Usurpation (redirected from usurper)

Usurpation

Adonijah

presumptuously assumed David’s throne before Solomon’s investiture. [O.T.: I Kings 1:5–10]

Anschluss Nazi

takeover of Austria (1938). [Eur. Hist.: Hitler, 590–627]

Athaliah

steals throne by killing all royal line. [O.T.: II Kings 11:1]

Claudius

usurped throne of Hamlet’s father. [Br. Lit.: Hamlet]

Frederick

arrogated dominions of his brother. [Br. Lit.: As You Like It]

Glorious Revolution

James II deposed; William and Mary enthroned (1688). [Br. Hist.: EB, 3: 248]

Godunov, Boris

(c. 1551–1605) cunningly has tsarevich murdered; gallantly accepts throne. [Russ. Lit.: Boris Godunov; Russ. Opera: Moussorgsky, Boris Godunov]

Menahem

murders Shallum and enthrones himself. [O.T.: II Kings 15:14]

Otrepyev, Grigory

baseborn monk assumes dead tsarevich’s identity and throne. [Russ. Lit.: Boris Gudonov; Russ. Opera: Moussorgsky, Boris Godunov]

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Usurpation 

unlawful seizure; appropriation by force of another’s rights. In politics, usurpation is the unlawful seizure of government power or the appropriation of the office and functions of a head of state by means of a coup d’etat with the intention of establishing a personal dictatorship. An example is Napoleon Bonaparte’s seizure of power through a coup in 1799.