 Philip was secretly invested with Milan already in 1540 and again in 1546, but only in 1554 the Emperor made it public.Upon the abdications of Naples and Sicily, Philip was invested by Pope Julius III with the kingdom of Naples on 2 October and with the Kingdom of Sicily on 18 November.The most famous—and only public—abdication took place a year later, on 25 October 1555, when Charles announced to the States General of the Netherlands, reunited in the great hall of the palace where he was emancipated exactly forty years earlier, his abdication in favour of his son of those territories and his intention to step down from all of his positions and retire to a monastery.