May Restoration
The May Restoration, or 30th of May Incident, was a coup d’état in the Kingdom of Urendir on May 30 1938, launched by members of the Erothenian nobility together with a cadre of young army officers. The rebels seized control of the Erothenian government, executing the Royal Chancellor and declaring the constitution of 1936 dissolved with the King restored to absolute power. Their control of the capital would last for fourteen days before being forced to surrender to the forces of the Erothenian revolution. All the main instigators of the coup, apart from the king, would be sentenced to death and executed while the common soldiers received lighter punishments.
The nation-wide outrage sparked by the May Restoration is considered the starting point of the June revolution that would see the Urendin monarchy ended and the beginning of the Republic of Erothena.
Background
The “Civil Coup” of 1936 saw the establishment of the office of the Royal Chancellor and a transfer of direct executive power from the king to this new office. Although the king had originally accepted the constitution of 1936 he quickly began undermining the new government by using his powers of veto and pressuring regional governors to disobey the Chancellor.
The Feathered Serpent Society was a secret society and social club with many members from both the lower nobility and among military officers, members of the society began planning a coup in early 1938 to remove the unpopular Chancellor and restore royal absolutism in the belief that it was the only way to save the nation from an imminent communist revolution like that in Malaszec.
Coup
On the morning of the 30th of May units from the Royal Army stationed outside Thinetavu mobilized and marched into the city. The royal chancellor and a number of other high ranking members of the Elder Council were murdered in their own homes by soldiers while the rest were allowed to enter the council chambers only for the building to then be surrounded and everyone inside arrested. Finally the king was escorted from the palace to the council chambers to formally declare the constitution defunct and the Elder Council dissolved.
Across Thinetavu other military officers and government officials considered disloyal were arrested with the aid of the Thinetavan Police Force which was under the control of the conspirators.