Margaret Weatherford Column

Sunday 5 June 2005

The Royals in New York

I spent a couple of days in New York this week, and I�ve been thinking about the visits the British royal family has made to the city over the years. Because the United States of course is not part of the Commonwealth, New York has received fewer official royal visits than many other English-speaking cities. However, British royals have been visiting New York for almost one hundred and fifty years, and because of New York�s size and prominence, these visits have made a strong impact.

As far as I know, none of the eighteenth-century Hanoverian royal family visited the colonial city and early United States capital. Travel was more difficult at the time and the royal family obviously was not popular in America. Queen Victoria never ventured farther from Britain than France and Germany. The first royal visit to New York, and to the United States, was made by the future Edward VII as Prince of Wales in 1860. This trip would not have been permitted under modern rules for royal tours, because the United States was in the middle of a bitter presidential election and political conflict that would soon result in the Civil War. However, the Prince�s trip was unaffected by American politics, and was a great success. Victoria and Albert had kept their son too isolated, because they were terrified that he might be corrupted by contact with immoral people. The Prince�s tour was his first opportunity to exercise his great talent for social life and ceremonial royalty. Half a million people stood on Broadway to see the Prince ride past in his carriage, and a ball he attended was so crowded that the floor gave way. He came home with a new confidence in himself.

George V famously said �abroad is awful,� and he never visited the United States. Neither did Queen Mary, who would have loved the shops and museums of New York. Their eldest son Edward loved America, to his father�s annoyance, and after he left the throne for a twice-divorced American, they spent a good deal of time and money in New York. The Duchess of Windsor loved New York as the capital of society and fashion. For decades the Duke and Duchess regularly stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria and went out to nightclubs with caf� society. When Princess Margaret was married to Tony Armstrong-Jones, they once met the Duke and Duchess in New York.

New York also had a special place in the lives of George VI and Queen Elizabeth. George VI was the first reigning monarch to visit the United States (and Canada), when he and Queen Elizabeth made a state visit in 1939. They established a friendship with President and Mrs. Roosevelt by staying at their home in Hyde Park, New York as well as the White House. They also visited the World�s Fair in Flushing Meadows. After George VI�s death, one of the first foreign trips the Queen Mother made was to New York, where she enjoyed a more relaxed visit.

The Queen has made only three state visits to the United States in over fifty years, in 1957, 1976, and 1991. When she does make state visits to the United States, her primary purpose is to visit the President in Washington, and she might or might not make a side trip to New York. The Queen has made other official and private visits to the United States, such as her trip to California during the Reagan administration and her visits to Kentucky horse country in 1984, 1986, and 1991. Her Majesty prefers the country to cities, and she has not gone out of her way to visit New York. She did visit the city during her state visit in 1957, and made a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. Also, one of her most eloquent quotations, �Grief is the price we pay for love,� was read on her behalf at a memorial service in New York City soon after the 9/11/01 terrorist attack.

New York is so accustomed to the presence of the rich, famous, and powerful that unofficial visits can be made in a discreet manner that is impossible in many places. The Palace does not make available records of official and private visits to the United States in the way that it tracks state and Commonwealth visits. Therefore it is easy for even the most dedicated royal watcher to remain ignorant of royal trips to the United States. In the modern age of jet travel, particularly the heavily traveled route between London and New York, it is easy for the rich, famous, and royal to pop across the pond for brief breaks from their official lives. Princess Michael seems to do this quite often, and she recently got a great deal of bad publicity by allegedly telling a group of black diners at the Da Silvano restaurant to �go back to the colonies.� (She says she was misquoted.)

The Duchess of York is the most frequent flyer of the royal family (well, formerly of the royal family). When the Concorde was still in operation, she would take her daughters to school, fly to New York, do some business, and fly back in time to pick up her daughters from school. Now that she has to take regular flights, she has cut back on the frequency of her trips. There was a recent article in Hello! magazine about a trip the Duchess took to New York with her daughters to celebrate Princess Eugenie�s fifteenth birthday. The York women visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art and took a carriage ride in Central Park.

The late Diana, Princess of Wales had a special relationship with New York. She stayed at the Carlyle Hotel and made glamorous appearances at charity functions, but would also go to Harlem and hug AIDS babies. Diana�s star shined brightest in New York. The intensity of the city suited her, and after her separation it was rumored that she planned to move there. Her ex-husband and his new wife are much less inclined to enjoy New York. Before their marriage, Camilla Parker-Bowles made a solo trip to New York and tried to win over the city�s high society. The trip went off fairly well, but Camilla, like the Queen and the Prince of Wales, is too much of an English country person to really fit in with New York society.

It takes a lot to impress New York, but royal visits have made some strong impressions on the city. At the same time, New York is a favorite destination of off-duty royals, because they can enjoy themselves in the company of international society while escaping general attention.

- Margaret Weatherford

The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

The Royals in New York