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 the word is seldom used except in the sense of surrendering the supreme power in a state.

Probably the most famous abdication in recent memory is that of King [Edward VIII]? in 1936, who abdicated the British throne in order to marry American divorcee [Wallis Warfield Simpson]?, over the objections of the Church of England and the royal family. This was also the first time in history that the British crown was surrendered entirely voluntarily. [Richard II]?, 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]?, after throwing the great seal 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and people, and, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of this kingdom, has abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant."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. Among the most memorable abdications of antiquity may be mentioned that of Sulla the dictator, 79 B.C., and that of the Emperor Diocletian, A.D. 305. The following is a list of the more important abdications:

[Benedict IX]?, pope	1048
Stephen II of Hungary	1131
Albert (the Bear) of Brandenburg	1169
[Ladislaus III]? of Poland	1206
[Celestine V]?, pope	Dec. 13, 1294
[John Baliol]? of Scotland	1296
[John Cantacuzene]?, emperor of the East	1355
[Richard II]? of England	Sept. 29, 1399
[John XXIII]?, pope	1415
[Eric VII]? of Denmark and XIII? of Sweden	1439
Murad II, Ottoman Sultan	1444 and 1445
Charles V, emperor	1556
Christina? of Sweden	1654
[John Casimir]? of Poland	1618
[James II]? of England	1688
Frederick Augustus of Poland	1704
Philip V of Spain	1724
Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia	1730
Ahmed III, Sultan of Turkey	1730
Charles of Naples (on accession to throne of Spain)	1759
Stanislaus II of Poland	1795
Charles Emanuel IV of Sardinia	June 4, 1802
Charles IV of Spain	Mar. 19, 1808
Joseph Bonaparte of Naples	June 6, 1808
Gustavus IV of Sweden	Mar. 29, 1809
Louis Bonaparte of Holland	July 2, 1810
Napoleon I, French Emperor	April 4, 1814, and June 22, 1815
Victor Emanuel of Sardinia	Mar. 13, 1821
Charles X of France	Aug. 2, 1830
Pedro of Brazil 1	April 7, 1831
Miguel of Portgual	May 26, 1834
William I of Holland	Oct. 7, 1840
Louis Philippe, king of the French	Feb. 24, 1848
Louis Charles of Bavaria	Mar. 21, 1848
Ferdinand of Austria	Dec. 2, 1848
Charles Albert of Sardinia	Mar. 23, 1849
Leopold II of Tuscany	July 21, 1859
Isabella II of Spain	June 25, 1870
Amadeus I of Spain	Feb. 11, 1873
Alexander of Bulgaria	Sept. 7, 1886
Milan of Servia	Mar. 6, 1889
[Edward VIII]? of England	Dec. 11, 1936

¹ Pedro had succeeded to the throne of Portugal in 1826, but abdicated it at once in favor of his daughter.