Product Code Database
Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of duty, in other societies (such as pre-Meiji Restoration Japan), abdication was a regular event and helped maintain stability during political succession.
Historically, abdications have occurred both by force (where the regnant was Dethronement, thus forced to abdicate on pain of death or other severe consequences) and voluntarily. Some rulers are deemed to have abdicated , vacating the physical throne and thus their position of power, although these judgements were generally pronounced by successors with vested interests in seeing the throne abdicated, and often without or despite the direct input of the abdicating monarch.
Recently, due to the largely ceremonial nature of the regnant in many constitutional monarchies, many monarchs have abdicated due to old age, such as the monarchs of Belgium, Denmark, Cambodia, the Netherlands, Spain, and Japan.
For other cultures, abdication was a much more routine element of succession, often employed to smooth the transition process between monarchs.
The debate is open about some disputed resignations in the early Middle Ages: the last three popes to resign were Celestine V in 1294, Gregory XII in 1415, to end the Western Schism, and Benedict XVI in 2013, who was succeeded by Pope Francis. Benedict's resignation, which occurred 598 years after the last time a pope did so, and 719 years after the last one who renounced entirely on his own volition, was an event unheard of for more than half a millennium, as well as being the first papal resignation since the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and was met with a great deal of surprise worldwide.
Lord Byron drew on this incident for his play The Two Foscari. Many other works of literature and art drew upon it.
Richard II was forced to abdicate in 1399 after power was seized by his paternal first cousin Henry Bolingbroke while Richard was abroad.
During the Glorious Revolution in 1688, James II and VII fled to France, dropping the Great Seal of the Realm into the Thames, and the question was discussed in Parliament whether he had forfeited the throne or had abdicated. The latter designation was agreed upon in spite of James's protest, and in a full assembly of the Lords and Commons it was resolved "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 and deposition.
In Scotland, Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate in 1567 in favour of her one-year-old son, James VI.
Today, because the title to the Crown depends upon statute, particularly the Act of Settlement 1701, a royal abdication can be effected only by an act of Parliament; under the terms of the Statute of Westminster 1931, such an act must be agreed by the parliaments of all extant signatories of the Statute. To give legal effect to the abdication of King Edward VIII, His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 was passed.
Before the Meiji Restoration, Japan had eight reigning empresses, with two reigning twice, making ten times Japan was ruled by a woman. The two who reigned twice, Kōgyoku and Kōken abdicated during their first reign, but not their second. Other than them, Empress Suiko is the only female emperor of Japan not to abdicate. Typically a woman abdicated after a suitable male heir either was found or came of age, with Empress Genmei being the exception who abdicated in favour of her daughter, Genshō.
There is also no provision for abdication in the Imperial Household Law, the Meiji Constitution, or the current 1947 Constitution of Japan.
After the defeat of Japan in World War II, many members of the Imperial Family, such as Princes Chichibu, Takamatsu and Higashikuni, pressured then-Emperor Hirohito to abdicate so that one of the princes could serve as regent until Crown Prince Akihito came of age. On 27 February 1946, the Emperor's youngest brother, Prince Mikasa (Takahito), even stood up in the privy council and indirectly urged the Emperor to step down and accept responsibility for Japan's defeat. U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur insisted that Emperor Hirohito remain on the throne. MacArthur saw the emperor as a symbol of the continuity and cohesion of the Japanese people.
On 13 July 2016, national broadcaster NHK reported that Emperor Akihito intended to abdicate in favour of his eldest son Naruhito within a few years, citing his age; an abdication within the Imperial Family had not occurred since Emperor Kōkaku abdicated in 1817. However, senior officials within the Imperial Household Agency denied that there was any official plan for the monarch to abdicate. A potential abdication by the Emperor required an amendment to the Imperial Household Law, which at that time had no provisions for such a move. On 8 August 2016, the Emperor gave a rare televised address, where he emphasized his advanced age and declining health; this address was interpreted as an implication of his intention to abdicate.
On 19 May 2017, the bill that would allow Akihito to abdicate was issued by the Japanese government's cabinet. On 8 June 2017, the National Diet passed a one-off bill allowing Akihito to abdicate, and for the government to begin arranging the process of handing over the position to Crown Prince Naruhito. On 1 December 2017, following a meeting of the Imperial Household Council, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that the abdication would occur at the end of 30 April 2019.
Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca abdicated the throne of the Kingdom of Hejaz in October 1924.
When Germany invaded Belgium in 1940, Leopold III, instead of fleeing to London like his Dutch and Norwegian counterparts in a similar predicament, surrendered to the invaders. This made him unpopular both at home and abroad, and after the war, in July 1951, the Belgian government Royal question.
After mass protests against King Farouk of Egypt began on 23 July 1952, the military forced Farouk I to abdicate in favour of his infant son Fuad II during the Egyptian revolution of 1952. The Long Struggle: The Seeds of the Muslim World's Frustration by Amil Khan (2010), p. 58 Farouk was exiled to Italy. Fuad himself was shortly thereafter deposed and a republic declared.
In June 2014, Juan Carlos I of Spain abdicated in favour of his son, Felipe VI.
On 14 January 2024, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark abdicated on the 52nd anniversary of her accession to the throne. She was the first Danish monarch to abdicate since King Erik III Lamb in 1146 and the first Scandinavian monarch to abdicate since Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden in 1720.
|
|
