 Good afternoon and welcome to the William G. McGowan Theater at the National Archives. Just a reminder that we will be having a book signing following the program up one level in front of the archive shop. So would you please welcome today's panelists. Did we get our microphones turned on by any chance? Are we on? You can hear me? Welcome. I'm Daphne Maxwell Reed and I'll be the moderator today for this lovely book talk. And hopefully you've seen this gorgeous book, or you will by the afternoon. And we're going to talk to three of the authors of the book. There have been a lot of contributions from other folks and we'll talk about that too. But we're going to start with our honcho here, Horace Mann, who will give us a brief idea of why you wrote the book, The Queen and the USA, why you guys put this together. Thank you, Daphne. I was the director of the Federal Commission for Jamestown 2007, which I was responsible for coordinating all the federal activities related to the commemoration of the first permanent English settlement in America. And I was the liaison to Buckingham Palace. And we worked for four or five years with our British friends to work on getting the Queen here. And then once it was committed, it was my responsibility to kind of make sure that she had an enjoyable visit. And in reviewing the archives after everything was over with, I had 10,000 photographs. And I bet a quarter of them were taken between the visit of Queen Elizabeth and President George W. Bush. And so looking at those photographs, 1,500, 2,000 photographs, I said there's a book in here somewhere. And it kept seeing some patterns. It also resonated with the fact that the Queen had come in 1957 for the 350th anniversary of Jamestown. And she had also come to Virginia in 1976 to Charlottesville for the revolution. So there were these patterns, and it was kind of like, you know, we ought to put something out that kind of graphically represents her engagement with the U.S. Now I'll pass this on to Ellen, because Ellen has another version as to how the book got evolved. Well, the way it, I think, really came about. He had this great idea. But the three of us, Chip, who was head of the U.S. Committee, Lord Watson Richmond, who was head of the U.K. Committee, and I, who was delegated to look after the visiting dignitaries after this really wonderful, exciting week, were sitting around and full disclosure, alcohol was involved. And so we were sitting around, we were reviewing how successful the week had been, and sipping some refreshment. And Chip says, you know, we've got this wonderful thing, she's been to Virginia more than any other state, she's been here three times. We should, you know, take these photographs and do a book to commemorate this. And so, you know, that all sounded good to us, and then there was another pouring. And then I piped up, and I said, well, you know, I think we should do all her visits to the United States, the whole country, I think that would be a great idea. Well, we all thought that was really good. And then the wine glasses got topped up, and Lord Watson said, right, I think we need something more substance than pretty pictures, we need essays by Portland people. And so we decided that we would do it, and this was for the Diamond Jubilee 10 years ago. And so the focus of that book were our shared values, democracy, rule of law, language, faith, and so we had some wonderful contributors to that, people who were very important. And so that's how it came about in 2012. And last spring, in 21, spring of 21, our publisher approached us about doing an updated version for the Platinum Jubilee, and we thought that would be a fine idea, and we hadn't even had anything to drink. I haven't neglected to introduce these three wonderful people, so we're going to go back and do that now. This is Horace Mann, and he's a graduate of William and Mary. And he is from Petersburg, Virginia. They're all Virginians, aren't you? All from Richmond. All from Richmond? Well, he's from Petersburg, kind of. And he has held a variety of governmental and political positions, including directing and managing the activities of 37 federal agencies in the innumerable state, local, and foreign groups engaged in the commemorative activities, as he spoke of, while serving as the executive director of Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission, which I was honored to be a part. He graduated from William and Mary and served on the board of visitors there. And in 2012, he was appointed by Governor Robert McDonald to the State Board of Historic Resources, and he served as the board's chairman. He and his wife live in Richmond, and they have a son, Will, who also lives there. And next, Ms. Ellen Lecombe. Have I spoken it correct? You did it beautifully. Thank you, darling. But I answered anything. She graduated also from the College of William and Mary in 1975 with a degree in international economics. So we'll get to why economics turned into history, but during which time she studied at Christ College in Cambridge. So a commander and the current chancellor of the U.S. Priory of the most venerable order of hospital, of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. Do you have this on a plaque? It's referred to sort of working references, the order of St. John, which is the oldest Sylvarek order goes back to the 900 years, and the queen is our sovereign head. Oh, wonderful. She's, for many years, been an active member of the English-speaking Union. And professionally, since 2003, Ellen has been named to the prestigious travel and lead by prestigious travel and leisure