Who rules small towns of cities?

[fcbkid15]

I need help. I need to know in fantasy times, if you could call them that, what the leader of a town or city was. The kings rule the kingdoms, but I don't know who leads the city or town. Mayor is too, well, un-fantasy like. I heard Baron, but i don't know if that could work. Any ideas?

[Kaellpae]

Well there is always the chance of making your own title? What about Duke? Baron would be cool, too. Those are the only titles that came to mind outside of Mayor for me.

[sashamerideth]

Local landed gentry most likely.

[Fnord]

"Burgomaster" if you want to go in a more germanic spin. Otherwise "lord mayor" pretty much works out.

[fcbkid15]

okay thanks. I'll either go with baron, or duke.

[razzazzika]

"Burgomaster" if you want to go in a more germanic spin. Otherwise "lord mayor" pretty much works out.

I don't want to say I'm being a grammar 'Nazi' when correcting something in German, because that would be wrong.. but it's Bürgermeister if you're giving it a 'germanic spin' as you say. Burgomaster is sort of like a Anglicized spelling of the word. It's kinda like howwe call the country Germany, but they call it Deutschland.

But anyway... to answer the original question.... Fantasy times? you mean medieval times? Barons, dukes, and lords could all have holdings over tracts of land. You could also have earls, vicounts, and marquis. That was just the english titles. If you're pulling from OUR history from your world, nothing says you have to stick to english titles. You can get french, spanish, german, or even japanese noble titles. Or go another step beyond, and say, hey, I want my world to be UNIQUE, and make up your own dang names for leaders and nobility. Nothing says a king has to be called a king.

[Eliazar]

It all depends on the political structure, I guess. You can of course have minor nobles be in charge of a city, but as far as I know, the bigger settlements were ruled independently. By guilds (merchants or craftsmen), for example, who meet in a city council and perhaps elect the leader. Also, if you take an approach like the Italian city states, I think they were ruled by a council of the richest families (nobles in this case). For a smaller town, it could also be the local noble whose family owned the land for ages and before the settlement grew big.

Or a "joint venture", with a duke or something being the nominal head, but heavily influenced/controlled by the guilds. Ruling is all about the power and economic influence you have. In feudal societies, land is power, but with cities, power lies with those producing goods there and trading, and land isn't the major factor needed for production, in contrast to the countryside, where the village population would consist mostly of people in the agricultural sector and only the odd craftsman. In medieval times, cities thus proved to be kind of a "foreign body" in the overall feudal system and nobles were always sceptical of their power.

[Fnord]

I don't want to say I'm being a grammar 'Nazi' when correcting something in German, because that would be wrong.. but it's Bürgermeister if you're giving it a 'germanic spin' as you say. Burgomaster is sort of like a Anglicized spelling of the word. It's kinda like howwe call the country Germany, but they call it Deutschland.

Oh definitely. I was already assuming the OP was planning to write in English.

[myrddin173]

okay thanks. I'll either go with baron, or duke.

The problem with that is neither of these positions would rule a single city/town. A Baron would rule a barony, a sizable chunk of land with a number of towns in it, likewise with the duke only their dukedom would consist of a number of counties, consisting of a number of viscounties, consisting of a number of baronies. In my opinion Lord Mayor would be your best bet

[Mreichardt]

I went with Governor for the city ruler title. It might not be accurate to real life, but it's a self explanatory title.