Patrician (post-Roman Europe)

Patricianship, the quality of belonging to a patriciate, began in the ancient world, where cities such as Ancient Rome had a class of patrician families whose members were the only people allowed to exercise many political functions. In the rise of European towns in the 10th and 11th centuries, the patriciate, a limited group of families with a special constitutional position, in Henri Pirenne's view, was the motive force. In 19th century central Europe, the term had become synonymous with the upper Bourgeoisie, except for the maritime republics of Italy, where it was the official title of the ruling local nobility.

With the establishment of the medieval Italian city-states and the maritime republics, the patriciate was a formally defined class of governing upper classes found within metropolitan areas such as Venice, Florence, Genoa and Amalfi and also in many of the Free imperial cities of Germany such as Nuremberg, Ravensburg, Augsburg, Konstanz and Lindau, including the independent Swiss towns of Bern, Basel, and Zurich.

As in Ancient Rome, patrician status could generally only be inherited. However, membership in the patriciate could be passed on through the female line. For example, if the union was approved by her parents, the husband of patrician daughter was granted membership in the patrician society of the Imperial Free City of Lindau as a matter of right, on the same terms as the younger son of a patrician male (i.e., upon payment of a nominal fee) even if the husband was otherwise deemed socially ineligible. Accession to a patriciate through this mechanism was referred to as "erweibern."

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