Sovereign (pronounced sov-rin (U), sov-er-in (non U) or suhv-rin)
(1) A monarch; a king, queen, or other supreme
ruler.
(2) A person who has supreme power or authority.
(3) A group or body of persons or a state having
sovereign authority.
(4) A gold coin of the United Kingdom, the value
set at 22s 6d in the fifteenth century and re-valued to £1 sterling; it was
removed from circulation after 1914. In
UK slang, “sov” (“sovs” the more commonly used plural) endures among certain classes to describe £1 sterling.
(5) Belonging to or characteristic of a sovereign
or sovereign authority; royal.
(6) Supreme; preeminent; indisputable.
(7) In clinical pharmacology, of a medicine or
remedy, extremely potent or effective (archaic).
(8) A former Australian gold coin, minted
1855–1931, with a face value of £1 Australian.
(9) A large champagne bottle with the capacity of
about 25 liters, equivalent to 33⅓
standard bottles.
(10) Any butterfly of the tribe Nymphalini, or
genus Basilarchia, as the ursula and the viceroy.
(11) In regional UK, slang, a large, garish ring.
1250-1300: From the Middle English soverain (alteration by influence of
reign) & sovereyn, from the Old
French soverain (sovereign, lord,
ruler (noun use of the adjective meaning "highest, supreme, chief"))
(which exists in modern French as souverain),
from the Vulgar Latin superānus (chief,
principal (and source also of the Italian soprano
& sovrano and the Spanish soberano)) from the classical Latin
super (over; above) from the primitive Indo-European uper (over). The spelling
was influenced by folk-etymology association with reign and Milton spelled it sovran, perhaps a nod to the Italian sovrano and scholars caution that though
widely accepted, the link to the Vulgar Latin superānus is unattested. The
now obsolete medical sense of “remedies or medicines potent in a high
degree" was from the fourteenth century.
In law, there are strands of meaning: In a constitutional monarchy, a king or queen
can be known as the sovereign while the state itself is sovereign and sovereignty
is said often to reside in some elected assembly which, being representative of
the people, can be said to derive it from them.
The noun sovereignty emerged in the late fourteenth century to designate
"pre-eminence". It was from
the Anglo-French sovereynete, from
the Old French souverainete, from soverain and referenced "authority,
rule, supremacy of power or rank".
The modern meaning as “sovereign state” which is defined literally as
"existence as an independent state" is from 1715 and remains an exact
meaning, the state of statehood a binary in that a state is either independent
(and thus sovereign) or not. Attempts
therefore by sub-state entities like defined regions of federal states to asset
sovereignty under the guise of state’s rights are usually doomed to fail either
because, like the Australian states, they were non-sovereign colonies prior to
federation or have always been part of a larger whole. That is not to say that powers and authority
cannot be shared and some heads of it may exclusively be vested in a sub-national
construct but that is a constitutional arrangement within a sovereign state;
sovereignty is indivisible. The concept
of “personal sovereignty” invoked by those resisting such thing as COVID-19
related face-mask or vaccine mandates is drawn from the theories of natural law but
has no basis in positive law.
Lindsay Lohan, Vanity Fair photo shoot, Marina del Rey, California, October 2010. The location was the Sovereign, a motor yacht built in 1961 for the film star Judy Garland (1922-1969).
The noun suzerain (sovereign, ruler) dating from 1807, was from French suzerain, from the fourteenth century Old French suzerain (noun use of the adjective meaning "sovereign but not supreme") from the adverb sus (up, above) on analogy of soverain. The Old French sus is from the Vulgar Latin susum, from the Classical Latin sursum (upward, above), a contraction of subversum, from subvertere. It was the French suzerain which vested the English sovereign it’s meaning in the political sense. In international it came to mean a “dominant nation or state that has control over the international affairs of a subservient state which otherwise has domestic autonomy”, a sense similar but different from “client state” or relationships such as those of Moscow to the states of the former Warsaw Pact. Historically the suzerain was the feudal landowner to whom vassals were forced to pledge allegiance.
In May 1910, European royalty gathered in London for the funeral of Edward VII and among the mourners were nine reigning kings. This is believed the only photograph ever taken of nine sovereign kings and would be the last gathering of the old European order before the Great War. The photograph circulated widely in both monochrome and sepia tones and recently has been colorized. Notable absentees include Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (overthrown in 1917), Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Emperor Franz Joseph (died in 1916, the dual monarchy abolished and the empire dissolved in 1918) of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Standing, left to right: King
Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferdinand of the Bulgarians, King Manuel II of Portugal and the Algarve, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Prussia, King George
I of the Hellenes and King Albert I of the Belgians.
