thank you, Nerd. As you can all see, Sovereignty means the right to rule.

Gioia Timpanelli, who is far from you garden variety revival storyteller, researches all variants of a story back down to their roots.

I will have to dig that particular book out, but her argument goes roughly thus:

The story goes back to a time when women were displaced as having the right to rule: the right to be sovereigns. Their right to be equal with men.

Having been an English Major in a former life, I am quite familiar with the Chaucer and the ballads.