Queen of the World: Elizabeth II: Sovereign and Stateswoman

by Robert Hardman

  The following night, Bush arranged a return dinner at the US Ambassador’s residence, Winfield House, with tortillas, lamb and fudge brownies. Lord Lloyd Webber,¶ no less, had agreed to provide the musical entertainment. It was an intimate affair for around sixty guests, says Jack Straw, adding that his wife, Alice, found herself having one of those ‘I’m sure we’ve met before’ conversations with a strangely familiar guest. ‘I’m Michael Caine,’ he replied.

  Looking back on the first US state visit, Straw says it was ‘brilliant’, not least because the visitor was ‘flattered and pleased’ but also extremely relaxed. ‘Bush had less of an ego than most leaders I encountered,’ he says. ‘He didn’t feel the need for it.’

  George W. Bush was determined to reciprocate the gesture before the end of his second presidential term. Half a century after her first state visit to the USA, the Queen was on her way back and heading for Richmond, Virginia. It would be a subdued start, however. A month earlier, the state had suffered the worst campus shooting in US history, the killing of 32 students at Virginia Tech University. The Queen had made the same journey during her 1957 tour when she had attended that 350th anniversary of the foundation of the English colony of Jamestown. Now she was heading back for the 400th. There would be very few other guests who attended both. ‘We decided to work it around the fiftieth anniversary of her first state visit which was a wonderful peg,’ says Sir David Manning, the British Ambassador to Washington, who would go on to become a senior adviser to Prince William and Prince Harry. ‘When we had a party at the Embassy with pictures of her with so many former Presidents, Americans were amazed. You saw the images of this very glamorous young woman fifty years earlier. She’s living history and there aren’t many people on the planet like that.’

  Her arrival in Richmond, Virginia was something of a comedy of errors. The wrong stairs were wheeled out to her chartered British Airways flight and the red carpet was in the wrong place. Huge crowds – boosted by the governor’s declaration of a public holiday – waited in the rain to see her arrival at the state Capitol, where her speech was relayed on loudspeakers. The Queen spoke of the way good friends can disagree from time to time, ‘safe in the knowledge that the bonds that draw us together are far stronger than any temporary differences of opinion. The people of the United Kingdom have such a relationship with the people of this great nation.’ It was a tacit acknowledgement that Britain’s support for the US-led war in Iraq remained as contentious as ever in the United Kingdom – not that it would make any difference to the strength of the transatlantic bond. ‘It is one of the most durable international collaborations anywhere in the world at any time in history,’ she declared, ‘a friendship for which I certainly in my lifetime have had good cause to be thankful.’

  The scene she found in Jamestown had changed dramatically since her previous visit, not least because of the discovery of the original settlers’ fort in a different place. In Williamsburg, she visited pre-revolutionary William and Mary College, the second-oldest university in the USA, founded by her Stuart forebears. In recognition of the Queen’s eighty-one years – she was about to overtake Queen Victoria as the longest-lived monarch in British history – the schedule was very different from previous tours. Ten years had passed since the decommissioning of Britannia, so there would be no unwinding at sea. Before heading for Washington and the main part of the tour, the Queen returned to her favourite stomping ground in the bluegrass state of Kentucky. It was not entirely accidental that the visit should coincide with the Kentucky Derby. Among those in the crowd was local resident Matthew Barzun, who would go on to become US Ambassador to Britain under a later administration. It was the first time he had seen her with his own eyes, although the Queen’s presence had not been publicised, since it was a private visit. ‘It was so neat,’ he remembers. ‘She was coming through the hallway, like normal people but with state police. Nothing special. And then people were saying: “Oh my gosh! Look who’s here.” It was lovely when the word got out to see 150,000 Americans atwitter with her presence.’ It was also the Queen’s first Trump encounter, though not with the future President. Among those on her VIP balcony was Ivana Trump, ex-wife of the future premier.

