ABDICATION, in strictness, the renun ciation of any office by the holder before the expiration of its term; in actual use, applied only to sovereign rulers, de jure or de facto, who resign the crown in their lifetimes. The motives for this are as various as human fate, character, policy, or necessity, or the events of history. It may be compulsory—in which case it is really not abdication but deposition or voluntary. Compulsion may come from foreign conquest; from foreign commands when the king is a puppet, as with the later Polish kings, or Napoleon's shifting his broth ers from throne to throne,- from the commands of de facto controllers of the state within, as with the puppet Roman emperors under the barbarian commanders-in-chief of the army, or from popular or factional insurrections. If voluntary, it may be from desire to let a con stitutional machine have a fair chance to work alone, as with Sulla and Diocletian; from sa tiety with royal power and weariness of royal burdens, as with Murad II of Turkey; from physical ailments and discouragement, as with the Emperor Charles V; from penitence and desire to live a religious life, as with more than one mediaeval prince who furnished real models for Shakespeare's usurper in
The following is a list of some of the chief historical abdications. with their dates: Sulk the Dictator D.C. 79 Diocletian the Emperor A.D. 305 Hungary IX, Pope 1048 S II of 1131 l, III. Duke of Poland 1206 Albert the Bear of Brandenburg 1169 Celestine V Po 13 Dec. x294 Balliol of Pope x296 oannes Cantacuzenos. Emperor of the Bast 1355 *chard II of England 1399 John XXIII, Pope 1415 Bale VII of Denmark and XIII of Sweden 1439 Murad II Ottoman Emperor 1444 and 1443 Charles V. Emperor (Netherlands) 23 Oct. WS (Spain, Sicily and 1356 Christ= of Sweden the Empire) x654 of Poland 1668 ames II of England 1688 Augustus of Poland 1704 Philip V of Spain 1724 Victor Anuideus II of Sardinia 1730 Ahmed III. Ottoman Emperor 1730 Charles of Naples (on accession to throne of Spain) 1759 Stamslaus II of Poland 1793 Charles Emanuel IV of Sardinia 4 Jane 1802 Charles IV of Spain 19 Mar. 1808 Joseph Bonaparte of Naples (transferred to Spam by Napoleon) 6 June 1808 Gustavus IV of Sweden 29 Mar. 1809 Louis Bonaparte of Holland ,8,o Napoleon I of France 4 Anti' tete and 22 June 181$ Victor Emanuel of Sardinia 13 Mar. 182x Charles X of France 1 Aug. 1830 Pedro of Brasil 7 April au (Also abdicated the throne of Portugal in favor of his daughter. at once on his acces sion in 1826.) Miguel of Portugal 26 May 1834 I of Holland x Oct. 1840 Louis Philippe of France 24 Feb. 1848 Louis Charles of Bavaria 21 Mar. 1848 Ferdinand of Austria 2 Doc. 1848 Charles Albert of Sardinia 22 Mar. 1849 Leopold II of Tuscany 21 1859 Isabelle II of Sp 25 one 1870 Amadeus I of ix Feb.b 1873 Abd-ul-Asts, S tan !of Turkey 30 Sept 1876 Alexander of 7 Sept. t886 Pedro II of Brazil x3 Nov. 1889 Milan of Servia 6 Mar. 1889 Emperor Henan-Yung of China 12 Feb. 19ra