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Burgher was a rank or title of a privileged citizen of a medieval to early modern European town. Burghers formed the pool from which city officials could be drawn, and their immediate families that formed the social class of the medieval bourgeoisie.

Admission

Entry into burgher status varied from country to country and city to city. In Hungary, proof of ownership of property in a town was a condition for acceptance as a burgher.

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 alleged murderer to trial by judicial combat.

In the Netherlands, burghers were often exempted from corvée or forced labour, a privilege that was later extended to the Dutch East Indies. 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

Germany

Low Countries

Switzerland

South Africa

Specific cities

• Bourgeois of Brussels
• Bourgeois of Paris
• Bourgeoisie of Geneva
• Hanseaten
• Tribes of Galway

References

1. 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 ....
2. 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.
3. 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 ....
4. 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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