abdication

thumb|Napoleon's first abdication, signed at the [[Palace of Fontainebleau on 4 April 1814]]

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 an extreme abandonment of duty, in other societies (such as pre-Meiji Restoration Japan), abdication was a regular event and helped maintain stability during political succession. thumb|alt=A painting showing a crowded room in which a uniformed man hands a sheaf of papers to another uniformed man while in the background a weeping woman sits in an armchair holding a young boy before whom a woman kneels|Dom (title)|Dom Pedro I, founder and emperor of the [[Empire of Brazil, delivers his abdication letter on 7 April 1831]]