Reflections | Like Queen Margrethe II, some Chinese emperors abdicated – but not always voluntarily. Here are some who were forced
- Around two dozen kings or emperors abdicated during China’s monarchical rule, some voluntarily – most famously the Qianlong Emperor
- Then there were people like Emperor Gaozu whose second son murdered two of his brothers and their male children, before forcing his father to retire
People in Denmark were shocked on New Year’s Eve when Margrethe II, the country’s reigning queen, announced during her annual address on television that she would step down on January 14, passing the throne to her son Frederik.
By all accounts, Margrethe is genuinely popular with the Danes. Compared with the venality and moral decrepitude of some royal families, the Danish edition is admittedly benign.
In abdicating, Margrethe will join the ranks of Belgium’s Albert II, Spain’s Juan Carlos I and several others as living former hereditary monarchs.
In the millennia of monarchical rule in China, there were only around two dozen former kings or emperors in retirement, as opposed to a reduction of circumstances that usually led to their murder by usurpers.
The coexistence of a retired ex-emperor and a reigning emperor opened up the possibility – and danger – of two rival centres of political power, which may explain the rarity of such an arrangement.
There were voluntarily abdications, the most famous of whom was the Qing dynasty’s Qianlong Emperor. He stepped down in 1796 after 60 years on the throne so as not to surpass the 61-year reign of his revered grandfather, the Kangxi Emperor.