Holland from 1653. No succeeding pensionary equaled his power and prestige.
The office of councillor pensionary (including the less important equivalent in Zeeland) was abolished with the fall of the republic in 1795. The title was briefly revived in 1805 but referred to a newly created national office, equivalent to president, for R.J. Schimmelpenninck.