The German Emperor Conrad II, who brought together the Swiss territories in 1032, was the overlord of large parts of western and central Europe. But the person ruling any particular area might be a member of a powerful noble family, a non-noble lord of the manor, the abbot of a monastery or a bishop.

Not all these local overlords had the same rights. Many rights were granted by the emperor to individuals or later to communities. Some of these rights made their owners rich: the right to mint money, to levy customs duties, to hold a market. Others were to do with administering justice at various levels.