What do we call the medieval middle class of towns (merchants, craftsmen)?

The story behind the answer

Urban merchants and master craftsmen formed a distinct estate between nobles and rural laborers. They lived in chartered towns, organized into guilds, traded goods, and paid taxes rather than feudal dues. Unlike serfs/villeins and the broader peasantry, they were not bound to the land; unlike clergy, they held no ecclesiastical office and derived status from wealth and civic rights.

From the 11th–14th centuries, booming trade and markets—from the Champagne Fairs to the Hanseatic ports—swelled this class. Town charters granted liberties and self-government, encapsulated in the saying “city air makes you free” (after a year and a day). Their money and expertise strengthened kings, funded wars, and seeded representative bodies and early capitalist practices that reshaped medieval society.