magazine as the lady you want to talk to if you want to go to the U.K. And she lives in Richmond. She has two married sons and some granddaughters, four of them. And Jack Moore, my old buddy, born in Quantico, Virginia, graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, and he was commissioned in the U.S. Marines in 1975 and served as an infantry officer, commanding several Marine Corps rifle companies, and twice he was deployed overseas. He moved to Richmond and joined the auto industry in 1990, assuming the management responsibility for the local Cadillac dealership, which his family had acquired in 1986. And in 2000, he added Subaru to that group. He served as chair of the board of directors for the Richmond Forum, a wonderful, wonderful group. If you're ever in Richmond, you should try to find out what's happening at the Richmond Forum. He's a member of the Massey Cancer Society, Cancer Center Advisory Board, and served on the board of directors of the Maymount Foundation, the Virginia Home for Boys and Girls, and a trustee of the Henricus Foundation. More recently, he was appointed a conferee of the Order of St. John by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, some wonderful conferees as well. Our next question, or do you have any reason why you joined in writing this book, Jeff? Well, it was Ellen's fault. She's quite correct that the wine certainly greased the skids for how this was to be done, but in my case, Ellen and Chip handed me a couple of rough drafts and said, you'd look these over and see if there's anything factually wrong or that needs to be adjusted, corrected, changed. And that 15-minute favor turned into a couple of chapters, some history timelines and a dozen or so vignettes about the monarchs that preceded the current queen. So then at that point, Chip just said, well, why don't you just be part of the team since you've gotten your two cents worth? So I sort of backed into this, if you will. But it was still one of those labors of love. So it was a great time, really, really had a fun. How the three of you got together to begin with? The same circles in Richmond and have been involved in philanthropic endeavors and church and things like that. Ellen and I first got to know each other during the visit in 2007. And she was helping to facilitate the British visitors that came here. And then Jack and I met a little bit later than that when his interest came from Polo. Once upon a time, the royal princes, including Prince Charles, were used as a fundraiser, a polo match outside of London. And they went begging for sponsors one year and got me interested thanks to Ellen. And that one thing led to another led to another. Contributors to this book that contributed essays. But a basic question that all of them kind of point to is the relationship and the friendship between the United States and the United Kingdom. Tell me some of the timeline of this relationship and why it is so strong and so important to what's going on politically. Let me give you an answer by way of some what my old history professor used to call cocktail trivia, the kind of thing that when you're a young officer and you have the general's wife looking at you and saying, tell me something interesting. You want to have a better answer than whatever. So with that in mind, the kinds of things that built the relationship. While the pilgrims were hanging out in southern England trying to find the Mayflower, Virginians were electing the first representative government and meeting in the House of Burgesses in Jamestown in 1619. The pilgrims just had a better publicist, if you will. They kind of got away with it. But we have had an interesting relationship with the United Kingdom from the get go. The process of revolution was not simple, but definitive in our case. From their point of view, it was, gee, but India was so much more important. We'll pay more attention to that. Then we had a little bit of a tiff over who was allowed to take sailors off ships that led to a little conflict in 1812. Then the Civil War, where there was a lot of grief. So you may not realize that the United States sued Great Britain in the late 1860s over the issue of Confederate commerce raiders that were built and equipped in English ports. And the International Court awarded damages which the United States collected from Britain over the commerce raiders. Then we have two world wars. We have any number of commercial interests back and forth. So, if you will, the entire relationship between the UK and the United States is really bigger than any one person or any one group of people. That having been said, the current monarch personifies that relationship in so many remarkably interesting ways. She seems to have been around for a while and gotten acquainted with a lot of our presidents. Yes. It's interesting that one queen, 14 presidents. And she started with? Well, she started really with. Herbert Hoover in Turman in 1951. She was just a princess. She was a princess at the time with the Eisenhower administration. Wasn't she before that? Did she meet Hoover as a princess? He was a past president who was invited to the dinner. So yes, she did meet Herbert Hoover. And she's been friendly and visited how many other presidents? 14, you say? 14. 