Includes bibliographical references and index.

List of Tables -- Notes on Contributors -- Introduction -- Werner Thomas -- PART 1 -- The Construction of Sovereignty -- 1 Sovereignty in Grotius -- Hans Blom -- 2 Ideas on Sovereignty -- Soto, Vázquez and Grotius -- Gustaaf van Nifterik -- 3 Conform to the Government and Acknowledge the Sovereignty -- Simon Stevin and François Vranck, a Practical Approach to Contested Sovereignty -- Lies van Aelst -- PART 2 -- The Use and Limits of Sovereignty -- 4 Sovereignty as Argument -- The Habsburg-Dutch Struggle for Territory before and after Westphalia, 1576-1664 -- Bram De Ridder -- 5 Sovereignty and Early Modern Private Property Rights -- Shavana Musa -- 6 The 'Perfect Principality' of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella -- Project and Reality of a 'Separate Sovereignty' of the Spanish Crown, 1529-1621 -- Alicia Esteban Estríngana -- PART 3 -- Sovereigns and Sovereignty in Practice -- 7 'The King is the Real Sovereign of this Countries' -- Politics of Justice and Order from the Duke of Alba in the Netherlands, 1567-1571 -- Gustaaf Janssens -- 8 Electing a Prince -- the Popular Transfer of Sovereignty at the End of the Sixteenth Century -- José Javier Ruiz Ibáñez -- 9 North-Netherlandish Sovereigns at Work in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century -- Simon Groenveld -- 10 Early Seventeenth-Century Representative Institutions and Law Making in the Habsburg Netherlands -- René Vermeir -- Index.

The essays in this volume explore the theories and practices of sovereignty in the context of state-building in the early modern Northern and Southern Low Countries. The Dutch Revolt, the secession of the northern provinces of the Netherlands from the Spanish empire, the formation of the Dutch Republic and the reconstitution of Habsburg authority in the south, fostered tense debates among scholars and political leaders about the legitimacy, organisation and processes of law and governance. This made the Low Countries a prime battlefield for theoretical and political contestations about the nature of public authority and the relations between different layers of government in early-modern Europe. The book approaches this historical debate from three angles: (1) political theoretical, (2) legal, and (3) politico-historical. .

Description based on print version record.