From a constitutional point of view, according to the coronation oath, a crowned Hungarian King can not abdicate the Hungarian throne during his lifetime. If the king is alive and unable do his duty as ruler, a governor (or, in English, regent) had to undertake the royal duties. Therefore, Ferdinand remained still the legal king of Hungary. If there was no possibility of inheriting the throne automatically due to the death of the predecessor king (as king Ferdinand was still alive), but the monarch wants to relinquish his throne and appoint another king before his death, technically there was only one legal solution: the parliament had the power to dethrone the monarch and elect his successor as the new king of Hungary. Due to the legal and military tensions, the Hungarian parliament did not do Franz Joseph that favor.