14. The only president she did not meet was Lyndon Johnson. But indirectly had interaction with him because she was not able to come for a state visit because she was expecting a child. Princess Margaret came over and was entertained by President Johnson and his wife quite lavishly in Washington. And so we feel she had personal interactions that were indirectly through her sister who I'm sure went home and filled her in on all the scoop Lady Bird and Lyndon had. Why is the relationship important, the friendship between the United Kingdom and the United States? Well, we share many of the same values, freedom, free markets, liberty, rule of law. And so our embryonic stage was due to British tradition. And then when we separated in 1776, we took a different slant on it. But the way that the Queen enhances that relationship is fascinating because you have people involved in geopolitics who talk about hard diplomacy and soft diplomacy. Hard diplomacy is military and geopolitical policy. Soft policy, soft diplomacy is the way that the people interact. And in this instance, the Queen through knowing 14 presidents has strengthened that relationship that exists because of our founding and because of our shared principles. But she has gone above and beyond helping to facilitate that by being such an incredible representation of the British people. Such an incredible reminder of our history. With 70 years, and you figure America's coming up on its 250th anniversary. This is the one that represents 70 that 250 years. The institutional memory that she presents to us and to presidents is an extremely valuable. She has also been very helpful with our indigenous people. The Virginia Indians. She has, she has. The Queen I think has been a successful monarch because she captains a ship. And one sometimes is heading for the shoals. She doesn't make any drastic course corrections. She does gentle nudges. And she has exhibited this time and again over situations in Britain, but here in the United States. Whenever she would come to visit, they would trot out the Native Americans and so on and so forth. Intending it to be colorful, bright costumes and dancing and so on and so forth. But not at all. From her perspective, she really was interested. And she did her homework. Chief Steve Adkins, who has met with her several times, said, you know, she didn't just do light walk about chit chat. Like, have you been here long and have you come far? No, no, no, no. She asked really solid questions. It was very clear that she had done her homework. And she was very aware that standing next to her was a governor, a senator, someone, of course. And the Virginia Indians had worked for starting 25 years ago, but really hyped up 18 years ago to get federal recognition. They did not have federal recognition, which was important to them for two reasons. One, they wanted their heritage to be acknowledged. And secondly, it made them eligible for healthcare and education and things that they were totally excluded from. So she would ask questions, pointed questions, in front of American officials. Well, just why don't you have healthcare on the reservations? And why can't your students go to higher, you know, school and college and things? And drawing attention to it. And the Virginia Indian tribes are the first to say that her soft diplomacy had a big part of one of them finally getting their federal recognition. In 2018, which was just monumental. Yes, it was monumental. Yes, Jack? I would add to that the perspective that the queen brings to these kinds of issues is unique. Their system is that the queen shall rule, but shall not govern. So she is the head of state, but the prime minister is the head of government. In the United States, our system combines the two in a president. And sometimes you get a winner, sometimes you don't. But most presidents are good at one of the two, but rarely both roles at the same time. The queen sees these sorts of unique issues like the sovereignty of individual Native tribes, or the rights of individual groups of people, in part because as a legacy of empire, the United Kingdom and England, Great Britain have been dealing with these issues for many generations. And I would say she feels that they probably have a better answer, all things being equal than we found. But that's a little bit like horse races. Everybody loves the winners. Nobody remembers the one that came last. Well, I think also just to follow up on that. Virginia, in the beginning, there were treaties between the Native Americans in the colony and the crown. We had a revolution, and many of those treaties were rolled over. The ones with the Virginia Indians were not. They still stand today, and they are recognized by the British government as sovereign nations. So when they go to the United Kingdom, they are afforded all the courtesies and recognition as heads of state. And I will never forget we were at an event that was commemorating the 400th anniversary of the death of Pocahontas, who died in England and is buried there. And there had been a plaque and so on and so forth. And after the plaque dedication, they were to go to the reception. And there was a carriage to take them. But diplomatic protocol in London only had the states ride in the carriage. So in this case, it was his Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucester, representing the queen, and the three American Virginia Indian chiefs, because they were royalty. And when they got to the reception, and the first one out was the Duke of Gloucester, because he was a junior, and then out came Chief Ken Adams and Chief Steve Atkins, and last was Chief Anne Richardson of the Rappahannock. And the Duke helped her out and then stepped back and did a head bow, which is how royals greet each other. That is how they are regarded by the monarchy. Not in the United States. But one of the important things, let's kind of review what her visits to Virginia have meant. She