Medieval rulers could be deposed for being useless in office

Evidence

Even in the early Middle Ages, however, it is plain that contemporaries had a clear sense of the claims of utility in the discharge of public office. When Pope Zachariah deposed the last of the Merovingians from the crown of France and absolved his subjects from their oaths of loyalty, he did so quite explicitly because the latter was inutilis for the exercise of his potestas (Post 1964: 376). — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1219

Categorization

• XREF: Pairs with Dunn’s broader trust argument — the deposition of the useless for fitness-to-rule parallels contemporary removal-of-incapable-leaders debates. — connects to: Even absolutism’s own champion concedes a king may forfeit his crown — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 302