Guilds in the High Middle Ages

As towns and cities grew, they became very complicated social organisms that had to be somehow managed. So if you were legally a commune, and many communes were formed in northern italy and in southern france, that meant that every a citizen of the town was responsible for helping to defend it. And hence, it did not have to rely on regional nobles like dukes or counts for their defence. They asserted their right to govern themselves. Exactly how they did so was very variable. But social life and political and economic life in these towns and cities all came under the influence of newly formed social institutions, particularly guilds.