Seated, left to right: King
Alfonso XIII of Spain, King George V of the United Kingdom and King Frederick
VIII of Denmark.
Norway – Monarchy still going.
Bulgaria – Monarchy overthrown in 1946.
Portugal – Monarchy overthrown in 1910.
Germany – Monarchy extinct since the act of abdication
in 1918.
Greece – Monarchy overthrown in 1924, restored in 1935,
overthrown in 1973.
Belgium – Monarchy still going and notably more
predictable than the local parliamentary politics in that while it’s often not
possible for the politicians to agree on who should be prime-minister, the line
of succession to the throne is not disputed.
Spain – Monarchy overthrown in 1931, re-established in
1975 and still going (with the odd scandal).
One quirk of Spanish constitutional history and one about which not all
lawyers agree (political scientists and historians finding the arguments either
tiresome or amusing) is that despite the proclamation of a republic in 1931,
between then and 1975 when the monarchy was said to have been restored, Spain
may anyway have continued to be a monarchy because, whatever the outcome on the
streets or later Franco's battlefields, there may never have been executed the
necessary legal mechanism of dissolution.
When the king (Alfonso XIII 1886–1941; King of
Spain 1886-1931) went (with a fair chunk of his nation's exchequer) into exile in 1931, he departed the soil but did not
abdicate which most regard of no constitutional significance, the subsequent
declaration of the Second Spanish Republic thought sufficient and most agree
this abolished both monarchy and kingdom, sovereignty residing with the
republican state which General Franco (1892-1975; Caudillo of Spain 1939-1975)
took over in 1939. In curious twist
however, in 1947 Franco re-established Spain as a Kingdom which he ruled as
head of state of the Kingdom of Spain through the Law of Succession. A sovereign kingdom thus but without a king
on the throne on which, figuratively at least, Franco sat until peacefully he
died in 1975. A king then returned to
the kingdom because, again amending the Law of Succession, Franco appointed
Alfonso XIII's grandson, Juan Carlos I de Borbón (b 1938; King of Spain
1975-2014, styled Rey Emérito (King
Emeritus) since) as his successor and he assumed the throne in 1975, the nature
of the new, constitutional monarchy, promulgated in 1978 after a
referendum. Despite the fine technical
points raised, most agree Spain was a republic 1931-1947, the kingdom was
restored in 1947 and monarchical rule has existed since 1975, its
constitutional form assumed in 1978.
Sovereignty was probably vested successively in the republic
(1931-1939), Franco personally (1939-1975), Juan Carlos personally 1975-1978
and the Spanish state since.
United Kingdom – Monarchy still going
though not without the odd squabble at the margins. Although having undergone the occasional
change in dynastic management, it has since the ninth century existed
continuously except for the uncharacteristic republican interregnum
(1649-1660). Territorially, it has been
a shifting jigsaw, comprised of various permutations of all or part of England,
Ireland, Scotland & Wales, the odd temporary European augmentation and of
course the colonies, territories and Dominions linked to the old British Empire and the still extant Commonwealth. The
relationship between the monarchy and the Commonwealth varies from state to
state and even in those independent states where the UK monarch remains the
head of state, sovereignty in almost all cases resides wholly somewhere in the
local political construct.
Dating from 21 April 1926, a two-part prediction was made by Henry "Chips" Channon (1897-1958), a US born resident of the UK who became a member of parliament (1935-1958) and in his last years, a knight of the realm (although the peerage he coveted eluded him. In the way of such things, in many ways he became more English than many Englishmen. On the day of the birth of the future Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022; Queen of the UK 1952-2022) he noted in his diary that he expected the child to become "Queen of England and perhaps the last sovereign". Channon thought the Prince of Wales (Prince Edward 1894–1972; briefly (in 1936) King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom & Emperor of India), whom he knew, to be so temperamentally unsuitable for the role of king he would either renounce his claim to the throne or abandon it once crowned. His first part of the prediction proved accurate although he was diffident about the second and the monarchy has thus fare endured. Channon's diaries, published in the 1960s (in heavily redacted form) were amusing enough but the (mostly) unexpurgated editions (in three volumes 2021-2022) are as juicy as any published in the past century.
