ABDICATION

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 Simpson 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 succeeded 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.

ab·di·cate / ˈabdiˌkāt/ • v. [intr.] (of a monarch) renounce one's throne: in 1918 Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated as German emperor | [tr.] Ferdinand abdicated the throne in favor of the emperor's brother. ∎  [tr.] fail to fulfill or undertake (a responsibility or duty): the government was accused of abdicating its responsibility | [intr.] the secretary of state should not abdicate from leadership on educational issues. DERIVATIVES: ab·di·ca·tion / -ˈkāshən/ n.

abdication crisis, 1936. A constitutional scandale stemming from the determination of King Edward VIII, who succeeded his father George V on 20 January 1936, to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson, an American lady who had divorced her first husband and was about to divorce her second. At first Edward hoped that he might enter into morganatic marriage: Wallis would become his wife but not queen. Baldwin, prime minister, issued an ultimatum: the king must choose between the throne and Mrs Simpson. Edward chose the latter, and abdicated on 11 December. British public opinion was genuinely outraged at the prospect of the king marrying a twice-divorced American commoner, and there is much truth in the assertion that many Conservatives had been irritated by Edward's public indignation at unemployment and slum housing. None the less, had the king stood firm, it is difficult to see what the government could have done, short of denying him an income.

Geoffrey Alderman

Abdication Crisis the constitutional crisis, resulting from the king of England's determination to marry a divorced woman, Wallis Simpson, which culminated in the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936.

abdicate XVI. f. pp. stem of L. abdicāre, f. AB- + dicāre proclaim; see -ATE3.