Forms of political action

A phrase like “forms of political action” may have seemingly dry overtones – but in fact this concept takes us to the heart of urban politics in the early modern city. When the heads of a guild drafted a petition and submitted it respectfully to the city clerk to be presented at the next council meeting, they were engaged in a conventional form of political action. Yet when citizens rioted, sacked houses, occupied city halls or took mayors hostage, they were engaged in less stereotyped but scarcely less structured or significant forms of political action. Events rarely reached this stage, but the very fact that the repertory of available actions was so broad was in fact a major political instrument for both sides in any dispute.