A burgess was the holder of a certain status in an English, Irish or Scottish borough in the Middle Ages and the early modern period, designating someone of the burgher class. It originally meant a freeman of a borough or burgh, but later came to be used mostly for office-holders in a town or one of its representatives in the House of Commons of England.
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👉 Burgess (title) in the context of Simon de Montfort's Parliament
Simon de Montfort's Parliament was an English parliament held from 20 January 1265 until mid-March of the same year, called by Simon de Montfort, a baronial rebel leader.
Montfort had seized power in England following his victory over Henry III at the Battle of Lewes during the Second Barons' War, but his grip on the country was under threat. To gain more support, he summoned not only the barons and the knights of the shires, as in previous parliaments, but also burgesses from the major towns. They discussed radical reforms and temporarily stabilised Montfort's political situation. Montfort was killed at the Battle of Evesham later that year, but the idea of inviting both knights and burgesses to parliaments became more popular under Henry's son Edward I. By the 14th century, it had become the norm, with the gathering becoming known as the House of Commons.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Burgess (title)
- 👉 Burgess (title) in the context of Simon de Montfort's Parliament
- Burgess (title) in the context of Parliament of England
- Burgess (title) in the context of Knight of the shire
- Burgess (title) in the context of Popular revolt in late-medieval Europe
- Burgess (title) in the context of Bourgeois of Brussels
Burgess (title) in the context of Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised the English monarch. Great councils were first called Parliaments during the reign of Henry III (r. 1216–1272). By this time, the king required Parliament's consent to levy taxation.
Originally a unicameral body, a bicameral Parliament emerged when its membership was divided into the House of Lords and House of Commons, which included knights of the shire and burgesses. During Henry IV's reign, the role of Parliament expanded beyond the determination of taxation policy to include the right to petition, which essentially enabled English citizens to petition the body to address complaints in their local towns and counties. By this time, citizens were given the power to vote to elect their representatives—the burgesses—to the House of Commons.
Burgess (title) in the context of Knight of the shire
Knight of the shire (Latin: milites comitatus) was the formal title for a member of parliament (MP) representing a county constituency in the British House of Commons, from its origins in the medieval Parliament of England until the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 ended the practice of each county (or shire) forming a single constituency. The corresponding titles for other MPs were burgess in a borough constituency (or citizen if the borough had city status) and baron for a Cinque Ports constituency. Knights of the shire had more prestige than burgesses, and sitting burgesses often stood for election for the shire in the hope of increasing their standing in Parliament.
The name "knight of the shire" originally implied that the representative had to be a knight, and the writ of election referred to a belted knight until the 19th century; but by the 14th century men who were not knights were commonly elected. An act of Henry VI (23 Hen. 6. c. 14) stipulated that those eligible for election were knights and "such notable esquires and gentlemen as have estates sufficient to be knights, and by no means of the degree of yeoman".
Burgess (title) in the context of Popular revolt in late-medieval Europe
Popular revolts in late medieval Europe are historical uprisings and rebellions by peasants in the countryside, or the burgesses in towns, against nobles, abbots and kings during the upheavals between 1300 and 1500, part of a larger "Crisis of the Late Middle Ages". Although sometimes known as 'peasant revolts', the phenomenon of popular uprisings was of broad scope and not just restricted to peasants. In Central Europe and the Balkan region, these rebellions expressed, and helped cause, a political and social disunity paving the way for the expansion of the Ottoman Empire.
Burgess (title) in the context of Bourgeois of Brussels
In Brussels, as in most European cities, one needed the capacity of bourgeois (equivalent to German burgher or English burgess; in French bourgeois or citoyen de Bruxelles; in Dutch poorter or borger van Brussel; in Latin civis or oppidanus Bruxellensis) to exercise political rights but also to practice a trade, which in Brussels meant to be a member of the guilds or of the Seven Noble Houses.
The charter of Brussels, as codified in 1570 in Articles 206 and following, provided the conditions of admission to the bourgeoisie of the city. The Bourgeois were the patrician class of the city. This social class was abolished by Napoleon during the French occupation.