  Though the White House has welcomed almost every international leader of any significance in living memory, there was still a palpable buzz about the place as staff prepared for the monarch the following week. Admiral Steve Rochon, the Chief Usher of the White House, had all his household staff chanting a new mantra: ‘Pristine for the Queen!’ He had decreed that on the night of the state banquet, even the White House electrician would have to be in white tie. ‘It’s not just another head of state. There are not many queens left in this world,’ the Admiral explained to a BBC documentary crew. ‘She’s always been viewed as very special to this country. For God’s sake – that’s royalty!’ After a distinguished career in the US Coast Guard, Rochon had suddenly become an expert in gardening. ‘I lose sleep over the flowers,’ he admitted. ‘One of my biggest concerns is the wisteria that drape the south portico. I’m hoping we don’t get a strong wind that will blow those beautiful flowers away.’

  On the eve of their formal welcome at the White House, the Queen and the Duke made a low-key arrival in Washington. Foreign Secretary (now Dame) Margaret Beckett, the minister in attendance for the state visit, remembers the Queen fondly telling her the story of the President’s royalist cowboy boots at her first meeting with him all those years before.

  Bush wanted to make this visit a highlight of his presidency. ‘One of the things which impressed Bush’s people was they’d never ever been able to get him into white tie for anything. He hated that kind of formality,’ says Dame Margaret. ‘But he was prepared to do it because it was the Queen. He was very charming to us.’

  As with the arrival ceremony arranged by Bush Senior, there would be an amusing, unscripted moment with Bush Junior. In his speech of welcome, the President recalled the Queen’s earlier visits to the USA. ‘You helped us celebrate our bicentennial in 17 . . . ,’ he announced, before correcting himself: ‘Er, 1976’. A roar of laughter spread across the lawn. The Queen, greatly amused, gave him a mock-reproachful glance as Bush came back with an elegant aside: ‘she gave me a look only a mother could give a child.’

  The American media enjoyed studying the protocol in forensic detail, noting that all President Bush’s previous state banquets had been four-course black-tie affairs. This one was five courses – pea soup, Dover sole, lamb, cheese and ‘rose blossom’ pudding – and white tie to boot. ‘How does George W. Bush, a towel-snapping Texan who puts his feet on the coffee table, drinks water straight from the bottle, and was once caught on tape talking with food in his mouth, prepare for a state dinner with the Queen?’ asked The New York Times. ‘With tips from an etiquette guide, of course – and a little gentle prodding from his wife.’ Not only had the President agreed to a new dress code, but he would be staying up well beyond his regular 9.00 p.m. bedtime, too.

  Before the pea soup arrived, the President used his banquet speech to return to themes raised earlier on the White House lawn: ‘Friendships remain strong when they are continually renewed, and the American people appreciate Your Majesty’s commitment to our friendship.’ Wearing the Queen Mary Tiara and her blue Garter sash and star, the Queen was not reciting a Foreign Office script, but speaking from the heart. ‘Those of us who have witnessed the peace and stability and prosperity enjoyed in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe over these post-war years have every reason to remember that this has been founded on the bedrock of the Atlantic Alliance.’ All the good things in life, she said, continued to flourish ‘safe in the knowledge of this simple truth’.

  As in the past, British and American officials had included a NASA-related element to the state visit, mindful of keen royal interest in space travel. At the Goddard Space Flight Center, near Washington, they watched a live link to the International Space Station, where three astronauts were performing weightless
somersaults. With his unerring eye for the practical, the Duke had some direct questions. ‘What do you do about natural functions?’ he asked one astronaut. ‘A very good question,’ came the reply.

  In scale and dramatic content, this might have been a more modest tour than those grand adventures of yesteryear. It still maintained a ferocious pace for two octogenarians, incorporating up to six engagements per day, though the walkabouts had been gently scaled back and the guest lists somewhat reduced (down to a mere 700 guests at the Queen’s Embassy garden party). The media impact seemed much the same as on previous tours. ‘Capital Goes Gaga Over The Queen for a Day,’ declared The Washington Post. There was also a particular warmth and familiarity, almost a cosiness, about this tour.

