(Redirected from
Abdicate)
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 divorcée 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and people, and, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of this kingdom, has abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant."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:
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
|
79 BC
|
Diocletian
|
AD 305
|
Pope Benedict IX
|
1048
|
Isaac I Comnenus
|
1059
|
Stephen II of Hungary |
1131
|
Albert I of Brandenburg
|
1169
|
Ladislaus III of Poland
|
1206
|
Pope Celestine V
|
December 13, 1294
|
John Baliol of Scotland
|
1296
|
John Cantacuzene, emperor of the East
|
1355
|
Richard II of England
|
September 29, 1399
|
Baldassare Cossa, Antipope John XXIII
|
1415
|
Eric VII of Denmark or Erik XIII of Sweden
|
1439
|
Amadeus VIII of Savoy
|
1440
|
Murad II, Ottoman Sultan
|
1444 and 1445
|
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor 1
|
1555-1556
|
Christina of Sweden
|
June 6, 1654
|
Mary Queen of Scots
|
July 24, 1567
|
John Casimir of Poland
|
1668
|
James II of England
|
1688
|
Frederick Augustus of Poland
|
1706
|
Philip V of Spain
|
1724
|
Victor Amadeus of Sardinia
|
1730
|
Ahmed III, Ottoman Sultan |
1730
|
Charles of Naples (on accession to throne of Spain) |
1759
|
Stanislaus II of Poland
|
1795
|
Qianlong Emperor of China
|
February 9, 1796
|
Charles Emanuel IV of Sardinia
|
June 4, 1802
|
Charles IV of Spain
|
March 19, 1808
|
Joseph Bonaparte of Naples |
June 6, 1808
|
Gustav IV of Sweden
|
March 29, 1809
|
Louis Bonaparte of Holland
|
July 2, 1810
|
Napoleon I, French Emperor
|
April 4, 1814, and June 22, 1815
|
Victor Emanuel of Sardinia
|
March 13, 1821
|
Charles X of France
|
August 2, 1830
|
Pedro IV of Portugal 2
|
May 28, 1826
|
Pedro I of Brazil 2
|
April 7, 1831
|
Miguel of Portugal
|
May 26, 1834
|
William I of the Netherlands
|
October 7, 1840
|
Louis Philippe, King of the French
|
February 24, 1848
|
Louis Charles of Bavaria
|
March 21, 1848
|
Ferdinand of Austria
|
December 2, 1848
|
Charles Albert of Sardinia
|
March 23, 1849
|
Leopold II of Tuscany
|
July 21, 1859
|
Isabella II of Spain
|
June 25, 1870
|
Amadeus I of Spain
|
February 11, 1873
|
Alexander of Bulgaria
|
September 7, 1886
|
Milan of Serbia
|
March 6, 1889
|
Xuantong Emperor of China
|
February 12, 1912 (monarchy abolished)
|
Nicholas II of Russia
|
March 15, 1917 (monarchy abolished)
|
Wilhelm II of Germany
|
November 9, 1918 (monarchy abolished)
|
Prajadhipok of Siam |
March 2, 1935
|
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
|
December 11, 1936
|
Carol II of Romania
|
September 6, 1940
|
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
|
May 9, 1946
|
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
|
September 4, 1948
|
Leopold III, King of the Belgians
|
July 16, 1951
|
Farouk I of Egypt
|
July 26, 1952
|
Fuad II of Egypt
|
June 18, 1953 (Monarchy abolished)
|
Juliana of the Netherlands
|
April 30, 1980
|
Jean of Luxembourg
|
October 7, 2000
|
Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia
|
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.
Last updated: 08-24-2005 16:08:49