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[L. abdicatio: cf. F. abdication.]
The act of abdicating; the renunciation of a high office, dignity, or trust, by its holder; commonly the voluntary renunciation of sovereign power; as, abdication of the throne, government, power, authority.
noun
Definition: disowning
Antonyms: acceptance
n
Definition: resignation
Antonyms: coronation
Renunciation of the privileges and prerogatives of an office. The act of a sovereign in renouncing and relinquishing his or her government or throne, so that either the throne is left entirely vacant, or is filled by a successor appointed or elected beforehand. Also, where a magistrate or person in office voluntarily renounces or gives it up before the time of service has expired. It differs from resignation, in that resignation is made by one who has received an office from another and restores it into that person's hands, as an inferior into the hands of a superior; abdication is the relinquishment of an office which has devolved by act of law. It is said to be a renunciation, quitting, and relinquishing, so as to have nothing further to do with a thing, or the doing of such actions as are inconsistent with the holding of it. Voluntary and permanent withdrawal from power by a public official or monarch.
The difference between abdicating a position and resigning one lies primarily in the irrevocability of abdication. Once an office or throne is abdicated, a return is not legally possible. Unlike resignation, abdication is not a matter of the relinquishment of a position to an employer or a superior. Instead, it is the absolute and final renunciation of an office created specifically by an act of law. After an abdication, the office remains vacant until a successor is named by appointment or election.
An early example of royal abdication occurred in 305 A.D., when the Roman emperor Diocletian withdrew from power after suffering a serious illness. Another sovereign, King Louis Philippe of France (the Citizen King), abdicated on February 24, 1848, because of public hostility toward the monarchy.
Perhaps the most famous abdication of power occurred on December 11, 1936, when England's King Edward VIII (1894-1972) renounced his throne in order to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson (1896-1986). Simpson was a twice-divorced socialite whose rocky marital history and American citizenship made her an unacceptable choice as wife of the British monarch. The affair between Edward and Simpson created an international scandal because it began well before her second divorce was finalized. Edward's ministers pleaded with him to sever his relationship with the woman, whom his mother, Queen Mary, dismissed as "the American adventuress." Edward could not remain king and head of the Church of England if he married Simpson, because of the church's opposition to divorce. Unhappy with many of his royal duties and transfixed by Simpson, Edward chose to renounce the monarchy and marry her.
On December 11, 1936, Edward announced his decision at Fort Belvidere, his private estate six miles from Windsor Castle. There he signed an instrument of abdication and conducted a farewell radio broadcast in which he told his subjects that he relinquished the throne for "the woman I love." The forty-two-year-old royal, who had ascended the throne on January 20, 1936, upon the death of his father, King George V, was succeeded by his younger brother, the duke of York, who became King George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth II.
Edward and Simpson were married in Paris on June 3, 1937. Afterward, the former sovereign and his wife were addressed as the duke and duchess of Windsor. Except for a period during World War II spent in colonial Bahamas, the couple resided in royal exile in Paris for most of their nearly thirty-five-year marriage.
n.
An act whereby a sovereign attests his sense of the high temperature of the throne.
Poor Isabella's Dead, whose abdication
Set all tongues wagging in the Spanish nation.
For that performance 'twere unfair to scold her:
She wisely left a throne too hot to hold her.
To History she'll be no royal riddle --
Merely a plain parched pea that jumped the griddle.
G.J.
Often a certain abdication of prudence and foresight is an element of success.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American transcendentalist philosopher, essayist & lecturer
Abdication (from the Latin abdicatio, disowning, renouncing, from ab, from,
and dicare, to declare, to proclaim as not belonging to one) is the act of renouncing and resigning from a formal office,
especially from the supreme office of state. In Roman law the
term was also applied to the disowning of a family member, as the disinheriting of a son. The term commonly applies to
monarchs, or those who have been formally crowned. A
similar term for an elected or appointed official is resignation.
Among the most memorable abdications of antiquity were those of Lucius Cornelius Sulla the Dictator in 79 BC, Emperor Diocletian in AD 305, and Emperor Romulus Augustulus in AD 476.
Probably the most famous abdication in recent memory is that of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom in 1936. Edward 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, 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.
Because the title to the Crown depends upon statute, particularly the Act of Settlement 1701, 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.
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. Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein recently made his son regent, an act which amounted to an abdication in fact if not in law.
The following is a list of important abdications:
1Charles abdicated as lord of the Netherlands (October 25, 1555) and king 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.
3Hans-Adam II made his son Alois regent,
effectively abdicating; however, he still remains the formal Head of State.
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 | Dictionary. Webster 1913 Dictionary edited by Patrick J. Cassidy Read more |
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| Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more |
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| Law Encyclopedia. West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Copyright © 1998 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Devil's Dictionary. Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, 1911 Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Abdication". Read more |
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