For the big cities in Europe during the early to mid middle ages, what titles did the rulers have? Were they Dukes, Counts, Princes, etc? I'm not really considering the Hanseatic League, but if a guy was the ruler of a really big city and it's immediate surrounding farmlands, etc., what title was most common?

Quote from: danbuter;638209For the big cities in Europe during the early to mid middle ages, what titles did the rulers have? Were they Dukes, Counts, Princes, etc? I'm not really considering the Hanseatic League, but if a guy was the ruler of a really big city and it's immediate surrounding farmlands, etc., what title was most common?

Complicated question, the cities depending on the age were often the centres of what we would call modern democracies, the guilds and burghers had more power than the nobles in many ways, varying according to location. Some of the city rulers were Emperors as in Byzantium, some were the wily old Doges of Venice, Popes, Patricians, Bishops, Clans, Chieftains, Kings, Queens, Mayors, Maesters, take your pick really. The signature cities were usually also royal seats, with some exceptions.

"Mayor" is related to "major" and is Latin for "greater", so it's not too anchronistic, although apparently the term originally applied to someone who was more like a majordomo or steward than a magistrate of a city. Speaking of which, "magistrate" seems pretty old, too.

Some variant of "burgermeister" works in Germanic lands.

Independent city-states usually have a prince, duke, or some other inherited office, instead of an elected one. I can't remember where I read this recently, one of the medieval blogs I read, commenting on the papal election, I think, but voting is actually a very medieval thing: cities had lots of elections for various offices, and guilds had elections for guild leaders.

Reeves and portreeves were the medieval English regional or city administrators.

Talysman's post about the Burgermeister made me curious to research it. Would look to have a lot of potential for gaming IMHO. (On a sillier note the name burgermeister amuses me, because it makes me think of Mayor McCheese:))

Quote from: Ronin;638216Talysman's post about the Burgermeister made me curious to research it. Would look to have a lot of potential for gaming IMHO. (On a sillier note the name burgermeister amuses me, because it makes me think of Mayor McCheese:))

It makes me think of Burgermeister Meisterburger from the Rankin-Bass "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" cartoon. And then I start marching around the room singing "There'll be NO! TOY! MAKERS! To the KING!"

Depends on culture to be sure. I love me some Machiavelli do I usually use Prince.

Yeah, the question is too broad to really answer.

RPGPundit

I usually try to pick a name for a ruler that's usually consistent between villages of that race.  

For humans, I often use 'headman', 'elder', 'mayor' or 'reeve'. 'Councilor' comes up a fair amount as well.  

I'll also often attach a noble as the titular leader of a town or city.  While it is considered part of their holding, the city usually has some special tax exceptions - the lord is still tasked with defending it, but it doesn't generate massive revenue the way we'd think of cities today.  Counts, Earls, and Dukes all might be appropriate.

Quote from: danbuter;638209For the big cities in Europe during the early to mid middle ages, what titles did the rulers have? Were they Dukes, Counts, Princes, etc? I'm not really considering the Hanseatic League, but if a guy was the ruler of a really big city and it's immediate surrounding farmlands, etc., what title was most common?

I always find it helpful to look at specific examples and take inspiration from there (microhistory books can be great for this sort of thing, though most of the ones I encounter tend to focus on the events/peoples of a village, regionor small town). Also it never hurts to track down a professor of history whose area of expertise matches your question and shoot an email (just search the faculty list of universities or colleges with strong history deparments). Lots of them will happily respond.

On a google search this was one of the first things to turn up on a "medieval city administration" search. Havent read it, but looks somewhat promising:

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=19189

In Dark Albion its pretty easy, by the 15th century the term "mayor" had become pretty much universal for cities in Albion.

RPGPundit