Urban Living (medieval towns and guilds)

Towns and urban life in the medieval times were very different than that of today. Towns that evolved after the Black Death were mainly dominated by guilds, which were groups of people motivated by the same tasks. These guilds can be generally broken down into a few main groups, that being the merchant, craft, and non-occupational guilds.
A townsman’s status in medieval times was determined by money and goods, as opposed to the size of the land owned by the individual. Townspeople were mostly free within the walls of medieval cities once a charter was granted to them; however the society was not a democracy. The town was self-governed by an evolving class of people in Europe, the Bourgeoisie, whom made up some guild leaders. As burghers (people with a lot of money) became more popular, serfdom declined, therefore poor serfs could enter a town and become a freeman. Towns also arose from the large amount of trading during those times. These areas were generally, with the help of rivers and trade routes, concentrated places people could go to trade and exchange goods. Rural people could travel inside the walls to purchase many items, and proceed to travel back to their fields to do work.
Guilds assisted in a person’s status in a town, and way of life. They were basically self-governing groups of people with the same economic or religious goals whom would gather on various occasions and help each other out. They would protect their members, and the higher members of the guild were generally members of the civic government. Therefore disputes among guilds could be worked out in peaceful guild courts.The main buildings that made up a medieval town were Guild Halls and churches. Guild halls were places that were used for protection of the townspeople. Smaller houses were cramped, and because of the growing population at the time, caused some sanitation problems as well as fire hazards. These cities were great places for trade, and not so much for living quarters.

http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/richardson.guilds
http://history-world.org/midtowns.htm
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~gbetcher/373/MedTowns.htm
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~gbetcher/373/guilds.htm