How did contemporary English and European notions of sovereignty, empire, law and state formation impact upon English methods of settlement and governance in the Americas? Using documents such as travel narratives, promotional literature, colonial charters, maps, diplomatic correspondence and state papers, Ken MacMillan offers a major new study of legal imperialism under Queen Elizabeth and the early Stuarts. He argues that the imperial centre had a legal and historical right and responsibility to supervise its colonial peripheries. By drawing on legal resources associated with Roman law and...

How did English notions of sovereignty, empire and law impact their methods of settlement in the Americas?

The Atlantic Imperial Constitution explores the relationship between the English Crown and the Atlantic colonial peripheries under the early Stuarts. Arguing against the common belief that the English government sat out the first generation of Atlantic activities, Ken MacMillan demonstrates that the king, his Privy Council, and various associated bodies became involved in the Atlantic enterprise when the king's sovereignty, the rights of his subjects, or the needs of state were at stake. From 1606 onward, Crown intervention in Atlantic affairs reflected a historically based, ideologically...

Drawing on recent trends in both Atlantic and center-periphery literature, this book examines the relationship between the English crown - monarch, privy council, and ancillary bodies - and its Atlantic colonies under the early Stuart monarchs, James I and Charles I, circa 1603-1642.