Elizabeth the Queen (79 page)

Scarcely pausing to catch her breath, Elizabeth II entertained Barack and Michelle Obama at Buckingham Palace during a state visit the following week—the 101st of her reign. Obama had forged a warmer relationship with David Cameron than with his predecessor, and the British prime minister was eager to honor the American president as a sign of what the two leaders were now calling the “essential” rather than the “special” relationship. It was, as Obama himself acknowledged, a singular moment “for the grandson of a Kenyan who served as a cook in the British army.”

Security concerns caused the Queen to move the official arrival ceremony from the public setting of Horse Guards Parade to the privacy of the Buckingham Palace gardens. There was no white pavilion bedecked with flags and national insignia, nor even the usual entourage of dignitaries in ceremonial uniforms. Only the Queen, Prince Philip, Charles, and Camilla stood with the Obamas on the West Terrace overlooking the lawn. The band of the Scots Guards played “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a forty-one-gun salute boomed out in nearby Green Park, and the president inspected the guard of honor with Prince Philip.

In every other respect, the Obamas—with whom the royal couple had evident rapport—were treated to all the pomp of the traditional state visit: luncheon with the royal family, a display of historical documents in the Picture Gallery, an exchange of gifts, a state banquet in the ballroom, and two nights in the Belgian Suite among paintings by Canaletto and Gainsborough. (The Queen herself gave them a tour of their quarters.) The one unusual twist came just before the ceremonial welcome when the Obamas were escorted to the 1844 Drawing Room for a private twenty-minute meeting with William and Catherine, their first official appearance since the wedding. The encounter made headlines and reinforced the special status of the newlyweds—although they did not stay for either the luncheon or the banquet, where their presence could have overshadowed the guests of honor.

In June Elizabeth II celebrated the ninetieth birthday of Prince Philip—still largely defined in the press by his acerbic humor and outspokenness, although increasingly admired for the breadth of his interests and the extent of his contributions to a range of British institutions as well as to causes around the world. William and Catherine reappeared to attend the Queen’s private party for her husband at Windsor Castle. They also took center stage at Trooping the Colour, where William participated in the ceremonial parade on horseback for the first time.

While the Diamond Jubilee was not set to get under way for another year, the royal wedding of 2011 was a fitting prelude. It brightened the outlook for the House of Windsor, seventy-five years after destiny touched a ten-year-old princess and placed the burden of leadership on her small shoulders. Elizabeth II fulfilled her duty with steadfast determination and clarity of purpose, exerting influence without grasping for power, retaining her personal humility despite her public celebrity—and above all, in good times and bad, spreading a carpet of happiness.

“Cherish Lilibet? I wonder if that word is enough to express what is in me.”

Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in Buckingham Palace on their wedding day, November 20, 1947.
©TopFoto/The Image Works

Elizabeth II could literally feel the weight of duty—between her vestments, crown, and scepters, more than forty-five pounds’ worth—on her petite frame
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The Queen wearing the five-pound St. Edward’s Crown and her golden coronation robes after her crowning by the Archbishop of Canterbury, June 2, 1953.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images

After a seven-mile progress through London in the pouring rain, the Queen had a chilled nose and hands from the drafty carriage
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Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip traveling to Buckingham Palace after the coronation in the twenty-four-foot-long Gold State Coach, built in the eighteenth century, June 2, 1953.
Reginald Davis MBE (London)

Charles portrayed his mother as a remote figure during his unhappy childhood, and described his father as overbearing and insensitive
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Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in the Buckingham Palace Gardens watching their children Prince Charles and Princess Anne, 1957.
Photograph by Snowdon, Camera Press London

In the evening before the ceremony, the Queen often works at her desk, wearing the purple velvet crown glittering with 3,000 diamonds as she gets accustomed to having nearly three pounds sitting on her head
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The Queen reading her speech at the state opening of Parliament, with Prince Philip seated to her left, and her ladies-in-waiting to her right, October 1958.
EMPICS Archive/Press Association Images

Although still not inclined toward hugging and kissing, the Queen showed more of her playful streak with her two youngest children, Andrew and Edward
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The Queen holding her three-month-old son, Prince Edward, as she greets the crowds with Prince Philip and four-year-old Prince Andrew on the Buckingham Palace balcony after Trooping the Colour, June 13, 1964.
Fox Photos/Getty Images

“It’s nice to hibernate for a bit when one leads such a very moveable life.”

Elizabeth II riding into the hills above Balmoral Castle in Scotland with her corgis in tow, 1965.
Photograph by Godfrey Argent, Camera Press London

Parents and children were bound by an appreciation of country traditions and rituals, including being smeared with blood
on their cheeks after killing their first stag
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