^f An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 4th Pan-European International Relations Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on International Relations, University of Kent at Canterbury, September 2001. I would like to thank Charles A. Jones, Anna Whitelock, Ole Waever, as well as the participants of the ECMI panel Sovereignty: New Actors at the conference for their helpful comments and remarks.

¹ John M. Hobson, "What's at Stake in 'Bringing Historical Sociology Back into International Relations?' Transcending 'Chronofetichism' and 'Tempocentrism' in International Relations", in S. Hobden and J.M. Hobson (eds.), Historical Sociology of International Relations (Cambridge, 2002), 3-41, at 5 (emphasis in the original). ² Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society (London, 1977). ³ Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990-1992 (Cambridge, 1992), 164. ⁴ Garrett Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy (Mineola, N.Y., 1988), 83. ⁵ Ibid., 105, 132. ⁶ Emperor Maximilian I, and Ferdinand and Isabella were amongst the signatories in 1495, but as suzerains of Italian city-states. When Henry VII of England adhered a year later, "... any pretense that the new league was just an Italian affair was dropped." Ibid., 124. ⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States ..., 163-4. ⁹ Ibid., 162. '^o Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy, 140. " Even though Mattingly notes that although the sixteenth century witnessed episodes between 1494 and 1599 when the principle is clearly applied - e.g. the Holy League (1495). or the League of Cognac (1526) - as the combination of a group of powers against an apparent victor, he nevertheless warns that "... it is hard to be sure if the sixteenth century appreciated the full beauty of a balanced system. It is harder because none of the arrangements lasted ..." Ibid., 141. It has to be noted, however, that although these arrangements did not last as long as they were intended to, they were still expected to last quite a long time. The Holy League, for instance, was to last twenty-five years. ¹² Ibid., 150.

" If the Pope or Emperor did not always possess the de facto power to enforce the compliance of the different rulers of the Christian world, they nevertheless always claimed the de jure authority to do so. As Gierke argues, the Pope was "... entitled and bound to exercise a direct control of temporalities whenever there [was] occasion and reasonable cause for this intervention". Otto Gierke, Political Theories of the Middle Ages, transi. by F.W. Maitland (Bristol, 1996), 14. Furthermore, "[i]n case of vacancy, or if the temporal Ruler neglect[ed] his duties, the immediate guardianship of the Empire f[ell] to the Pope. And lastly, it [was] for him to judge and punish Emperors and Kings, to receive complaints against them, to shield the nations from their tyranny, [and] to depose rulers who are neglectful of their duties ..." Ibid., 15. For more on the arrangements of the respu6lica Christiana, see Gianfranco Poggi, The State: Its Nature, Development and Prospects (Stanford, 1990); Hendrik Spryt, The Sovereign State and Its Competitors (Princeton, 1999); and Joseph R. Strayer, On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State (Princeton, 1970). '° Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Volume Two: The Age of Reformation (Cambridge, 2000), 244.

'^s Theodore K. Rabb, "Toleration During the Age of Reformation", in M.R. Thorp and A.J. Slavin (eds.). Politics, Religion and Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of De Lamar Jensen (Kirksville, 1994), 305-20, at 307. 16 skinner, The Foundation of Modern Political Thought, 241-54. " Rabb, "Toleration During the Age of Reformation", 312. z The assumption underlying the edicts was clearly that only a policy of toleration could appease the kingdom: "... cette presente Ordonnance, qui est faite pour la conservation du repos general & universel de notre Royaume, & pour obvier a tous troubles et seditions ..." J. Du Mont (ed.), Corps universel diplomatique du droit des gens, contenant un recueil des traitez ..., vol. 5, part 1 (Amsterdam/The Hague, 1728), 90. Or as Charles IX added: "Par notre Ordonnance ... fait pour le repos & pacification de nos Sujets, & pour appaiser & faire cesser les troubles & seditions que suscite en cettui notre Royaume la diversite des opinions qui regne a notre Religion." Ibid., 91. " Ibid.

²⁰ Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy, 163-6. ²¹ Michael Walzer, On Toleration (London, 1997), xi. ^zz Du Mont, Corps universel ..., 89. 23 Robin Briggs, Early Modern France 1560-1715 (Oxford, 1998), 15-6.

²⁴ Du Mont, Corps universel ..., 90 (emphasis added). ^2S Ibid., 91. ^zb Ibid., 90. ²⁷ Ibid. ^z8 Ibid., 91.

²⁹ Ibid., 180. ^3o Ibid. (emphasis in the original).

" Briggs, Early Modern France ..., 23. '^Z Ibid. " Du Mont, Corps universel ..., 266. " Ibid., 267. '^S Ibid., 268. '⁶ Ibid., 308-11.

³⁷ Ibid., 337. '^e Ibid., 340. ³⁹ Briggs, Early Modern France ..., 24-5.

'° Du Mont, Corps universel ..., 441. " Ibid. '^z Ibid. ⁴³ Ibid., 442. ⁴⁴ Ibid.

⁴⁵ Ibid., 453. ⁴⁶ Ibid.

