ABSTRACT
During the later Middle Ages the relation between town and guild took a new form as craft-guilds developed political ambitions and acquired an overtly political role in a number of towns. This symbiosis marked a distinctive phase in guild history. Here we are concerned with the question: how was the guild town, and guild participation in city government, conceptualized by townsmen themselves and the civic authorities? First, we must briefly consider the political rise of the crafts.