came in 1957 for the 350th anniversary. She came in 1976 for the 200th anniversary of the Revolution. She came in 2007. She reminds us of who we are and what kind of values that we share. Because just by her presence, she brings up these questions about, well, we're so similar, but we're different. And why are we different? But I think she does a great job. It's like when you were a child and you visited your grandmother. Your grandmother would tell you stories about, well, you know, when I was a little girl, we did this and we did that. And she comes and she speaks to the importance of rule of law. One of the important things that she said when she was here in 2007 was to paraphrase. She said, remember, when I was here in 1957, there were people that were ignored, that we did not talk about their role or their relationship to the development of the United States. And she was talking about African Americans and Virginia Indians. They were ignored in 1957. And she said, isn't this such a much better place where we're talking about those things? So she's, I'm not sure that everybody in that, everybody who held that title would have been as, would have made those kinds of observations. Astute. Astute observations. Oh, yeah. Can you tell us about one of the presidents and their relationships with Queen Elizabeth? You guys have stories. He has the stories. All right. Tell me. So when she came in 2007, let's see, she came directly from England, landed in Richmond, went to the capital, spoke before the General Assembly, went back to Williamsburg, and then the next day she came to Jamestown. Then she went, probably the highlight for her was she went to the Kentucky Derby because of her love of racehorses. And then so she was at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. And then on Sunday she came to Washington and there was a garden party at the British Embassy up on Mass Ave. And then on Monday she went to an official welcome at the White House and at the, and they had a state dinner. And this is with, this is when George W. Bush was president, the 43rd president. And so he's out and he's welcoming her. And he's talking about her involvement throughout our history. And he said, he slipped up, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he slipped up and he said, and so Your Majesty, you remember when you were here in 1776? And she did this, and he froze. And then he started to smile and he looked at the cameras and he said, she just gave me a look that only a mother could give you. Well, that shows you the camaraderie and the easiness and the give and take. You know, that is an example of the special relationship and how the soft diplomacy works. And then, you know, we have had many, she's been here, how many state visits? Ellen, do we? 16. And then she's been. And also it should be noted that the only private personal vacation she has ever taken outside of the U.K. has been to the United States. With the only country she came to for her own personal private vacation. Where did she go? She went to Kentucky and also to Wyoming. But she really enjoyed horse related. Any other presidents come to mind about a special relationship or a special encounter with the Queen? Well, it's not fair because it's not a president's story. But when I was presented to the Queen, it was as part of a reception. And Lord Watson, who's one of our compatriots in crime here, said, Stand here and don't move. I said, well, now and why? He said, because that door is the one through which her majesty must exit this room. And so if you stand here, she cannot go by without being introduced. Okay, I can do that. So in due time, the Queen came by and we had a pleasant little chat for a second or three. And then her husband, Prince Philip, came in and walked up and said, Another revolting colonial. And I looked up and teased back saying, Well, the last time the Commonwealth of Virginia went into rebellion, it didn't work out quite so well. But we had a amusing little exchange. They left the room and I looked over my left shoulder and realized that I was standing directly in front of a life-sized portrait of King George III and his coronation robes. So it was a bit of an interesting bi-play on several fronts that here I am chatting with the Queen as though she's a long-lost relative and teasing her husband in front of her predecessor who gave away the colonies. I think that she had a really good relationship with the Regans and she visited them. They obviously shared an interest in horses. But she had a personal visit to California to visit them at their ranch. They're poored rain, just torrential rain. But she had a very personal relationship she had established. And not just with the Regans. When I was chatting with Chief Adkins, and he said the thing about her majesty is she's very genuine. When you're talking with her, you're talking with a person and you have this genuine relationship. And I think she established that with all the presidents that she encountered. Some presidents I'm sure that afterwards she would go into the drawing room and giggle with Prince Philip over something or other. But for the most part, whether she'd like them personally or not, she always was very genuine and she didn't put up with any heirs. Some of our presidents tend to be sometimes very taken with their entourage. And their position. A little funny story about that. I think it was when Trump was going over to visit. And the British Embassy here was coordinating that. Obviously working with the State Department to do that. There's a big meeting at Buckingham Palace with all the team