Sentence:  Each card had a great stain in the middle of its back, produced by the touch of generations of damp and excited thumbs now fleshless in the grave; and the kings and queens wore a decayed expression of feature, as if they were rather an impecunious <WSD>dethroned</WSD> race of monarchs hiding in obscure slums than real regal characters. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To depose; to forcibly relieve a monarch of the monarchy.