Denmark – Monarchy still going.
That early in the twenty-first century a dozen European nations (Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom & Vatican City (the pope the only absolute sovereign and the city-state a theocracy)) remain monarchies would have surprised some. In 1948, the already embattled (and soon to be overthrown) King Farouk (1920–1965; King of Egypt 1936-1952) gloomily predicted that soon only five kings would remain: "The King of England and the kings of hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades". While prescient about his own fate, he was wrong in that but while there are certainly fewer than there were, the institution, while on paper a pretty silly basis on which to depend for a head of state, has proved durable in those cases where royal families have been sufficiently adaptable to evolve into reliable ciphers and become frequent, if sometimes unscripted, content providers for pop culture platforms.
A blend of the ancient and modern which characterized much
of what Jaguar produced until well into the twenty-first century, the Daimler
Sovereign was the final evolution of the Jaguar 2.4, introduced in 1955 as the
“small” car of the range and known retrospectively as the Mark 1 after 1959
when a revised model was released as the Mark 2. The bigger-engined versions of the Mark 2
were the outstanding sports saloons of their day and dominated production car
racing until the new generation of fast Fords, the Lotus Cortina, the Mustang
and, somewhat improbably, the big Galaxies began to prevail but, as road cars,
the power delivered by the 3.8 litre XK-Six was probably close to the limit of
the platform’s capability. This was
addressed in 1963 when a version of the more capable independent rear suspension
introduced in 1961 on the Mark X and E-Type (XK-E) was grafted to a slightly
enlarged structure and released as the S-Type.
The new sophistication was appreciated but the unusual combination of
styling techniques was less admired, the front and rear generally felt discordant and
tellingly, the Mark 2 was not discontinued and continued to sell well.
The aesthetic objections
were noted and in 1966, a new nose, reminiscent of that on the Mark X, was
grafted on to the S-Type and the result, while clearly not modernist in the
manner of a contemporary like the NSU Ro80, was generally acknowledged to be
more harmonious. The new model, acknowledging
the fitment for the first time in the platform of the 4.2 litre XK-Six, was
called the 420 and, in a (brief) attempt to create a naming convention with
some familial relationship, the big Mark X was re-named 420G and the Mark 2
became the 240 or 340 depending on engine capacity, the 3.8 litre version
discontinued although a few were built to special order (albeit still badged as 340s). Strange as it seems, for a number of reasons,
the 240, 340, S-Type and 420 all remained available until all were replaced by
the XJ6, introduced in 1968. Only the
420G received a stay of execution, the flagship lingering until 1970 by which
time production had slowed to a trickle.
Launched simultaneously in
1966 with the 420 and around 7% more expensive was the Daimler Sovereign. The Sovereign was essentially the 420 with
all the Jaguar’s optional extras fitted as standard, a higher grade of timber
and leather for the interior fittings and the traditional details
distinguishing the marquee, most notably the elegant fluting atop the
grill and the rear number plate valance. Unfortunately, unlike the earlier
Daimler version of the Mark 2 (later named 250 to align with the 240
& 340) which was powered by Daimler’s fine 2.5 litre V8, the Sovereign was
mechanically identical to the 420, the opportunity to create something special
by using the 4.6 litre version of the V8 not taken, the same mistake which
may have doomed the Mark X and 420G to their indifferent sales
performance; although excessively large for many markets, a V8 Mark X would have been ideal in the US. Nonetheless, although nothing more than a fancy Jaguar, it was a success and despite the higher
price, Sovereign sales totaled more than six-thousand, the 420 managing only
four-thousand odd more.
The 420-based Sovereign continued to be offered well into 1969 because the high demand for the XJ6 meant there was not immediately the capacity to produce a Daimler version of the new car. It was finally retired in 1969 (the last survivor of the platform introduced in 1955) when an XJ6-based Sovereign was released in 2.8 and 4.2 litre versions, notionally replacing the Mark 2-based 250 and the previous Sovereign respectively. Jaguar continued to use the Sovereign name on the six-cylinder Daimlers until 1983 when they were re-badged simply as “Daimler” although the name would for years be applied to various up-market XJs, especially in overseas markets where others held the trademark to the Daimler name. When equipped with the Jaguar's 5.3-litre V12, the Sovereign was named Double Six, a revival of a name Daimler used between 1926-1938 for an earlier twelve cylinder model. The Sovereign name was the choice of the Jaguar board; although the chairman had suggested “Royal” it seemed he was persuaded Sovereign was a better fit.
