Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s anarcho-syndicalist peasant scene is one of the funniest parts of the film.

In it, two peasants claim that they’re living in an autonomous collective, a small self-governed society that doesn’t answer to a higher power, such as a lord, a king or a government.

It seems like it’s a crazy idea and just part of the zany humour of the film.

But how accurate is this scene? Could a society like this have existed back in the middle ages, and how would it work?

It was a question recently posed on Reddit, and there were some truly fascinating answers.


Let’s look into it.


Thanks to Redditors Wifi-Knight, Mike Dash, J-Force and Airborne Walrus for their insight.

Here's the original question on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorian...

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