before long they became partakers In the supreme government of the towns, being commonly represented on 70 the corporation by members of their own body. In the later period of the Middle Ages they even went beyond this, and in not a few cases the representatives of the craft-guilds pushed out the original aristocracy, the men of the Lineages, Geschlechte, or Patricians. For example, towards the close of the 15th century, in Zurich, Hans Waldmann, the famous Burgermaster of that town, who had originally been a member of the tanner’s guild, on attaining to power, altered the constitution of the executive, which had at first been composed, half of the municipal aristocracy, and half of the guildsmen, and gained a definite perpetual majority for the latter by increasing the proportion of their representatives to two-thirds. Even earlier than this, in the latter half of the 14th century, the account given us by Froissart of the famous war of Ghent and its allies against their feudal lord, the Earl of Flanders, shows us that the municipal aristocracy had little power unless backed by the craft-guilds. Wherever in Flanders "the lesser crafts” (i.e. mainly the handicrafts) were 71 powerful, the corporation had to give way, and take up the war against the Earl; where the “greater crafts” (such as the mariners) had sway, the corporation was able to hold the town for him.
To sum up, the corporation was the direct descendant of the mark, i.e. the tribal land-holding body, and the common tendency was for the craft-guilds to supplant this aristocracy after the Merchant Guilds had been overshadowed by their growing power. We may again mention that these corporations and guilds, the industrial associations in short, were accepted as due and legal members of the feudal hierarchy. It is necessary now to take note of the relations between them and the kings and their nobles.
As soon as feudalism became paramount in Europe, the tribal mark lost its independence, and came under the domination of the baron or lord of the manor, although much of its constitution and most of its customs remained intact under the feudal lordship,41