@Solipsist Uh, no. Widespread disarming of citizens is a somewhat modern concept. In ye olde times every (free) household would have a spear, bow, crossbow, shied, some armour if they were wealthy and lucky, etc. Or course at least an axe since you'd need an axe to chop wood and meat anyway. If nothing else, everybody would carry a knife, the most useful of tools, which could also serve as a weapon. A gentleman would carry a sword. A sword would be an unnecessarily big expense for a commoner, though, because metal was expensive and a spear would be more efficient anyway. Men were regularly drafted into service in the endless wars of the period, and it often took the form of a household needing to supply the local lord with a soldier. A significant estate would need to provide a man-at-arms with a horse, usually in exchange for a tax break. The majority of the population in the old times lived outside of big cities, and they needed to be able to defend themselves against reasonable threats like robbers or beasts. At the end of the day it was also a sign of a free man to carry a weapon.
What comes to unions... Well, it was common for the laws to dictate that a person needs to belong to a guild in order to have a certain profession. If the guild didn't accept you for whatever reason, then that's it. In practice you needed to work as an apprentice of a master first, and then pass some exams. Free competition for the benefit of consumers wasn't a thing back then. If the professionals felt like there was too much competition so that their profits were going down, they complained to the king (or a more local lord) and consequently something was done to reduce competition. So, unions were a thing, after a fashion.