The Absent Monarch and Urban Revolt in Early Modern Mexico and the Holy Roman Empire

This essay critiques and expands on Yves-Marie Bercé’s notion of a “void of sovereignty” as a fundamental characteristic of early modern monarchy. Bercé identified the absent monarch as a manifestation of sovereign void likely to foment political unrest, revolt, rebellion and civil war. I am positing that sovereign void as an integral feature of early modern imperial governments was inherently ambiguous and could function as a centripetal as well as centrifugal force. In a situation of political crisis and disruption, monarchical ‘absenteeism’ could be a stabilising factor and work in favour of the authority and continuity of monarchy and dynasty. I will develop this argument with reference to two case studies of urban revolt from the early modern Spanish and Holy Roman empires: the tumulto de Mexico (1624) and the Fettmilchaufstand (1612-16).