Oath of allegiance

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An oath of allegiance is an oath whereby a subject or citizen acknowledges his duty of allegiance and swears loyalty to his monarch or country. In many modern oaths of allegiance, allegiance is sworn to the Constitution. In particular, in the United States presidents, judges, and military personnel are under an oath to the Constitution.

In feudal times a person would also swear allegiance to his feudal superiors. To this day the oath sworn by freemen of the City of London contains an oath of obedience to the Lord Mayor of London.

Oaths of allegiance are commonly required of newly-naturalised citizens (see Oath of Citizenship), members of the armed forces, and those assuming public (particularly parliamentary and judicial) office. Clergy in the Church of England are required to take an Oath of Supremacy acknowledging the authority of the British monarch.

A typical example of an oath of allegiance is that sworn by Members of Parliament in the Netherlands:

I swear (affirm) allegiance to the King, to the Statute for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and to the Constitution. I swear (affirm) that I will faithfully perform the duties my office lays upon me. So help me God almighty! (This I declare and affirm)^[1]

In many Commonwealth realms all that is required is an oath to the monarch, and not the constitution or state. There have been moves in Canada and Australia to make the oath of allegiance sworn by new citizens refer to the country rather than the monarch. In Canada the oath now refers to both the country and Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, but in Australia references to the monarchy have been dropped. However, the oaths sworn by judges, Members of Parliament, etc., have not been changed. In New South Wales, there are plans for MPs and Ministers' oaths to be made to "Australia" rather than the Queen. The New Zealand Oath of Allegiance still refers to the Queen of New Zealand.

[edit] Oath of Allegiance in the Irish Free State

By the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, all members of the Dáil and Seanad, the two houses of the Irish Parliament, had to take the following oath before they took their seats:

I ................ do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established, and that I will be faithful to H. M. King George V., his heirs and successors by law, in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations.

The British insistance on exacting such a an oath from the elected Irish representives - accepted reluctantly even by those who did accept it and vociferously and indiganantly rejected by a large part of them as a gross betrayal of Irish Republicanism - was a major cause leading to the outbreak of the Irish Civil War and causing a bitterness which was to bedevil Irish politics for generations.

The Oath of Allegiance in Ireland was finally abolished by De Valera in 1933, without a signficant opposition from the British.