members. A friend of mine who was working at the British Embassy told me this story because he was the one at the Embassy in charge of it. So they're here getting their briefing. The security people are going over, this is how it's going to go. And at one point they said, and the Land Rover will go and pick up President Trump from the aircraft with which the Secret Service said, excuse me, we have the beast. His armored limousine that travels with all the presidents. He has the beast and he will be traveling at the beast. And the head of the British groups just looked at me and said, this comes from the top, it will be the Land Rover. It was the Land Rover. It was the Land Rover? Whenever it says it comes from the top, that means Her Majesty. Yes. And she said it will be the Land Rover. And it was the Land Rover. And the President didn't give any grief about it. They don't, they don't. So she makes her, she makes what she prefers to happen known very quietly. But it happens. As we're talking about presidents, I put this photo up. This is, this is taken just minutes after the queen looked at George W. Bush when he made the gaffe about her having been at the revolution. And this photograph came off of the website of the George W. Bush Library and Archives. And I just wanted to say we are here in the National Archives and we're accepting their hospitality and we really appreciate them giving us this opportunity. But if you want to learn more about specific presidents and their relationship to the queen, go on those individual websites because they are a font of knowledge and raw data. As I remember, this picture was on a page where the opening, the president's welcoming remarks were printed verbatim. Also gave a little bit of the schedule. So any background that you want to know, if you want to get into a specific president since Truman and what their relationship was with the queen, I know the folks at the archives would really appreciate you going and delving into it electronically and finding out what, we do have some other photos in the book that we were able to access because of the National Archives. Thank you, National Archives, one more time. I should warn you that if you're tempted to try it the other way around and approach it from the British point of view, the research you're going to find yourself engaged in will remind you a lot more of Alice in Wonderland and drifting into a dark hole because the record keeping is exhaustive but not quite so well documented and outlined. So it's a great deal more like sifting through the haystack in search of that needle where the presidential libraries are a lot more user-friendly. Well, talking about photographs, on the previous edition, the Diamond Jubilee edition, there was a picture of Her Majesty and looking like the queen and behind her we had done something fancy with the flags and all this sort of things. And so we have some friends at Buckingham Palace to whom we had given the book. The friends are very close to Her Majesty. And apparently when this was shown to her, things get by or they don't, she looks at the cover photograph and she says, why don't we call that photograph being taken? Well, of course not. We photoshopped it. But she knew right away that was not an official photograph. She had not seen it before. This is another official photograph that was taken that night of the state dinner with both President Bush's and their wives and Her Majesty and Prince Philip. Thank you. Now, the queen also just had her platinum jubilee and she celebrates these jubilies and we honor those jubilies here in this country. Tell us something about the protocol of a jubilee. We don't have those here. We got parades. We got 4th of July, but we don't have jubilies. Well, jubilies go back to George III. He was the first to have a jubilee and he had to wait 50 years to get it. But essentially a jubilee is a celebration to commemorate the anniversary of a particular event. So there have been jubilies in England since George III and I think it's rather touching that George V, the queen's grandfather, at his silver, 25th jubilee, and he and Queen Mary were in the carriage going down the mound. Everybody's cheering and waving and he turned. He said, I think they liked me. And the queen at her silver jubilee, again the cheering crowds and things, was quite surprised. She said, I had no idea. And it's because they don't regard themselves as being anything special, important. They have a job and they have duty to the people and that's their focus. It's not about them. And for the queen, the jubilies are not about her. It is her way of thanking those and her people who have supported her over the years. And it's a whole different take on that. Each jubilee, I was in England in 77 for the silver and 2002 for the golden and then for 2012, my husband and I were both there and then this time Jack and his wife and Petas and I were there for this platinum. Each one is different. They each have a very, very different feel because when you've been queen for 25 years, it's one thing but when it's 70 years, it's another. This one felt much more like, if it were rocks, I'd say a farewell tour. Saying thank you, thank you to everyone and thank you for 71 to four years, but I'm now going to step back. If she stays not stepping back, what would be the next jubilee? What's after platinum? Coronation, a new king. No, there is actually talk of doing something for the 75th. Would that be her 100th birthday or close to it? Well, when she's been on the throne for 75 years, so five years from now. So there are sort of generally some small talk. I