by The Laird o’Thistle
April 19 2009
Like almost everyone in the world, I was agog at the pictures of Queen Elizabeth putting her arm around First Lady Michelle Obama during the Obamas’ recent visit to London. I have been a royal watcher for about forty years, and cannot recall seeing anything similar. The closest bit of royal spontaneity that comes to mind is the Queen making a grandmotherly dash back in 1986 to catch four-year-old Prince William as he chased after the carriage carrying Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson off to their honeymoon from the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. To my mind, it was an absolutely lovely, friendly, intimate moment between the Queen and First Lady, and I was delighted.
Somehow it seems doubly significant to see the Obamas at Buckingham Palace. For not only is he the first African-American President of the U.S., but he is the first “African” American… with his father having been born a subject of the British Crown in Kenya in 1936, and many of his extended family still living there. After overseeing the independence of so many of the African nations in her reign, the woman who ascended the throne while visiting Kenya in 1952 must have mused a bit over that bit of the American President’s background.
The press noted that Barack Obama is the 12th U.S. President of to hold office during the Queen’s reign. (They are, in order, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush #1, Clinton, Bush #2, and Obama.) Of those twelve, the Queen personally met all of them except Lyndon Johnson. But she did meet his wife, the late “Lady Bird” Johnson. H.M.’s acquaintance with American Presidential families is, however, even more extensive. During her 1957 visit to the U.S., she met former U.S. President Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) at a luncheon in New York. And long before coming to the throne Her Majesty had met Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, who visited London both during and after World War II. That brings her count up to having had personal contact with either the President or First Lady from fourteen of the forty-four U.S. administrations to date… nearly 1/3 of the total number! (And, no doubt she will meet the eventual 45th President in due course.)
During Elizabeth II’s reign, other members of the royal family have also made notable U.S. visits. Prince Philip represented the Queen at the funeral of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The Prince of Wales and Princess Anne paid a somewhat awkward visit to the Nixon White House in the early 1970s, during which the President apparently tried a bit of matchmaking between Prince Charles and his daughter Tricia. Charles returned to the White House with Diana during the Reagan years, in a visit that included Diana’s stellar dance turn with John Travolta. (During that visit President Reagan at one point wore a rather handsome tartan sport coat, which a British commentator promptly compared to the carpets at Balmoral.) The Prince returned to Washington as the Queen’s representative at the funeral of Ronald Reagan in 2004. And in 2005 he and the Duchess of Cornwall were guests of President and Mrs. Bush. I also recall a visit by Prince Andrew during the Clinton years in which he and the President bonded over a round of golf.
This coming June will mark the 70th anniversary of the first visit of a reigning British Monarch to the U.S., the famed visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to President Roosevelt on the eve of World War II. The personal ties created by that visit to Washington and Hyde Park, along with those later forged between Roosevelt and Churchill, did much to create the “special relationship” between Britain and the U.S. that persists to this day. (At the time of the 1939 visit, the U.S. ambassador in London was Joseph P. Kennedy, the father of President Kennedy, and of Senator Edward Kennedy who just recently received an honorary knighthood from the Queen. The senior Kennedy was initially well received in Britain, but lost favor when he became overzealous in supporting efforts to appease Hitler.)
Most of the preceding is fairly well known and remembered, except perhaps for the Queen’s meetings with Mrs. Johnson and former President Hoover. What came as a great surprise to me when I began researching the history of contacts between the British Royals and U.S. Presidential families is that the history is actually quite long, going back to the very beginnings of American independence.
One early meeting that did NOT take place, thankfully, was that of George Washington and the future William IV during William’s brief service in New York during the American Revolution. General Washington did approve a proposal to try to kidnap the prince, but it never came to fruition. (The late Queen Mother, by the way, was an ancestral second cousin of President Washington, sharing a line of descent from Washington’s great-grandfather, Colonel Augustine Warner of Virginia.)
Surprisingly, of the first eight U.S. Presidents, four of them had previously served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James. The first U.S. ambassador to Britain was none other than John Adams, one of the chief architects of the move toward independence. Though coldly received by many at court, the Adamses found themselves politely received by George III and got on reasonably well in their direct contacts. John Adams subsequently served as the first U.S. Vice President, and eventually succeeded George Washington as the second President. James Monroe (fourth President), John Quincy Adams (son of John Adams, and sixth President), and Martin van Buren (eighth President) also served at the Court of St. James. The second Mr. Adams served late in George III’s reign during the Regency of the Prince of Wales, and Mr. Van Buren served briefly during the reign of William IV.
Another early U.S. President also had occasion to meet George III, but that meeting was far less successful than most. During the period when Thomas Jefferson was the U.S. Ambassador to France, he came over to London to visit John and Abigail Adams. As was customary, the visiting diplomat was taken along to a court function by Ambassador Adams, but when George III learned that it was Thomas Jefferson he turned on his heel and walked away. Jefferson was furious at the snub, but in fairness, anyone who has read the extensive list of charges against “the Tyrant” George III that Jefferson included in the Declaration of Independence will have some sympathy for the King in his reaction.
