>>149400781
Elective monarchies were popular in Central Europe.
Aristocratic Republics in Northern Italy.
Whatever the fuck the Holy Roman Empire was supposed to be.
I'm not exactly sure what the deal with the Swiss Cantons was they definately weren't monarchies.
East Frisia actually did have small self governing communes like that scene in Monty Python because nobody else wanted to live there.
Even a lot of "absolute" monarchies were pretty limited by feudal prerogatives untill the early modern era.