Society of the Dutch Republic

17th-century economic bubble in the Netherlands

thumb|right|300px|The Amsterdam archery militia whose patron saint was St. Sebastian, in 1653, by Bartholomeus van der Helst

right|thumb|''The Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse at [[Haarlem by Frans Hals, 1664]] The regenten (Dutch plural for regent) were the rulers of the Dutch Republic from the 16th through the 18th century, the leaders of the Dutch cities or the heads of organisations (e.g. "regent of an orphanage"). Though not formally a hereditary "class", they were de facto "patricians", comparable to that ancient Roman class. Since the Late Middle Ages Dutch cities had been run by the richer merchant families, who gradually formed a closed group. At first the lower-class citizens in the guilds and schutterij