During Queen Victoria’s reign, there were a variety of contacts and connections between the royal family and the families of the White House. In 1839 a young American woman, Miss Julia Gardner of New York, was presented to the Queen. In June 1844 Miss Gardner became the second wife of President John Tyler and served as First Lady for the remaining months of her husband’s term. In 1853 James Buchanan became U.S. Ambassador to Britain, and shortly thereafter he became the 15th U.S. President (1857-1861). Mr. Buchanan was personally well regarded in Britain, but like many U.S. Ambassadors, his refusal to wear the elaborate official court dress was often taken askance. His official hostess, however, was very popular in society, and in particular with the royal family. The bachelor Mr. Buchanan’s niece and ward, Miss Harriette Lane, was a renowned beauty and fashion plate… and also a substantive young woman. At court, she impressed both Victoria, who spoke of “dear Miss Lane,” and Prince Albert who (most unusually) danced with her at a ball with the Queen’s blessing. The relationship between Buchanan and his niece with the royal family was such that in 1860 the Prince of Wales became the first member of the British royal family to visit the White House. (His bedroom was the current dining room in the upstairs living quarters.) There were great festivities in Washington, and once again Miss Lane shone as the Prince’s hostess.
During the Lincoln Administration, he appointed the third generation of the Adams family, Charles Francis Adams, as his ambassador to Britain. At the time of President Lincoln’s assassination, Queen Victoria wrote a very sympathetic and personal letter of condolence, as one widow to another, to Mary Todd Lincoln. In later years the still broken and bereaved former First Lady traveled privately in Scotland, but in her own rather obsessive avoidance of the spotlight, she made no attempt to meet the Queen. (When she passed near Balmoral she did, however, mention that if Queen Victoria had been there she might have tried to see her privately.) The Lincolns’ son, Robert Todd Lincoln, later served as Ambassador to the Court of St. James from 1889-1893. Sadly, it was in England that the ambassador’s only son, Abraham Lincoln II, died in 1890 at age 17. Once again Queen Victoria sent her condolences to the family.
Queen Victoria also received former President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife during their post-presidential world tour in the 1870s… but she rather disliked them.
During the reign of Edward VII (1901-1910) the King struck up a warm and lively correspondence with President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909). The former President just happened to be in Europe when King Edward died, and so “Teddy” served as the official U.S. representative at the King’s funeral… at which he would have met King George V. The connection between the Roosevelts and the royals established at the time is believed to have helped along the relationship later established by FDR and King George VI. (The two Presidents Roosevelt were distant cousins, but Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt was Teddy’s niece.)
George V and Queen Mary were the first British Monarchs to welcome a sitting U.S. President to Buckingham Palace. Immediately after the Armistice in 1918, President Woodrow Wilson headed over to Europe to participate in the Versailles Conference. But when the start of the conference was delayed until shortly after the beginning of the new year, President Wilson and his wife dropped over to London to visit the British allies. The royal family is said to have found the ultra-Presbyterian Scots-Irish Wilson to be rather markedly cold and stiff, but they undoubtedly found his wife Edith (a descendant of Pocahontas) more charming. Later on, in 1919 the Prince of Wales visited Washington and was received at the White House where President Wilson had become at least a semi-invalid following a stroke.
King George V and Queen Mary received two other Presidents during their reign, one future and one former. In 1918 they received Herbert Hoover, who had done so much for food relief during World War I. In 1922 they hosted former President William Howard Taft, who had subsequently been appointed Chief Justice of the U.S. In 1924, the Prince of Wales was once again entertained at the White House, by President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge. (During later years the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were entertained by several U.S. Presidents during their many visits to the U.S.)
Whatever the pomp and protocol involved, the striking thing to me in the story of over two centuries of contacts between the British Crown and America’s Presidents is the human factor. A prime case in point being the moment during the Queen’s 2007 visit to Washington when a discomfited President Bush turned and winked at Her Majesty after having misread his lines and spoken of the Queen’s visit in “1776.” His little “goof” was countered with a “motherly” look (so he said) and a warm-hearted rejoinder from H.M. at the British Embassy on the following evening. And so, from the snubbing of Thomas Jefferson to the hugging of Michelle Obama, the relationships have been and continue to be quite personal as well as official. For the last 70 years, in particular, the cultivation of such warm relations has been a particular undertaking of the Windsor clan, and that emphasis shows no sign of changing in the foreseeable future.
“It is the moment to take stock of our present friendship, rightly taking pleasure from its strengths while never taking these for granted… and it is the time to look forward, jointly renewing our commitment to a more prosperous, safer and freer world.” — remarks by Queen Elizabeth II during the arrival ceremony at the White House in May 2007
Yours Aye,
Ken Cuthbertson