don't think they're going to go too far down that road, but as Chip was saying with 2007, it starts five years ahead. So they are thinking well. Tom, Tom's are going. So what would it be called? That's part of the discussion. Okay. Do we have any questions from the audience that you would like to know? Somebody? Yes, ma'am. Okay, you can go to the microphones in the aisle. Thank you. And tell us who you are and where you're from too. Hi, thank you for a wonderful presentation. I look forward to getting the book. Susan Prokop, Arlington, Virginia. My husband and I have traveled to London a number of times. We're Anglophiles. And curious, never quite found how the British handle in their history museums and all, how they handle the revolution. Can you give some insight to that? Well, the short answer would be that the tomb of General Cornwallis in Westminster is notable because it contains all of his successes. And there's a casual absence of mention that he surrendered at Yorktown. But he still is quite well revered in part because he was a very, very successful general officer other than that minor issue in that colonial place in America. The British are not sensitive to our independence in the sense that we might think. They are, however, protective, if you will, of their own reputation. Inside British history, we were just the first of a number. So we happen to be the ones who were successful the earliest. But don't forget that India, the Caribbean islands, any number of other possessions including Ireland have all had independence subsequently. So if you will, we were the predecessor, but we weren't the last. And so from the British point of view, we're an interesting footnote but not the whole story. It was a bigger deal to us than it was to them. A little anecdote, though, after 9-11, of course, such a tragedy and Her Majesty asked that at the changing of the guards at the palace that in the show of support they would play the Star Spangled Banner. And an American friend of mine worked in London and all the Americans, in times of crisis, you just gravitate to Buckingham Palace. And they'd all gone up to Buckingham Palace. And so they played the Star Spangled Banner and the Americans were all singing along. And so they're walking back to the office and his British colleagues said, so what's with the rockets red glare and bombs? And so who was doing bombs? And the American reference felt kind of awkward. And he kind of mumbled something about, what was that? Who was throwing the bombs at you? And I said, you were. But that's the whole point. To us, it's a big deal to them. It isn't as much. It is, as Jack said, it's a footnote. I'll give you another cute anecdote. When I was a high school student, I happened to be in London part of an exchange trip. I was seated at dinner and next to me in a Singleton's table was a banker out of Boston. We were toasting that it was the 4th of July to Americans in London. Cross from us as an English gentleman finishing his dinner and looks up and says, 4th of July. Oh, yes. The day you all became foreigners. Before we get to any further questions, I'd like to quickly kind of show some of these pictures that we have. We looked at the photos of the bushes. Here is the photo that was taken at Windsor Castle last year with President and Mrs. Biden. This is a photo that was taken in front of the Executive Mansion in Richmond about 40 minutes after the Queen landed in May of 2007 with then Governor and now Senator Tim Kaine. This is a time honored tradition that the Queen, they call them, in America we have a very prosaic term for it. We call it work in the rope line. In England they call the Queen does a walkabout. Here she is doing the walkabout and one of the tricks is that if you are a young student and you have flowers and you're on the front row, you're bound to get the Queen's attention by giving her the flowers. I showed this picture earlier. This is the Queen greeting all of the Chiefs of the Virginia tribes. This is the Queen speaking before the Virginia General Assembly. She went from the Executive Mansion over to the Capitol to make the speech. This is her the next day visiting Jamestown. She visited the ships which frankly Prince Philip was more interested in being an old Navy guy. This is an interpreter showing the Queen the armor that he wore. With Ellen and I both being graduates of the College of William and Mary, there's a strong tie to the royal family. We've had Prince Charles come and visit a couple of times. In both 1957 and 2007, the Queen went by and gave remarks at the college when she was in Williamsburg. This gives you an idea of some of the documentation of her visit. As Jack says, if you want to know more about what's in the book, buy the book. I just chose to show some photos from 2007, but we go all the way back to all of her trips to the United States and have a photo of each of the different visits that she's had. You guys will be signing books in the lobby as soon as we're finished here today. We have been looking back at Queen Elizabeth. Tell us what you think her legacy is for the next generation of monarchs in London. She's, I think, really very keenly aware of her legacy. She has had the opportunity over 70 years to cultivate a personal relationship with the presidents. Her father did, though he only became King when Roosevelt was president, so he only met really two presidents. This is something she feels very important, and she has encouraged both Prince Charles and Prince William and even Prince George has been brought into it, that have a personal dialogue with the presidents. As