ABDICATION
The abdication document signed on December 10, 1936, by King Edward VIII and his brothers, Albert, Henry, and George.
Renunciation of the privileges and prerogatives of an office. The act of a sovereign in renouncing and relinquishing his or her government or throne, so that either the throne is left entirely vacant, or is filled by a successor appointed or elected before hand. Also, where a magistrate or person in office voluntarily renounces or gives it up before the time of service has expired. It differs from resignation, in that resignation is made by one who has received an office from another and restores it into that person’s hands, as an inferior into the hands of a superior; abdication is the relinquishment of an office which has devolved by act of law. It is said to be a renunciation, quitting, and relinquishing, so as to have nothing further to do with a thing, or the doing of such actions as are inconsistent with the holding of it. Voluntary and permanent withdrawal from power by a public official or monarch.
The difference between abdicating a position and resigning one lies primarily in the
irrevocability of abdication. Once an office or
throne is abdicated, a return is not legally possible. Unlike resignation, abdication is not a matter of the relinquishment of a position to an
employer or a superior. Instead, it is the absolute
and final renunciation of an office created
specifically by an act of law. After an abdication,
the office remains vacant until a successor is
named by appointment or election.
An early example of royal abdication
occurred in 305 A.D. , when the Roman emperor
Diocletian withdrew from power after suffering
a serious illness. Another sovereign, King Louis
Philippe of France (the Citizen King), abdicated
on February 24, 1848, because of public hostility
toward the monarchy.
Perhaps the most famous abdication of
power occurred on December 11, 1936, when
England’s King Edward VIII (1894–1972)
renounced his throne in order to marry Wallis
Warfield Simpson (1896–1986). Simpson was a
twice-divorced socialite whose rocky marital
history and American citizenship made her an
unacceptable choice as wife of the British
monarch. The affair between Edward and Simp-
son created an international scandal because it
began well before her second DIVORCE was
finalized. Edward’s ministers pleaded with him
to sever his relationship with the woman, whom
his mother, Queen Mary, dismissed as “the
American adventuress.” Edward could not
remain king and head of the Church of England
if he married Simpson, because of the church’s
opposition to divorce. Unhappy with many of
his royal duties and transfixed by Simpson,
Edward chose to renounce the monarchy and
marry her.
On December 11, 1936, Edward announced
his decision at Fort Belvidere, his private estate
six miles from Windsor Castle. There he signed
an instrument of abdication and conducted a
farewell radio broadcast in which he told his
subjects that he relinquished the throne for “the
woman I love.” The 42-year-old royal, who had
ascended the throne on January 20, 1936, upon
the death of his father, King George V, was suc-
ceeded by his younger brother, the duke of York,
who became King George VI, father of Queen
Elizabeth II.
Edward and Simpson were married in Paris
on June 3, 1937. Afterward, the former sovereign
and his wife were addressed as the duke and
duchess of Windsor. Except for a period during
WORLD WAR II spent in colonial Bahamas, the
couple resided in royal exile in Paris for most of their nearly 35-year marriage.
FURTHER READINGS
Thornton, Michael. 1985. Royal Feud: The Dark Side of the Love Story of the Century. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Warwick, Christopher. 1986. Abdication. London: Sidgwick & Jackson.
Williams, Douglas R. 2000. “Congressional Abdication, Legal Theory, and Deliberative Democracy.” Saint Louis University Public Law Review 19 (summer): 75-105.