Most memorable of the Sovereigns were the elegant coupés offered between 1975-1977; the factory insisting they were a “two door” and not a coupé. The vinyl-roof, one of the many unfortunate aspects of style which so afflicted the 1970s, attracted criticism even at the time of release, the suspicion being it might have been glued on to hide some rather obviously hasty welding used to create the lovely roofline, a expedient Plymouth adopted in 1970 for the Superbird and Ford Australia repeated on the Landau three years later. However, it transpired the necessity was not the finish of the sheet metal but the inability of the paints of the era to accommodate the slight flexing of the roof caused by using the same gauge of steel on the pillar-less coupé as the saloon which was a little more rigid. With the availability of modern paints, many have since taken the opportunity to ditch the vinyl and allow the lovely lines to appear unspoiled. Being produced under the ownership of British Leyland, predictability, roof-flex wasn’t the only flaw. The sealing of the frameless windows was never perfected so wind noise is more intrusive than the saloon and, over time, the heavy doors will sag, Jaguar using the same hinges as those which supported the saloon’s smaller, lighter pressings.
Royal as a name
seemed not to be popular in other places (although Chrysler did use it for a while and it's applied to a few alcoholic beverages), earlier rejected in the antipodes as the
name for a new legal tender. In early
1963, Robert Menzies (1894–1978; Prime-Minister of Australia 1939-1941 &
1949-1966) had said Australia would adopt a decimal currency and later in the year it was announced its name would be “the royal”. Said to be the preferred choice of the
prime-minister himself, cabinet had been persuaded, presumably because the
other suggestions including "kwid", "champ", "deci-mate", "austral" and "emu", were
thought worse. Proving that social media
isn’t necessary for public opinion to become quickly known, within days the
derision expressed was enough to convince the government to change. The cabinet documents (released in 1993 under
the (then) thirty-year rule) recorded the treasurer telling the cabinet “…royal
had been a terrible mistake” and in September, it was announced the pound would
be replaced by the Australian dollar; it was introduced on Valentine’s Day
1966.
Currency matters had troubled Menzies
before. He’d been much criticized in
1952 when, upon Elizabeth II’s accession, the inscription FD abruptly was omitted
from Australian coins. FD (Defender of the Faith (the Latin Fidei Defensor (feminine Fidei Defensatrix)), had been in use
since 1507 when the title "Protector and Defender of the Christian
Faith" was granted by Pope Julius II (1443–1513; pope 1503-1513) to James IV of Scotland (James VI and I (1566–1625) King of Scotland as James VI (1567-1625) & King of England and Ireland as James I (1603-1625)) and had been
inscribed on all English (and subsequently UK) coins minted since the Medici Pope Leo X (1475–1521; pope 1513-1521) in 1521
conferred it on Henry VIII (1491–1547; King of England (and Ireland after 1541) 1509-1547). A grateful Leo
had been most impressed by Henry’s book Assertio
Septem Sacramentorum (Defense of the Seven Sacraments), a powerful assertion of both the sacramental nature of marriage and the supremacy of the pope,
his words at the time celebrated in Rome as the "Henrician
Affirmation". Although Henry would go
on to interpret the marriage ritual, papal authority and the defense of the
faith in his own way, FD nevertheless remains on the UK's to this
day. There, it is not without constitutional significance, the sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, being supreme governor (ie the titular head) of the Church of England, the nation's established (ie the official state) church.
In the Australia of 1952, then a country still marked by the sectarian divide between Catholic and Protestant, there was much outrage, Anglicans calling it an affront to Her Majesty and their church and nothing but a cynical ploy by a (Presbyterian) prime-minister to curry favor with Roman Catholics in search of their votes. Surprisingly to some, prominent among the affronted was the former high court judge, Dr HV Evatt (1894–1965; leader of the opposition 1951-1960) who, although condemned by the right-wing fanatics of the day as the “arch defender of the godless atheistic communists” was a staunch Anglican who proved a doughty opponent of the change. It at the time was quite a furore with questions in parliament, strident editorials, letters (of outrage) to the editor (the social media of the era) and ecclesiastical denouncements from a number of reverend and very reverend gentlemen. Menzies relented and intervened personally to ensure the mint secured Fidei Defensor dies in time for a commemorative florin (the modern 20c coin, then often referred to as "two bob") to be struck for the 1954 royal visit.