Chip said, Prince Charles has been here several times. In fact, he and his sister Princess Anne came to the United Washington on their very first solo royal tour. That was during Nixon's administration. Everybody was trying to match him up with Trisha, I think it was, but anyway. Prince William has obviously been here. He's coming again in the fall to Boston where he'll be doing an important event with his Earth Initiative, which is amazing. But there's a wonderful photograph in the book of the Obamas in the sitting room at Kensington Palace, and Prince William is introducing Prince George who's wearing his pajamas and bathrobe to the president of the United States because they know there's so much, the queen has demonstrated how important it is to have those personal relationships and put any politics aside. It's people to people, and we are cousins, and we're family. And just like most families, we like some probably better than others, but we're still there together. And the important thing to remember, and I think this is part of her legacy, is that when the going gets tough, we're there for each other, and that's a very important part of her legacy. Excellent. Are there any other comments you guys would like to make before I ask for more questions? Well, I would. You can all quote me later, and if not forget I said this. But we refer to the Elizabethan age, and we talk about Shakespeare and all the interesting and amazing occurrences of that rain like Spanish Armada and the rise of the English poets that we all labored through in high school. But I think when history takes a look at this era, and it's going to be called another Elizabethan age for English historians, and I say that in part because she represents a transition. Prior to her reign, the world was European centric, and World War II effectively ended that. And then she is crowned queen and has had to shepherd, if you will, the relationship between a reduced status Great Britain and a modern world that accommodates that entity more on the fringe than in the center. And so I think her steadfast identity as the continuity of the monarch managing this nation's relationship in a changing world, I think that legacy is going to play a very, very large part in what is said about her in due time. And in the fullness of time, I honestly believe that this will be described as a second Elizabethan age with good reason. This is an extraordinary woman who has patiently redrawn what the monarchy is, let alone what it does. Not always at her best will, but it is certainly true that she has she has shepherded that that relationship carefully. And I think she deserves a great deal of credit for that. Well, thank you. I'm going to go for a few more questions, and then we'll go to signing this beautiful book. Yes, ma'am. And holler. Go ahead. And all people here in the room are there has been an obsession with the British monarchy, and I think a lot of it. And the first question is, do you think that is because of her majesty that we have been obsessed with the history of the monarchy? And so and then if so, the second part of my question is, will that continue when she's gone? The same obsession that we have now. The question is, the Americans have an obsession with the monarchy, and we think it's because of Queen Elizabeth. But if it's not because of her, what kind of relationship will they have in the coming days? Well, I kind of take a analytical approach having been trained as a political scientist. And I think that part of our interest comes because we're so similar yet so different in some pretty important ways. And one of the ways that we're different is she is an unelected head of government, I mean head of state. She represents the British people and she's not elected. And it at least for me, it provides us with a touchstone to kind of go, well, you can kind of study the dynamics that they have and the dynamics that we have. One of the things that the Brits are very proud about saying is, I love my queen, but I can hate my government. And so there's a, you know, it would be interesting to see with as fractionalized as American politics have been over the past few years, if we had had an unelected head of government, what would that have gotten us? But we don't, and I don't think that we ever will. And so, but it is very fascinating to see how they, how she embodies the best, what they believe is the best of Britain. And it is a source of real pride for them. So I think to answer your question, Michelle, she did an incredible job of reinvigorating the British people in believing in themselves after World War II. And I would say that for the going forward, the next generations, that she has laid a very solid groundwork for that. She has made it very clear she stepped back from the day-to-day work. She's handed all of that off to her children and to her grandson. And he has taken a very active role. And the people of Britain certainly is seen at the Jubilee are very comfortable with that. This Jubilee was a big underlying message of this Jubilee was here is Charles William George. Don't worry, everything's going to be okay. I've taken care of the future. Well, thank you all very much. This gorgeous book is for sale out there in the lobby and have these three wonderful people sign the book for you. There are lots of things in here besides just the history and the pictures. There are essays from some very wonderful people who were associated with all things with the Queen. And I thank you very much for joining us here today. Welcome to where we are. This is great. Have a wonderful day. Signing. Signing.