abdication

Voluntary renunciation of an office or dignity, usually the throne, by a ruler or sovereign. Abdication is not to be confused with deposition, whereby the ruler, although he or she may ostensibly abdicate, is forcibly removed from office.

Both Nicholas II of Russia in 1917 and Constantine II of Greece in 1967 may be said to have abdicated although they were, in reality, deposed. Cincinnatus twice, in 458 and 439 BC, Sulla in 79 BC, the Holy Roman emperor Charles V in 1555, Philip V of Spain in 1724, and Edward VIII of England in 1936 abdicated, in the true sense of the word, in order to enjoy the freedom of private life.

Abdication proper (the resignation of an individual) should be distinguished from constitutional change (the reorganization of offices). For example, Emperor Hsuan Tung of China abdicated in 1912 and with his final decree converted China from an absolute autocracy into the largest republic in the world, but this abdication took place after a revolution that made the office of emperor untenable.