Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a collection of semi-autonomous cantons. As membership of the confederation has fluctuated throughout history, each of these cantons has its own unique history and nobility. Typically, each canton had its own constitution, currency, jurisdiction, habits, customs, history, and nobility. In the Middle Ages, various cantons had families with only local and, in the broad scheme of things, insignificant lands, whereas other cantons had ennobled families abroad. In Switzerland, there was a great number of families of dynasties who were members of the Holy Roman Empire. Other cantons had rulers from the House of Savoy, or from the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Burgundy. This diversity prevented the birth of a state with monarchical central authority. As a general rule, Swiss nobility since the 14th century can be divided into three categories: nobility acquired by inheritance, under the terms of the family right; nobility resulting from the ennoblement of a commoner, or from the creation of a new title for someone who is already a noble; nobility acquired by integration, as was the case in Reyff (1577) or Pontherose (1443). This integration frequently results from a social event, or from one or more alliances with families which already belong to the nobility. Sometimes this was accompanied by the acquisition of a noble domain, for example when the seigniory of Mézières was bought by Jost Freitag in 1547. As a result of this, Jost consequently became a noble. In Switzerland, where the social classes were historically closer than they were in other countries, there was neither a misalliance nor a loss of nobility due to a noble engaging in manual work or taking up a trade. This is why, for example, the noble Jean Gambach was able to be a manufacturer of scythes in 1442, and the noble Louis de Daguet was able to be a carter at the end of the 18th century. The only cases where individuals lost their nobility were due to illegitimacy or voluntary renunciation. Bern, Fribourg, Solothurn, Lucerne From the 15th c. onwards, rising economic and political pressure from the city states enticed more and more families of the traditional feudal nobility to seek membership in the higher echelons of the citizenry. These late-mediaeval urban upper classes were already composed of wealthy commoners (merchants, landowners, and craftspeople) but also of aristocrats from nearby fiefdoms or the descendants of ministeriales (i.e.