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abdication (dict)

Abdication

Abdication (from the Latin abdicatio disowning, renouncing, from ab, from, and dicare, to declare, to proclaim as not belonging to one), the act whereby a person in office renounces and gives up the same before the expiry of the time for which it is held. In Roman law, the term is especially applied to the disowning of a member of a family, as the disinheriting of a son, but in more recent times, the word is seldom used except in the sense of surrendering the supreme power in a state. A similar term for an elected or appointed official is resignation.

Abdications in classical antiquity

Among the most memorable abdications of antiquity may be mentioned that of Sulla the dictator, 79 BC, and that of the Emperor Diocletian, AD 305.

The British Crown

Probably the most famous abdication in recent memory is that of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom in 1936, who abdicated the British throne in order to marry American divorce Wallis Simpson, over the objections of the British establishment, the governments of the Commonwealth, the royal family and the Church of England. (See Abdication Crisis of Edward VIII.) This was also the first time in history that the British crown was surrendered entirely voluntarily. Richard II of England, for example, was forced to abdicate after the throne was seized by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, while Richard was out of the country. When James II of England, after throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the Thames, fled to France in 1688, he did not formally resign the crown, and the question was discussed in Parliament whether he had forfeited the throne or had abdicated. The latter designation was agreed upon, for in a full assembly of the Lords and Commons, met in convention, it was resolved in spite of James's protest "that King James II having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of the kingdom, by breaking the original contract between king and people, and, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of this kingdom, has abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant." The Scottish parliament pronounced a decree of forfeiture and deposition. A Royal Abdication can only be effected by an Act of Parliament. To give legal effect to the abdication of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 was passed.

Modern abdications

Historically, if a monarch abdicated it was seen as a profound and shocking abandonment of royal duty. As a result, abdications usually only occurred in the most extreme circumstances of political turmoil or violence. This has changed in a small number of countries: the monarchs of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Cambodia have abdicated as a result of old age, and the prince of Liechtenstein has recently made his son regent.

List

The following is a list of the important abdications:
align="left" | Lucius Cornelius Sulla align="right" | 79 BC
align="left" | Diocletian align="right" | AD 305
align="left" | Pope Benedict IX align="right" | 1048
align="left" | Isaac I Comnenus align="right" | 1059
align="left" | Stephen II of Hungary align="right" | 1131
align="left" | Albert I of Brandenburg align="right" | 1169
align="left" | Ladislaus III of Poland align="right" | 1206
align="left" | Pope Celestine V align="right" | December 13, 1294
align="left" | John Baliol of Scotland align="right" | 1296
align="left" | John Cantacuzene, emperor of the East align="right" | 1355
align="left" | Richard II of England align="right" | September 29, 1399
align="left" | Baldassare Cossa, Antipope John XXIII align="right" | 1415
align="left" | Eric VII of Denmark or Erik XIII of Sweden align="right" | 1439
align="left" | Amadeus VIII of Savoy align="right" | 1440
align="left" | Murad II, Ottoman Sultan align="right" | 1444 and 1445
align="left" | Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor 1 align="right" | 1555-1556
align="left" | Christina of Sweden align="right" | June 6, 1654
align="left" | Mary Queen of Scots align="right" | July 24, 1567
align="left" | John Casimir of Poland align="right" | 1668
align="left" | James II of England align="right" | 1688
align="left" | Frederick Augustus of Poland align="right" | 1706
align="left" | Philip V of Spain align="right" | 1724
align="left" | Victor Amadeus of Sardinia align="right" | 1730
align="left" | Ahmed III, Ottoman Sultan align="right" | 1730
align="left" | Charles of Naples (on accession to throne of Spain) align="right" | 1759
align="left" | Stanislaus II of Poland align="right" | 1795
align="left" | Qianlong Emperor of China align="right" | February 9, 1796
align="left" | Charles Emanuel IV of Sardinia align="right" | June 4, 1802
align="left" | Charles IV of Spain align="right" | March 19, 1808
align="left" | Joseph Bonaparte of Naples align="right" | June 6, 1808
align="left" | Gustav IV of Sweden align="right" | March 29, 1809
align="left" | Louis Bonaparte of Holland align="right" | July 2, 1810
align="left" | Napoleon I, French Emperor align="right" | April 4, 1814, and June 22, 1815
align="left" | Victor Emanuel of Sardinia align="right" | March 13, 1821
align="left" | Charles X of France align="right" | August 2, 1830
align="left" | Pedro IV of Portugal 2 align="right" | May 28, 1826
align="left" | Pedro I of Brazil 2 align="right" | April 7, 1831
align="left" | Miguel of Portugal align="right" | May 26, 1834
align="left" | William I of the Netherlands align="right" | October 7, 1840
align="left" | Louis Philippe, King of the French align="right" | February 24, 1848
align="left" | Louis Charles of Bavaria align="right" | March 21, 1848
align="left" | Ferdinand of Austria align="right" | December 2, 1848
align="left" | Charles Albert of Sardinia align="right" | March 23, 1849
align="left" | Leopold II of Tuscany align="right" | July 21, 1859
align="left" | Isabella II of Spain align="right" | June 25, 1870
align="left" | Amadeus I of Spain align="right" | February 11, 1873
align="left" | Alexander of Bulgaria align="right" | September 7, 1886
align="left" | Milan of Serbia align="right" | March 6, 1889
align="left" | Xuantong Emperor of China align="right" | February 12, 1912 (monarchy abolished)
align="left" | Nicholas II of Russia align="right" | March 15, 1917 (monarchy abolished)
align="left" | Wilhelm II of Germany align="right" | November 9, 1918 (monarchy abolished)
align="left" | Prajadhipok of Siam align="right" | March 2, 1935
align="left" | Edward VIII of the United Kingdom align="right" | December 11, 1936
align="left" | Carol II of Romania align="right" | September 6, 1940
align="left" | Victor Emmanuel III of Italy align="right" | May 9, 1946
align="left" | Wilhelmina of the Netherlands align="right" | September 4, 1948
align="left" | Leopold III, King of the Belgians align="right" | July 16, 1951
align="left" | Farouk I of Egypt align="right" | July 26, 1952
align="left" | Fuad II of Egypt align="right" | June 18, 1953 (Monarchy abolished)
align="left" | Juliana of the Netherlands align="right" | April 30, 1980
align="left" | Jean of Luxembourg align="right" | October 7, 2000
align="left" | Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia align="right" | October 7, 2004

Notes

1Charles abdicated as king of the Netherlands (October 25, 1555) and of Spain (January 16, 1556), in favor of his son Philip II of Spain. Also in 1556 he separately voluntarily abdicated his German possessions and the title of Holy Roman Emperor.
2Pedro IV of Portugal and Pedro I of Brazil were the same person. He was already Emperor of Brazil when he succeeded to the throne of Portugal in 1826, but abdicated it at once in favour of his daughter Maria II of Portugal. Later he abdicated the throne of Brazil in favor of his son Pedro II.

See also

References

  • Public domain 1911 edition of The New Century Book of Facts published by the King-Richardson Company, Springfield, Massachusetts.

 

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