Peasant republic (a calque of the German word Bauernrepublik) is a term used to describe rural societies in the Middle Ages, especially in the Holy Roman Empire and in parts of the Nordics, in which royal, aristocratic and ecclesiastical power was unusually weak or non-existent, allowing the local farmers to enjoy a high degree of autonomy.
Typically peasant republics were located in remote and inaccessible areas (such as marshlands and mountain valleys) which were difficult for outside authorities to interfere in, and generally too poor to attract a lot of attention.
The German term Bauernrepublik was originally coined to refer to autonomous districts in Frisia and northwest Saxony, a region in which the tradition of 'Frisian Freedom' remained strong throughout the Middle Ages.
Some of these peasant republics disappeared through the consolidation of power in the hands of individual farmers, enabling them to set themselves up as petty lords on the feudal model,[3] while others were annexed or conquered by neighbouring princes.
[11][12] Some German-language sources also speak of Bauernrepublik to describe the case of the Republic of the Escartons of Briançon, a group of mountain territories having enjoyed particular fiscal and social provisions from the 14th to the 18th centuries.