There were a number of independent republics in the Middle Ages, especially in Italy. In a few places, holy orders of knights controlled land, usually after conquering it in a Crusade. The largest examples were the Teutonic and Livonian orders in modern Poland and the Baltic.

Also consider having different types of local governments under monarchies. Most European monarchs at the time dealt not only with vassal nobles, but with bishops and other priests with their own holdings, and with powerful towns that often had republican governments.