Burgher (social class)

A burgher was a rank or title of a privileged citizen of medieval towns in early modern Europe. Burghers formed the pool from which city officials could be drawn, and their immediate families that formed the social class of the medieval bourgeoisie.

Portrait of a Burgher (c. 1660) by Lucas Franchoys the Younger

Admission

Entry into burgher status varied from country to country and city to city.[1] In Slovakia 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. In Switzerland if a burgher was assassinated, the other burghers had the right to bring the supposed murderer to trial by judicial combat.[3]

In the Netherlands burghers were often exempted from "corvee" or forced labor, a privilege which later extended to the Dutch East Indies.[4] Only burghers could join the city guard in Amsterdam because in order to join, guardsmen had to purchase their own equipment. Membership in the guard was often a stepping stone to political positions.

British Isles
Main article: Burgess (title)

Germany
Main articles: Grand Burgher and Bildungsbürgertum

Low Countries
Main article: Poorter

Switzerland
Main articles: Swiss bourgeoisie and Daig (Switzerland)

South Africa
Main articles: Free Burghers and Burgher (Boer republics)

Specific cities

References
  1. Guido J. Deboeck Flemish DNA & Ancestry: History of Three Families Over Five ... 2007 0972552677 "Those who lived outside the city could still become burghers but they would be "buiten-poorters" or outside burghers.23 The way to become a burgher was different from town to town and city to city; some cities required registration and ..."
  2. Mikuláš Teich, Dušan Kováč, Martin D. Brown Slovakia in History 1139494945 2011 Page 49 -"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. Usually two burghers ...
  3. Louis Simond Switzerland; Or, A Journal of a Tour and Residence in that Country 1822 "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 ..."
  4. Ulbe Bosma, Remco Raben Being "Dutch" in the Indies: A History of Creolization and Empire. 9971693739- 2008 "... abandoned the idea of equal rights because not all Christians could be labeled "Burgher". II 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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