Greta Garbo as Queen Christina of Sweden, surrounded by her court, in Rouben Mamoulian's 1933 film Queen Christina
Bulstrode Whitelocke, Oliver Cromwell’s ambassador to Sweden, sends home an account of the abdication by Queen Christina on 5th June 1654:
“About nine o’clock this morning the Queen, being attired in her royal apparel and robes of purple velvet, with her crown upon her head, and attended by all her officers and servants, came into the room prepared for that occasion, where was set a table with a rich carpet, and five great cushions laid upon it. Most of the grandees and officers were present. Upon one of the cushions was laid the sword of state; upon the second cushion was laid the sceptre; upon the third cushion was laid the ball; and upon the fourth cushion were laid the keys. The Queen being come into the room, after a little pause made a short speech to the company, to this effect: ‘My Lords and Gentlemen, You have before this time been acquainted with my resolution to resign the crown and government of this kingdom into the hands of my most dear cousin the Prince [Charles Gustavus]...’
Having thus spoken, the Queen desired that some of them would take the crown from off her head, but none would do it; she then called to Grave Tott and the Baron Steinberg, expressly commanding them to do it, but they refused, till again earnestly commanded by her; they then took the crown from off her Majesty’s head, and laid it down upon the fifth cushion on the table. After that was done, some others, by her command, took off the royal robes with which she was clothed and laid them down upon the table. Then the Queen, having thus divested herself of these ensigns of royalty and resigned her crown, being now in her private habit, made courtesy to the Prince and to the rest of the company, and retired into her own chamber.”
The Queen left Sweden, converting to Roman Catholicism the following year and eventually settling in Rome.
After the defeat of Waterloo, Napoleon abdicates (for the second time) on 22nd June 1815. Count Lavallette, his private secretary, recalls in his memoirs:
“I came to [the Emperor] without having the least doubt in my mind that the only thing he could do was to descend once more from the throne. I communicated to him all the particulars I had just received, and I did not hesitate to advise him to follow the only course worthy of him. He listened to me with a sombre air, and though he was in some measure master of himself, the agitation of his mind and the sense of his position betrayed themselves in his face and in all his motions. ‘I know,’ said I, ‘that your Majesty may still keep the sword drawn, but with whom, and against whom? Defeat has chilled the courage of every one; the army is still in the greatest confusion. Nothing is to be expected from Paris, and the coup d’etat of the 18th Brumaire cannot be renewed.’ ‘That thought,’ he replied, stopping, ‘is far from my mind. I will hear nothing more about myself. But poor France!’ At that moment Savary and Caulaincourt entered, and having drawn a faithful picture of the exasperation of the deputies, they persuaded him to assent to abdication. Some words he uttered proved to us that he would have considered death preferable to that step; but still he took it...
“He insisted especially on the necessity of proclaiming his son Emperor, not so much for the advantage of the child as with a view to concentrate all the power of sentiments and affections. Unfortunately, nobody would listen to him.”
Revolution breaks out in Berlin on 9th November 1918; Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates. His first cousin, King George V, writes in his diary:
“We got the news that the German Emperor had abdicated, also the Crown Prince. ‘How are the mighty fallen.’ He has been Emperor just over 30 years, he did great things for his country, but his ambition was so great that he wished to dominate the world and created his military machine for that object. No one man can dominate the world, it has been tried before, and now he has utterly ruined his country and himself and I look upon him as the greatest criminal known for having plunged the world into this ghastly war with all its misery.”
On the abdication of King Edward VIII, 10th December 1936, Chips Channon, the Conservative MP, writes in his diary:
“The dreadful day dawned coldly, and my limbs were numb and chilled. The telephone began early, and I talked to the Duchess of Kent who told me that all was over... At 2pm Honor [his wife] and I left for parliament as I had secured her a ticket. The House was full, for there has not been an abdication since 1399, 537 years ago [of Richard II]. I thought everyone subdued but surprisingly unmoved, and Lady Astor actually seemed to enjoy herself, jumping about in her frivolous way. Baldwin [the prime minister] was greeted with cheers, and sat down on the front bench gravely. At last he went to the bar, bowed twice, ‘A message from the King’ and he presented a paper to the Speaker who proceeded to read it out. At the words ‘renounce the throne’ his voice broke, and there were stifled sobs in the House. It was a short document, more moving by implication than by phrase, to the effect that the King could no longer remain on the Throne. The Speaker was tearful, but very few others were.”
