How Villages Grew Into Towns

History · Medieval Times · ages 9-11

Name ______________________ Date ____________

What is a guild?
- A tax collector who worked for the king
- A group of workers in the same trade who set shared rules
- A market building where animals were kept
Which of these did medieval towns have that most villages did not?
- A market, walls, and guilds
- Only wide open fields for farming
- One big castle and nothing else
Medieval towns usually had more people living close together than villages.
Circle one: True False
Look at the chart. The village has 20 people. The town has 100. How many more people live in the town?
Answer: ______________
Why did a baker in a medieval town want to join the bakers' guild?
- To stop baking bread for good
- To become the town's only farmer
- To learn the trade well and agree on fair prices with other bakers
What new group of people grew because trade grew in towns?
- Merchants, who earned a living buying and selling goods
- Knights, who only fought in wars
- Priests, who only worked in villages
A town has many new bakers but no guild to agree on rules. What is most likely to happen?
- The king bakes all the bread himself
- Nothing changes, since guilds never mattered
- Prices and bread quality become unfair and uneven
Mia says towns changed nothing about medieval life, since everyone still obeyed a lord just like in a village. What is wrong with her idea?
- Towns never had any leaders at all
- Many towns won a charter, letting them govern themselves and giving townspeople new freedom
- Villages and towns worked in exactly the same way

Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

A group of workers in the same trade who set shared rules · A guild brought together workers doing the same trade so they could set fair prices, quality, and training rules.
A market, walls, and guilds · Towns grew around markets, often built walls, and were home to guilds and craftspeople, unlike small farming villages.
True · Markets and trade drew far more people into towns than farming ever did in villages.
80 · 100 minus 20 equals 80. Trade and markets pulled far more people into towns.
To learn the trade well and agree on fair prices with other bakers · Joining a guild meant learning the craft properly and working with other bakers to keep prices and quality fair.
Merchants, who earned a living buying and selling goods · Merchants made their living by trading goods rather than farming land, a new kind of life in medieval times.
Prices and bread quality become unfair and uneven · Without a guild's shared rules on training and pricing, buyers could not trust that bread quality or cost would stay fair.
Many towns won a charter, letting them govern themselves and giving townspeople new freedom · A charter let a town make its own rules and choose its own leaders, a real change from always obeying a lord.