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Following the announcement by Denmark's Queen Margrethe II of her plans to relinquish the throne, AFP looks at other memorable abdications over the past century.
King Edward VIII: for 'the woman I love'
The British public was stunned when their king of less than a year, Edward VIII, made the shock announcement on 12 December 1936, that he would abdicate in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
Edward's tumultuous love affair with Simpson had caused a major constitutional crisis, with the headstrong monarch insisting he wanted to marry the US socialite - despite the Church of England, of which he was head, vehemently opposing the match.
