Vroedschap

[1] An honorific title of the vroedschap was the vroede vaderen, the "wise fathers" Most early modern Dutch cities were ruled by a government of male burghers or poorters (bourgeois) who were members of the regent class, the ruling elite.

The vroedschap appointed the magistrate, mostly from its own ranks; sometimes other members of the regent class were proposed.

Vroedmannen had to satisfy three basic conditions: male, membership of the Calvinist church and ownership of a house.

Although city administrations, by present standards, were more oligarchic than meritocratic, family ties never formed a formal legal basis for election.

In times of crisis, the stadholder sometimes appointed new vroedschapsleden in a province, to ensure that his followers were in power, a so-called wetsverzetting ("change of the legislative").