Abdications

Selected famous abdications:

• Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, on 11 Dcember 1936 to be with "the woman I love"--horrifying the woman who understood that henceforth she would have to be his solace and companion.

• Nicholas II of Russia on 15 March, 1917, under strong encouragement from the revolutionaries. They shot him the following summer.

• Queen Christiana of Sweden, abdicated 3 June 1654, avowedly to practice her hitherto concealed Catholicism, but perhaps to enjoy the Good Life in a warmer climate.

• Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1556, to undertake a life of piety and seclusion, and to eat.

• Diocletian, Roman Emperor, on 1 May 305 (AD), worn out and wasting. Later when they asked him to come back, he said "they wouldn't say that if they could see my cabbages."

Wiki has a fuller catalog here.