v. [UN-2 6 b. Cf. MDu. ontconingen, Du. ontkoningen, G. entkönigen.]
1. trans. To deprive of the position of king; to depose from sovereignty. (Common in 17th c.)
1578. Paradise Dainty Devices, L ij. Such toile do thei sustain, That often tymes of God thei wishe, to be unkyngde again.
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., IV. That very word Unkings me quite, makes me vile passions slave.
1684. E. Pelling, Serm., 30 Jan., 20. They may crown them or unking them as they think fit.
1711. Pol. Ballads (1860), II. 100. These men do design To un-king the Queen and keep out the Right Line.
1784. Cowper, in Hayley, Life (1809), II. 158. Government therefore is bound to interfere, and to un-king these tyrants.
1815. Q. Rev., XIII. 489. Having … escaped unhanged when they were unkinged, they started up again to perform the part of princes in the new revolutionary drama.
1870. Lowell, Study Wind. (1871), 216. Some passion which the churchyard smothered while the Stuarts were yet unkinged.
fig. 1638. Suckling, Aglaura, I. i. There was with me fresh Rebellion, And reason was almost unking’d agen.
1731. Gentl. Mag., I. 168. The comic muse Unkings your Cupid, or obstructs his views.
1818. Milman, Samor, V. 463. Thou … hast unking’d Thy stately soul within the wreathing arms Of that fair Saxon.
absol. 1644. Maxwell, Prerog. Chr. Kings, 3. [That] the Pope … by this indirect power … may King and unking at his pleasure.
1646. Bp. Maxwell, Burd. Issach., 18. Every individual Person is … to punish, to dethrone, to un-King, to kill, &c.
b. refl. To divest (oneself) of royal status or character; to abdicate.
1647. N. Ward, Simple Cobler, 54. I would honour their very heeles, that would … teach me … to king it better, when they saw me unkinging myselfe and kingdome.
1689. Advantages of Present Settlement, 22. If a king … ruine his people … he so far Unkings himself.
1700. J. Tyrrell, Hist. Eng., II. 794. [King John] thereby … Unking’d himself.
1859. J. Marshall, Hist. Scott. Eccl. & Civ. Affairs, 290. Charles’s concessions had been in vain. He had unkinged himself.
2. To deprive (a country) of a king.
1647. Old Ballads (Percy Soc.), 86. They may thus … Un-king our state, un-church us too.
1820. Byron, Mar. Fal., V. i. 437. A wife’s dishonour unking’d Rome for ever.
1883. Harper’s Mag., June, 139/2. An empire, unkinged to-night, sees to-morrow a new king.
