--- - |2 Abstract This paper has two goals: to develop a sociological conception of martyrdom and to use that concept to interpret the history of sovereignty in the West. While recent research on the topic has focused on martyrdom as a terrorist tactic associated with radical Islam, I redress these trends by analyzing martyrdom as a social process, focusing on cases of martyrdom in European history, and cultivating a new perspective on the relationship between religion and politics in the historical development of sovereignty in the West. - 'Journal of Historical Sociology, Volume 31, Issue 3, Page 297-313, September 2018. '