  The guests at the state banquet included the Queen’s old friend Nancy Reagan, former Secretary of State George Shultz and his wife, Charlotte (who had organised so much of the Queen’s 1983 tour), and some racing chums. A last-minute invitation had been extended to Calvin Borel, winning jockey in the Kentucky Derby. Later in the visit, the Queen and the Duke would join veterans of the Second World War to view a new memorial. Generously, the President decided not to attend. Instead, ‘Bush 43’ (as the forty-third president was known in the family) asked ‘Bush 41’ and former first lady, Barbara Bush, to accompany the royal couple. ‘Bush president gave way to Bush père on their visit to the new memorial and it was very special,’ says Sir David Manning. ‘Bush 41 had a fine war record as a pilot. And there they all were, walking around like old friends. Those occasions touch people in a way that is very hard to measure but it matters.’

  For the Queen, it was a delightful reprise of her previous state visit. ‘She was very comfortable with Bush 41. It was a very warm relationship,’ adds Sir David. ‘She had an easy rapport with Bush 43, too, which was very evident at the less formal return dinner that she gave at the Embassy after his white tie banquet.’ For that event, there was a marginally less onerous dress code of black tie. Rather than a hierarchical seating plan, there were round tables – and no numbers. Each table was named after a Derby-winning horse. When the formal photographs were taken before dinner, the Queen insisted on dragging a reluctant Bush 41 plus Barbara into the official line-up alongside Bush 43 and Laura.

  The speeches were kept to a minimum. ‘Mr President,’ the Queen began, ‘I wondered whether I should start this toast saying: “When I was here in 1776” . . .’ The room guffawed. Saluting the ‘strength and vitality’ of the old alliance, she raised a glass to the Bushes and to ‘enduring friendship’. In his equally brief reply, the President thanked the Queen for ‘the love and affection you have shown the American people over many years’, before raising a toast ‘to our closest of friends, the British people’.

  ***

  Within a couple of years, however, the gloss appeared to be fading on the ‘special relationship’ as a new tenant moved in to the White House. Given Britain’s closeness to the previous Republican regime, Barack Obama was hardly predisposed to be very friendly, even if Gordon Brown’s Labour Party was a more natural fit with Obama’s Democrats than Bush’s Republicans. There were reports that Obama had evicted the bust of Winston Churchill from the White House (not entirely true; there had been two busts – one had been on loan from the British government and was simply returned, while Obama left another untouched in pride of place in a hallway). Obama had also written about his Kenyan grandfather being tortured by the British during the Mau Mau rebellion (a claim later disputed by members of Obama’s family), at the same time as the Queen was acceding to the Throne in that Kenyan treehouse.

  David Cameron has an alternative theory. ‘I think that he started out as not particularly warm towards the UK,’ Cameron admits. ‘Someone said that the only thing Britain had ever done for Obama was we lost his luggage. He flew from America to Kenya via the UK and we lost it. But he ended up in a very good place in the end.’ That he did was in no small part down to the Queen.

  The Obamas enjoyed their first royal encounter when they arrived in London for the 2009 G20 summit and had a private meeting with the Queen and Prince Philip ahead of a summit reception. ‘I know they connected then,’ says Matthew Barzun, former US Ambassador. As Obama told an interviewer beforehand: ‘I think in the imagination of people throughout America, what the Queen stands for, her decency and her civility and what she represents, is very important.’ After the meeting, he gave the monarch an iPod containing footage of her 2007 state visit to America. The royal couple gave him silver-framed signed photographs. During the reception that followed, cameras picked up an age-old ‘faux pas’ story, when Michelle Obama was seen to put her arm around the Queen. In fact the Queen has never been bothered by an occasional gentle steer, when it is merely a question of good manners. It was not a faux pas at all. Indeed, the most interesting aspect of the encounter was the fact that the Queen simultaneously put her arm around the US first lady too. It turned out that the two of them had been swapping heel sizes. Later that summer, when Michelle Obama and her daughters paid a private visit to London, the Queen gave them a private tour of the Palace.

