The burgher class was a social class consisting of municipal residents (Latin: cives), that is, free persons subject to municipal law, formed in the Middle Ages. These free persons were subject to city law, medieval town privileges, a municipal charter, or German town law. After the fall of the estate monarchy, this social class, more often referred to as the bourgeoisie (from French: bourgeoisie – city residents) and less often as the burgher class, generally refers to town or city inhabitants. Due to the ideological and pejorative connotations of the terms 'burgher class' and 'bourgeoisie,' modern sociology prefers to use the term 'middle class.'
Gradually, within the burgher class, a wealthy stratum emerged, engaged in banking and overseas trade, organized in guilds and trading companies. The rise of this stratum is associated with the beginning of capitalism.
Admission
The burgher class formed in the 13th century in connection with the emergence of medieval towns governed by separate laws. Burghers obtained self-governing rights and other privileges from feudal rulers. A burgher was exclusively a person possessing municipal rights (and not every person living in the town). To meet the conditions for acquiring these rights, one first had to obtain municipal citizenship under specific legal conditions regulated in municipal bylaws, town council ordinances, and sometimes very strict edicts.
Entry into burgher status varied from country to country and city to city.[1] In Hungary, proof of ownership of property in a town was a condition for acceptance as a burgher.[2]
Privileges
Any crime against a burgher was taken as a crime against the city community.[citation needed] In Switzerland, if a burgher was assassinated, the other burghers had the right to bring the alleged murderer to trial by judicial combat.[3]
In the Netherlands, burghers were often exempted from corvée or forced labour, a privilege that was later extended to the Dutch East Indies.[4] Effectively, only burghers could join the city guard in Amsterdam because in order to join, guardsmen had to purchase their own expensive equipment. Membership in the guard was often a stepping stone to political positions.
By region
Britain and Ireland
Germany
Low Countries
Switzerland
South Africa
Specific cities
References
- ^ Deboeck, Guido J. (2007). Flemish DNA & Ancestry: History of Three Families Over Five. Dokus. ISBN 978-0972552677.
Those who lived outside the city could still become burghers but they would be 'buiten-poorters' or outside burghers. The way to become a burgher was different from town to town and city to city; some cities required registration ....
- ^ Teich, Mikuláš; Kováč, Dušan; Brown, Martin D. (2011). Slovakia in History. Cambridge University Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-1139494946.
Proof of ownership of property in a given town – that is, purchase of a house or land or acquisition of the same by marriage to the daughter or widow of a burgher – was a significant condition for acceptance as a burgher.
- ^ Simond, Louis (1822). Switzerland; or, A Journal of a Tour and Residence in that Country.
If a burgher was assassinated, all the others had a right to bring the supposed murderer to trial by judicial combat, assumere duellum; and the chronicle of 1288 adds a singular circumstance, Duellum fuit in Berne inter virum et mulierem, sed ....
- ^ Bosma, Ulbe; Raben, Remco (2008). Being "Dutch" in the Indies: A History of Creolization and Empire. ISBN 978-9971693732.
... abandoned the idea of equal rights because not all Christians could be labeled 'Burgher'. If someone were subject to a local head, they were obliged to perform corvee, but anyone categorized as a Burgher was exempt from this.
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