1 a British gold coin that was in use in Britain from 1817 to 1914 and was worth £1 --
2 having the highest power or being completely independent: --
3 an extremely successful way of dealing with a problem: --
Love is a sovereign remedy for unhappiness.
4 a king or queen, or a person having the power to govern a country --
5 used to describe money that is borrowed or invested by national governments: --
No, it is orders we want, not inflation; and no debased sovereigns to replace the paper pound.
We are asked to provide a sum of £220,000 in sovereigns.
The coins in this case were 43 sovereigns.
Whatever the sovereign's personal predilections, "he was bound to respect and support in his public office all the recognised religions of the people with a certain measure of impartiality".
In such a system, the exercise of government was, even more than usual, a negotiation : an exchange between the needs and wishes of sovereigns, subordinates, and subjects.
The ' community of sovereigns ' was invented as a strategy to cope with crisis and against the increasing social and political demands nationalism made on the monarchies.
Moreover, repression and civil strife become more likely as the sovereign's payoff from transgressing and being challenged increases relative to the payoff of not transgressing at all.
The theologians interpreted that principle rather restrictively, arguing that only injuries done to oneself, to one's own subjects, or to allied sovereigns counted as a just cause.