" J. Rousset, Supplement au corps universel diplomatique du droit des gens, contenant un recueil des traitez ... qui ont echape aux premieres recherches de M. Du Mont, vol.2, part 1 (Amsterdam,The Hague, 1739), 208. ⁴⁸ "Nous promettons en outre que les villes, places & forteresses, qui seront prises sur nos rebelles. & reduites par force ou autremet en notre obeissance, seront par nous commises au gouvernement & charges de nos bons sujets catholiques & non d'autres ..." Ibid. ⁴⁹ Ibid. ⁵⁰ Ibid. ⁵¹ "... que de nostre part soient deleguees quelques notables personnages vers nostrc Sainct Pere le Pape, pour lui representer particulierement les raisons." Ibid. ⁵² Ibid.

⁵³ Ibid., 211. ^s4 Ibid. ^ss Ibid., 212. ^sb Ibid. ⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ Ibid. ₅9 Ibid. ^s° Ibid., 213. ⁶¹ Ibid. ^sz Ibid., 224-5. ⁶³ Briggs, Early Modern France ..., 29.

⁶" The insistance on prince or princess shows that the Arrest was really intended against the Spanish claims, as the transfer of the crown to a female was clearly against the laws of inheritance. ^ss R_ousset, Supplement ..., 222. ⁶⁶ Ibid. ⁶' Another reason for performing the absolution in France was the influence the League had in Rome, which made it difficult for the royalists to be heard by the Pope. As Henri IV later deplores when speaking of "... les ruses ordinaires de nos Ennemis, & leur puissance a Rome ..." Du Mont, Corps universel ..., 520. ⁶⁸ `... pl_usieurs grandes considerations, mesmement pour la necessite du temps, le peril ordinaire de mort a quel est sa Majeste expose a cause de la guerre, & qu'elle ne peut aller ny envoyer commande- ment a Rome; & pour ne laisser une si belle occasion & tant importante a l'Eglise de la reunion d'un si grand Prince icelle; fut arreste que I'absolution de 1excommunication luy seroit donnee par Monsieur I'Archevesque de Bourges ... selon la forme contenue au Pontifical ..." Rousset, Supplement .... 223. ⁶⁹ Du Mont, Corps universel ..., 508. ⁷⁰ Ibid., 510-1.

⁷¹ Ibid., 512. ⁷² "Nous avons toujours eu une grande inclination au repos public, & un meme desir de rentrer & vivre en paix, nous qui n'avons ete armes que pour défendre & conserver )'Heritage a nous echeu par la grace de Dieu, & la Succession legitime de nos Ancetres, d'heureuse memoire, sans avoir onques pens6 ni eu dessein d'envahir le bien d'autrui. Et ne desirant non plus que de rentrer & vivre en paix avec les Princes Alliez & Confédérez de cette Couronne ..." Ibid. '³ Ibid., 518. '" "Car s'il [Dieu] nous a souvent donne des Victoires sur ceux qui combatoient contre nous: il nous a encores plus souvent accreu la volonte, & donne les moyens, de vaincre par douceur ceux qui s'en sont rendus dignes. De sorte que nous pouvons dire n'avoir guerres moins advance la reunion de nos Subjets, sous nostre obeissance, telle que nous la voyons acheminee aujourd'huy, par la grace de Dieu: par nostre clemence, que par nos armes." Ibid., 519-20. ⁷⁵ Ibid., 520. ⁷⁶ Ibid., 522. " Ibid., 520. ⁷⁸ "Nous [the king] avons juge necessaire de donner maintenant sur le tout a nosdits Sujets un Loy generale, claire, nette & absolue, par laquelle ils soient reglez sur tous les differens qui sont ci-devant

sur ce survenus entr'eux, & y pourront encore survenir ci-apres, & dont les uns & les autres ayent su de se contenter, selon que la qualite du tems le peut porter." Ibid., 546. ⁷⁹ Ibid., 545. ⁸⁰ Ibid., 557. ⁸¹ Ibid., 556.

⁸² Ibid., 552. ⁸³ Strayer, On the Medieral Origins .... ⁸⁴ Du Mont. Corps universel ..., 552, 557-8. as Cornelis G. Roelofsen, "Grotius and the Development of International Relations Theory: The 'Long Seventeenth Century' and the Elaboration of a European States System", 18 Grotiana (1997), 97-120, at 101. as Briggs, Early Modern France ..., 147-8. ⁸⁷ For a more detailed account, see Olivier Christin, La Pair de religion (Paris, 1997).

^ee Randall Lesaffer, "The Medieval Canon of Contract and Early Modern Treaty Law", 2(2) Journal of the History of International Law (2000), 178-98, at 180. ⁸⁹ Ibid., 183.

⁹⁰ Ibid. " With the Peace of Westphalia. the disruptive potential of claims for justice on an order in which minority rights are not granted was fully recognized, and the treaties opened for foreign intervention in the estates of the Empire by Sweden and France should these guarantees not be respected. In the absence of any supranational authority to sanction the compliance of states to their commitments, this responsibility was now left to states themselves. As detailed above, if there were indeed instances when states enforced these commitments, the principle of sovereignty and nomntervention nevertheless more often prevailed. For detailed accounts of the Peace of Westphalia, see Andreas Osiander, "Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Westphalian Myth", 55(2) International Organization (2001), 251-87; and Stephane Beaulac, "The Westphalian Legal Orthodoxy - Myth or Reality?" 2(2) Journal oJthe History of International Law (2000). 148-77.

⁹² See Evan Luard, War in International, Society (London, 1986), 124, for a list of these conflicts. ⁹³ Jennifer Jackson Preece, National Minorities and the European Nation-States System (Oxford, 1998), 120. ⁹⁴ Ibid., 121-39.