Abdicate !!BETTER!!
Historically, abdications have occurred both by force (where the regnant was forced to abdicate on pain of death or other severe consequences) and voluntarily. Some rulers are deemed to have abdicated in absentia, 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.
abdicate
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 Spain, Cambodia, the Netherlands and Japan.
The word abdication is derived from the Latin abdicatio meaning to disown or renounce (ab, away from, and dicare, to proclaim).[1] In its broadest sense abdication is the act of renouncing and resigning from any formal office, but it is applied especially to the supreme office of state. In Roman law the term was also applied to the disowning of a family member, such as disinheriting a son. Today the term commonly applies to monarchs. An elected or appointed official is said to resign rather than to abdicate. A notable exception is the voluntary relinquishing of the office of Bishop of Rome (and thus sovereign of the Vatican City State) by the pope, called papal resignation or papal renunciation.
One of the most notable abdications in recent history is that of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom and the Dominions. In 1936 Edward abdicated 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. It was the first time in history that the British or English crown was surrendered entirely voluntarily. Richard II of England, for example, was forced to abdicate after power was seized by his paternal first cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, while Richard was abroad.
During the Glorious Revolution in 1688, James II of England and VII of Scotland 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 forfeiture and deposition.
After mass protests against King Farouk 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.[2] Farouk was exiled to Italy.
The chaos of Germany's defeat in the First World War forced German Emperor (Kaiser) Wilhelm II to abdicate his throne as German Emperor and consequentially, his throne as King of Prussia. The following Treaty of Versailles resulted in the abolition of the monarchy, leading to the other German kings, dukes, princes and other nobility to abdicate and renounce their royalty titles.
In Japanese history, abdication was used very often, and in fact occurred more often than death on the throne. In those days[when?], most executive authority resided in the hands of regents (see Sesshō and Kampaku), and the emperor's chief task was priestly, containing so many repetitive rituals that it was deemed the incumbent emperor deserved pampered retirement as an honoured retired emperor after a service of around ten years. A tradition developed that an emperor should accede to the throne relatively young. The high-priestly duties were deemed possible for a walking child; and a dynast who had passed his toddler years was regarded as suitable and old enough; reaching the age of legal majority was not a requirement. Thus, many Japanese emperors have acceded as children, some only 6 or 8 years old. Childhood apparently helped the monarch to endure tedious duties and to tolerate subjugation to political power brokers, as well as sometimes to cloak the truly powerful members of the imperial dynasty. Almost all Japanese empresses and dozens of emperors abdicated and lived the rest of their lives in pampered retirement, wielding influence behind the scenes, often with more power than they had had while on the throne (see Cloistered rule). Several emperors abdicated while still in their teens. These traditions show in Japanese folklore, theatre, literature and other forms of culture, where the emperor is usually described or depicted as an adolescent.
Before the Meiji Restoration, Japan had eleven reigning empresses. Over half of Japanese empresses abdicated once a suitable male descendant was considered to be old enough to rule. 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.[3] On February 27, 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 Crown Prince 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.[4][5] On 8 August 2016, the Emperor gave a rare televised address, where he emphasized his advanced age and declining health;[6] this address was interpreted as an implication of his intention to abdicate.[7] On 1 December 2017, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Emperor Akihito would step down on 30 April 2019. The announcement came after a meeting of the Imperial Household Council.[8]
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.[9] The abdication officially occurred at the end of 30 April 2019.[10][11]
According to Jain sources written almost 800 years after his reign, Chandragupta, the first emperor of the Mauryan Dynasty abdicated and became a Jain monk in the last years of his life.[citation needed]
In recent decades, the monarchs or leaders of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Qatar, Cambodia, Bhutan and Japan have abdicated as a result of old age. In the Netherlands, the last three monarchs Wilhelmina, Juliana, and Beatrix have all abdicated. In all three instances, this was done to pass the throne to the heir sooner.
Several words may be confused with abdicate through either a similarity of sound or of meaning. Among these are abrogate, abjure, and resign. All of these words have multiple meanings that are quite distinct from one another, yet each also has a degree of semantic overlap that renders them nearly synonymous with at least one of the others.
Despite the similarities among these words, they tend to be used in fairly specific settings. You would not typically tell your employer that you are abdicating your position in order to look for a better job; you would say that you are resigning. And when the king of a country renounces his claim on the throne to marry his one true love, he would be said to abdicate, rather than resign, his position.
Japan's parliament has approved a law permitting Emperor Akihito (left) to abdicate the throne as he requested. Members of the deliberately small royal family, including Empress Michiko (second from left), attend a spring garden party at the Akasaka Palace in Tokyo. Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Christina never married and had no children. A crack shot and as tough as a plank, she loved riding and hunting, swore like a trooper, enjoyed dirty jokes and despised things feminine. In 1651 when she first announced her intention to abdicate in favour of her cousin and heir, Charles Gustavus, she gave out that a man was needed to rule the country and lead the army, that she desperately needed a rest and that there were other reasons she would not go into. One of them turned out to be that she was determined not to marry, which her leading subjects did not consider an adequate excuse. What she did not reveal, as they brought pressure on her to remain on the throne, was that she had been secretly converted to Roman Catholicism, which in Lutheran Sweden was banned.
However, the common folk still resent him over his divorce with Princess Diana of Wales. But King Charles III will possibly abdicate the throne due to his advanced age and Prince William won't take his place. In the line of succession, William is the next in line but some mysterious reason won't make him become the new king. All of this according to Nostradamus' poems.
King James the second abdicated the throne of England, when he could keep possession of it no longer. Many persons, through conviction of mind, have formally renounced the errors of the church of Rome. We frequently resign our employments, through a desire of retirement. 041b061a72