How queens say goodbye

Bowing out as a queen consort is a rare move.  For the select group of women who have worn a crown, it's a job for life and normally only death brings it to an end.  For a long time the high risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth meant that a queen was unlikely to live longer than her king.  And if she did she usually had an heir to take his father's crown and her role altered very subtly from queen consort to queen mother.  Even those without an heir to follow found a new role, that of queen dowager.  Just as marriage to a king meant a job so his death meant another role.  But if a king quits, what happens to his queen?

Paola of Belgium finds herself in a very unusual position - a queen consort looking for a job.  For much of her life she has been a public figure from assuming the role of Princess of Liege on her marriage in 1959 through her almost twenty years as consort of the Belgian king.  Now, she enters retirement with Albert II when he signs the instrument of abdication on Sunday. She'll still be known as Queen Paola but she passes into the background of royal life.  The job of being queen passes to her daughter in law, Mathilde.

 

Queen Paola of the Belgians waves goodbye - the consort and her husband at a last appearance in Ghent before the abdication on July 21st 2013

There is no pattern in her country's history to follow.  Belgium has seen an abdication before but when Leopold III gave up the throne in 1951 his second wife, Lilian Baels, wasn't known as queen consort.  They had married in 1941 when the king was under house arrest following the Nazi occupation of his country the year before.  On her marriage Lilian was given the title of Princess of Rethy.  After the war the couple remained in exile until 1950 over fears that their presence could lead to divisions in their country.  Leopold's return to power was brief and his wife remained a princess.  Just months later he abdicated in favour of his eldest son from his first marriage, Badouin. After the changeover he remained a king and there was no queen's title for Lilian.

Queen Paola finds herself in a unique position in Belgium's history - the first queen consort of an abdicating monarch

 

Paola's new role is unique.  There is already a queen dowager in Belgium.  Fabiola was queen consort until the death of Badouin in 1993 when she made the decision to withdraw from public life to allow the new queen to be centre stage. Paola is caught between two generations of queen and it's up to her to define the role of a wife of a former king. 

 



The current Queen of the Belgians could take some tips from the neighbouring nation of Luxembourg where abdication has been a regular occurrence to allow a settled transition to the next generation.  Her husband's sister, Josephine-Charlotte, was wife of the last grand duke to abdicate.  When Jean relinquished power to their son, Henri, in 2000 the couple retired to a castle where the Grand Duchess spent the rest of her life.  But while abdication in also usual in another of Belgium's neighbours, the Netherlands, there the last three monarchs have been Queen Regnants and two of them lost their husbands before they relinquished their thrones.  Being a queen with no kingdom is pretty unchartered territory.

Paola's sister in law, Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte of Luxembourg, helped her husband through his planned abdication in 2000

 

Abdication usually means trauma.  In the 20th century it meant the end of age old monarchies.  The Abdication Crisis of 1936 in Great Britain was exactly what it said on the tin - a huge political crisis caused by the decision of Edward VIII to give up his throne.  The crown survived - and the role of the new queen consort, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, in that monarchical revival is perhaps still not fully appreciated - but it wobbled hard at a time when other European countries were losing their kings.  And of course, Edward had no queen at his side when he gave up his title - that was the whole point, his choice of consort cost him his crown.

 

Wallis Simpson in 1936, the year in which Edward VIII gave up the throne of Great Britain to make her his wife

England has had two other abdications but in reality they were depositions dressed up as decisions by kings to hand over power.  The first, in 1327, saw a queen consort at the end of her tether boot her husband off his throne in favour of her son.  Isabella of France cunningly manipulated Edward II into handing over control of their heir before forcing him to abdicate in the boy's favour.  Edward died within months and Isabella ruled England with her lover, Roger Mortimer, until 1330 when her son booted them out.

 

A medieval interpretation of the marriage of Edward II and Isabella - he made her a queen on their wedding day but his neglect of her and the public humiliation he heaped on his consort led her to take his kingdom away from him in the first post conquest abdication

Isabella's great grandson was also forced to give up his throne but Richard II abdicated at the behest of his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, rather than his wife.  His regime was crumbling and Henry saw a chance to claim a crown that Shakespeare later described as hollow in his interpretation of Richard's reign.  Richard left a child queen consort, Isabella of Valois, just nine at the time he lost his throne.  She was kept in custody by Henry, now King Henry IV, who wanted the dowager queen to marry his heir.  She refused and left again for France. 

Richard II is arrested as Henry Bolingbroke seizes power in England.  He abdicated his throne and like Edward II died in mysterious circumstances not long afterwards

So Paola, called the princess from the south by the Belgians when she first arrived in her future kingdom as a young bride, has a blank canvas on which to draw.  From noon on Sunday she is a queen but no longer a consort, a monarch but no longer a ruler, a majesty but no longer the boss.  It will be interesting to see how the Italian born beauty who slowly won over her new country will adapt to a role that history has yet to create.