Jean Chretien, Lester Pearson, and Mackenzie King in Canada all seem to have retired without being horribly unpopular or ill. At least, their successors all remained in power at the succeeding elections.
The pact was actually one of the main reasons he went. But you’re right, I wouldn’t say he “quit”, in fact I think he has admitted that would have liked to stay on if he could have done. The problem was that he made an agreement with Gordon Brown not to seek a third term, and he then reneged on it, infuriating Brown, who was finance minister with a lot of power and acolytes in both government and amongst the Labour party, and became extremely difficult to deal with. When Blair’s popularity started dropping as well it became pretty untenable for him to consider snubbing Brown again and running for a fourth term.
Chrétien retired under intense pressure from the Martinites.
Trudeau is probably the best example Canadian example. In 1984, he went for a walk in the snow in Ottawa, decided that he had done everything he had set out to do, and retired.
King had been Prime Minister for twenty-two years and his last term had lasted for thirteen (including all of World War II). He was almost 74 and probably decided he had had enough.
During the 1940 campaign, as FDR sought an unprecedented third term, this was a popular GOP button: http://oldpoliticals.com/LotImages/17/12516_lg.jpeg
Cory Aquino could’ve easily won another term in 1992 as President of the Philippines, but chose to step down. Likewise Borin Yeltsin as President of Russia, although he certainly had his troubles.
The Carolingian quasi-king Carloman is a good example of a medieval figure who retired voluntarily. Maybe - his brother Pepin, who became a real king some time after Carloman’s retirement seems to have worked well with him and there is no contemporary record that Carloman was forced out. However forced tonsuring was a traditional Frankish tactic in this period to politically emasculate rivals, so it is possible that there were shenanigans playing out in the background and Pepin carefully squashed hints of discord.
Thanks all for the replies. I had thought there may be one or two examples but I guess I need to read more politics / history.
No examples of suicides yet though…
(again, excepting suicides where the leader was about to be captured e.g. Hitler)
De Gaulle did so twice : in 1946, due to a general unhapiness with the organization of the French institutions and despise of political parties actions, and a second time in 1969, due to the failure of a referendum about decentralization.
His general attitude was “my way or the highway” and he definitely wasn’t interested in compromising about any issue.
There’s been some speculation that Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia, committed suicide, but the most likely explanation is accidental death by drowning in rough surf.
The Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV was defeated and dethroned by Frederick II in 1215, but lived for a few years afterwards on his extensive family estates in Saxony. In 1218, apparently ill and in his early 40’s, he committed a type of “assisted suicide” by having sins expiated by confessing them while being beaten to death by monks. He had already been cast down from the heights of power, so I guess he doesn’t fully count, but he was not at that point in threat of further punishment.
Yes, but both of those were after they had been out of office for a term. To the best of my knowledge, no sitting two-term U.S. President has run for reelection except FDR.
For an example from the last 10 days, Christian Wulff, President of Germany, has just stepped down from that office.
Of course, there is some pressure on him – he is under investigation for corruption in a previous office, and seems to think that if he resigns, they will just forget this and not prosecute him.
I vaguely recall some story in the 1990’s of one of the central African “President for Life” types - he was told he was dying of cancer or something. He resigned, handed over power, and flew to France for treatment. When they told him he was OK again, he tried to go back and IIRC tried to get his position back but the replacement president liked the job too much to give it up.
I tried googling this but I can’t find any names off hand.
I imagine you are thinking of Mobuto Sese Seko of Zaire/Democratic Republic of the Congo. But he quit under duress, and never had any serious possibility of returning.
There was something of a tradition amongst Anglo-Saxon kings, when they were getting on in years, of abdicating and going on pilgrimage to Rome to be baptised before they died. Example.