Obs. Also 6 soueraignnesse, 7 sou-, soveraign-, sovereignesse. [f. SOVEREIGN sb. + -ESS.] A female sovereign.
1600. Dekker, Fortunatus, Wks. 1873, I. 90. Most pow’rfull Queene of chaunce, dread soueraignnesse.
1630. Brathwait, Eng. Gentlem. (1641), 67. Whence it grew that the Roman Empire became absolute Soveraignesse of many other ample Dominions [printed Dominious].
1686. trans. Chardin’s Coronat. Solyman, 83. There remain’d another Sister of Habas II. in the Womens Palace, who in the Kings absence was as it were Sovereigness of the Place.
