ABSTRACT
The social and political structures of most cities were transformed in the half-century after 1270. More than the generation after the ‘Black Death’ of 1348–9, this period was transitional for the medieval cities of Europe, north and south alike. Except in Languedoc, occupational guilds came to share power with the older oligarchies of landowners and merchants and occasionally overthrew them. The most famous episodes are the guild revolutions in Flanders, which corresponded in time and to some extent in character to the second popolo and the Ordinances of Justice in Tuscany. However, changes no less profound that fit the broad social patterns suggested by the Flemish and Italian examples occurred elsewhere. After 1325, as before 1270, moneyed elites ruled the cities; but their bases had been broadened, corporate affiliations had been redefined, and the composition of city councils reflected wider participation.
