ABSTRACT
The previous chapters have shown that since geographically sovereign states replaced the
horizonal structure of medieval Christendom, a propensity to hegemony, that is a
tendency to move back from the more absolute forms of multiple independences, was
inherent in the European system. The desire of the strongest state to lay down the law for
the whole system, at least in the external relations between its members, was made more
acceptable by the advantages that a measure of authority in the system brought to others
too. It was not that the kingship must reside somewhere. The pre-eminence claimed by
the Holy Roman Emperor and the king of France, and the rights and obligations that were
held to go with this claim, did not amount to hegemony. The legitimacies established by
the settlements of Westphalia and Utrecht were anti-hegemonial, Utrecht explicitly so.
