Craft guilds had been in the Europe ever since the eleventh century.  The weavers were usually the most orderly and strongest of the craftsmen.  Some of the craftsmen involved in the crafts guild were the butchers, bakers, weavers, cloth-makers, dyers, glassmakers, and other artisans.  They were undoubtedly the largest guild, but the merchants were a close second.  Some of the groups that were considered to be in the crafts guild were actually also considered their own guild.  Some of these “double-guilds were the bakers and goldsmiths.  

Laws often existed for specific guilds.  For example, laws involved with the weavers gave the weavers portion of the guild special rights and made them able to have their own courts of law, and if a member of the crafts guild was accused of a crime, they had every right to be tried in the guild’s court, and not the town’s court. This angered the town governments, because the guild court might have a bias that benefited the guild member.  The government did not have any real reason to ban this, though.  Finally, the citizens of the towns offered twenty marks every year to the government if the guild was banned.  This action was said to have been approved, but for some reason, it never took place, most likely because the promised twenty marks never turned up from the town.  In the picture to the above left, craftsmen carved wood and polish various items.  The picture at the above right is a glass art form made by a glassblower.  The most important right of the weaver’s was that they could control weaving trade in that particular town or city.

Comments are requested, and quite welcome: Allyson Terry's email or Kacey Marton's email

  Page last updated: 04/11/2003 03:42