pardon

I was thinking about pardon and forgive.

Forgive, you all know what it means. I checked up pardon in the dictionary. One of the meanings is to forgive someone for his wrongdoing.

Therefore, in one aspect forgive and pardon mean the same thing. For example: I forgive my husband or I pardon my husband.

Look at this sentence:
The King pardons the politician convicted of corruption. It means the politician is set free without punishment. I am not sure if it still means the same thing if you replace pardon with forgive.