Micronational claims and sovereignty in the Minquiers and Écréhous

Abstract

This article examines the Minquiers and Écréhous in terms of micronational claims; factors such as the public imagination around being part of a Crown Dependency, having Norman heritage, and being on the borderlands between the Bailiwick of Jersey and the French Republic contribute to the micronational claims in the reefs. The ‘invasions’ of the Minquiers by supporters of the Kingdom of Patagonia were seen as a political protest; the use of the Kingdom of Patagonia's flag as a symbol of this protest confirms the validity of the flag as an officially sanctioned symbol. In the case of the hermits living in the Écréhous, the attribution of imagined sovereignty by claiming the title of ‘King of the Écréhous’ is associated with the peculiarities of the sovereignty of the Channel Islands and the Norman heritage that dominates the Channel Islands’ sense of identity. The use of flags in micronationality seeks an element of group cohesiveness, whereas the claims of sovereignty in the Écréhous are more aligned with place attachment and individual initiative.