Abdication
Videos
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 a
Napoleon Signing His Abdication at Fontainebleau by François Bouchot. Napoleon's first abdication, signed at the Palace of Fontainebleau on 4 April 1814
Dom Pedro I, founder and emperor of the Empire of Brazil, delivers his abdication letter on 7 April 1831
The Abdication of Doge Foscari by Louis Duveau
Queen Christina of Sweden shocked Europe by abdicating to move to Rome.
Royal question
Videos
The royal question was a major political crisis in Belgium that lasted from 1945 to 1951, coming to a head between March and August 1950. The question at stake surrounded whether King Leopold III coul
King Leopold III, the subject of the political disagreement, pictured in 1934, the year he came to the Belgian throne
The Belgian crown symbolically resting on the constitution in a nineteenth-century statue of Leopold I
A modern view of the Kasteel van Wijnendale, where the final meeting between Leopold and the Belgian government took place on 25 May 1940
Modern view of the Royal Palace of Laeken, where Leopold was detained during the occupation