  Obama’s White House, with its sunny mantra of ‘hope’ and ‘change’, did not click with Gordon Brown’s rather dour Downing Street operation, still feeling battered from the financial crash of 2008. Yet the White House–Palace relationship remained a warm one. Brown’s departure in 2010 was followed by a mood change at Number Ten and by the first coalition government of the Queen’s reign. British and American diplomats started to discuss the idea of a state visit in earnest with great enthusiasm from both heads of state. A date was fixed which would crown four of the most historic and happy weeks of the reign. In the space of a month in the spring of 2011, the Queen would host Prince William’s wedding, make her first state visit to Ireland and, finally, welcome the Obamas to stay. Unlike the visit of George W. Bush in 2003, there were no protests this time. Even so, US security chiefs ruled out a carriage procession once again. As with the Bushes, the Obamas were welcomed inside the Palace grounds rather than on Horse Guards. After lunch, the exchange of gifts went far beyond iPods and photos. The Queen gave Obama a specially bound selection of facsimile letters from Queen Victoria to presidents of the USA. The Queen was particularly touched when Obama gave her a specially bound selection of photographs and documents of that first state visit by her parents to the United States in 1939.

  That visit would also surface in the special Royal Collection exhibition that the Queen had laid on for her visitors. The Obamas were greatly amused to see her mother’s famous letter about ‘HOT DOGS too!’ Here also was a rather weightier item from the Royal Archives, George III’s handwritten lament after the loss of the American colonies: ‘America is lost! Must we fall beneath the blow?’ Mr Obama laughed and exclaimed: ‘That was just a temporary blip in the relationship!’ There was no question that this state visit was going swimmingly. The mood was infectious. Sir Simon Fraser, former head of the Diplomatic Service, describes it as ‘the most fun state visit’ of his career. ‘It was such an attractive event and the state banquet had such interesting people.’ The most in-demand couple of the moment, the newly-wed Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, loyally found an alternative engagement on the night of the banquet so as not to deflect the focus from the two heads of state (the Cambridges had a private meeting with the Obamas earlier). However, there was no shortage of glamour at a white-tie banquet that included a number of Hollywood stars. The then Foreign Secretary, William Hague, recalls that his wife, Ffion, was placed next to Tom Hanks and helped the actor through the bewildering assortment of cutlery and crystal at his place. ‘Ffion coached Tom Hanks through the whole meal. After that, he called her “coach”!’ What sticks in Lord Hague’s mind most of all, however, was the impact of the visit on both sides. ‘Even for the most powerful man in the world, this is still going to be one of the things on his wall in perpetuity,’ he says. Ahead of a dinner of sole and new-season lamb (with a Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos 2004 and Ech�
�zeaux Grand Cru 1990 Romanée-Conti), the Queen told her guests: ‘We are here to celebrate the tried, tested and, yes, special relationship between our two countries.’

  The only ‘blip’ in this entire visit would come as the President was reaching his own conclusion. He picked up his glass for the toast, which the orchestra of the Scots Guards took as its cue to start playing the national anthem. Obama had not finished talking. As British diplomats gritted their teeth and curled their toes, Obama’s homage to the S-word was drowned out by the strings. Yet on he went: ‘To Her Majesty the Queen, to the vitality of the special relationship between our peoples, and in the words of Shakespeare, “to this blessed plot, this Earth, this realm, this England”.’ The Queen pretended not to notice. ‘That was very kind,’ she told him as the footmen started serving the sole, the sunny ambience swiftly restored.

  ‘What was really striking to me was when it came to the timetable, Obama would do what the Queen told him to,’ Hague recalls. ‘So when the Queen said it was time for the whole thing to be over – it was only teatime for Obama, being jet-lagged – he said: “Is she serious?” But off they all went. The President of the United States would probably not defer to anyone else in the world!’

  The following day, Obama would receive an honour denied to all his predecessors, when he was invited to address both Houses of Parliament. David Cameron had arranged for the speech to be made in Westminster Hall, the great chamber denied to Ronald Reagan in 1982 by the Labour opposition. There were no objections to Obama. ‘It gave him a brilliant platform,’ says Cameron, though he believes the real magic of the trip for the President was ‘the kudos of doing things with her Majesty’. He is in no doubt that it was the Queen, rather than her ministers, who laid the foundations for the transatlantic relationship, which continued through the Obama years. ‘It wasn’t certain that the US president and the UK prime minister, or America and Britain, would be as close under Obama as it turned out to be. And I think that the state visit played a big role in that because actually he really enjoyed it and he really liked her. And it benefitted me because when I visited him in 2012, it was like I was getting the benefit of the state visit, which I felt rather guilty about. What Buckingham Palace and the Queen give is extra heft. So state visits are worth doing.’