The modern European state, defined by a continuous territory with a distinct borderline and complete external sovereignty, by the monopoly of every kind of legitimate use of force, and by a homogeneous mass of subjects each of whom has the same rights and duties, is the outcome of a thousand years of shifting political power and developing notions of the state. This major study, in the Origins of the Modern State in Europe series, sets out to examine the processes of state formation and the creation of power élites.

"Specialists and more general readers alike will therefore find in these essays new lenses affording a clearer perspective on one important aspect of the emergence of the modern European state."--American Historical Review