The United States and the United Kingdom have a long history of allyship, one that spans across over a dozen U.S. presidents who met with Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the Royal Family.
When he first met Queen Elizabeth II, Joe Biden represented the state of Delaware as a Senator in an audience with the Queen as part of a 1982 visit for a meeting of the British-American Parliamentary Group, according to the White House.
Nearly four decades later in summer 2021, Biden became the 13th President of the United States to meet Her Majesty the Queen during her 70-year reign.
Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning British monarch who ascended the throne at just 27 years old and ruled the United Kingdom for more than 70 years, died at 96 on Thursday.
Biden was briefed on the long-reigning monarch's health ahead of her death, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, saying in part: "His and the first lady's thoughts are with the Queen and her family today."
"The president also conveyed to Prime Minister Truss in a previously scheduled video conference this morning that he and Dr. Biden are thinking of the Queen, and her family, and the people of the United Kingdom," she added.
Both the president and first lady Jill Biden recently congratulated Queen Elizabeth on an “unprecedented 70 years of service” in a message shared this June.
Here is a look back at visits between the Royal Family and numerous Commanders-in-Chief of the United States:
Queen Elizabeth II hosted President Joe Biden at Windsor Castle last June to cap off the president’s first overseas trip.
President Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden emerged from a Land Rover to meet the awaiting queen, who stood on a dais dressed in a pink hat and floral dress. The president wore his aviator sunmark glasses as he joined the monarch, only to remove them as he inspected the red-uniformed and bearskin-capped Guard of Honor assembled on the castle grounds.
The queen and Dr. Biden stayed on the dais as Biden walked along the guard. Once Sunday’s inspection was completed, the queen and the Bidens went into the castle for tea.
Having become Queen upon the death of King George IV in 1952, Her Royal Majesty has met with over a dozen U.S. presidents during her reign. Fourteen men have held the title during Queen Elizabeth’s sovereignty, and she has met in-person with 13 of them as of Wednesday.
President Donald Trump visited Queen Elizabeth on numerous occasions during his four years in office. In July 2018, Trump joined the monarch for tea at historic Windsor Castle outside London with first lady Melania Trump and Prince Philip, the queen’s late husband.
Trump also made a three-day visit to Britain in June 2019, where he and the Queen made a joint toast during the State Banquet at Buckingham Palace.
Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth and Trump later sat next to one another at a meeting of leaders of the Allied Nations during commemorations for the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landings at Southsea Common, Portsmouth, England.
President Barack Obama visited with Queen Elizabeth on four separate occasions in 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2016.
The first visit coincided with the G20 summit in late March 2009. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama pose with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace.
The Obamas visited again in May 2011 at the Queen’s invitation, and joined the monarch for a State Dinner. Obama also delivered an address to parliament during his visit.
In September 2014, Obama traveled to the United Kingdom to participate in the 2014 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meeting. In April 2016, Obama visited the Queen during a multi-stop tour of Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Germany.
In July 2001, President George W. Bush visited the Queen at Buckingham Palace, and was given a tour of the British Museum and Cabinet War Rooms in London.
In November 2003, first lady Laura Bush joined the president for a four-day trip across the pond, visiting with the Queen and joining a State Banquet at her side. Like many presidents both before and since, Bush participated in D-Day ceremonies during a subsequent visit in June 2004.
The Bush White House also welcomed Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip stateside in 2007, where the president said in part: “Our two nations hold fundamental values in common. We honor our traditions and our shared history."
President William (Bill) Clinton first visited the Queen in June 1994, where he also met with the leaders of Canada, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and Belgium. Clinton, along with other world leaders, participated in D-Day ceremonies during this trip.
In late November 1995, Clinton met with Queen Elizabeth and then-Prime Minister John Major. In December 2000, Clinton traveled to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen and delivered an address at the nearby Warwick University Arts Center.
President George H.W. Bush and his wife, first lady Barbara Bush, first visited the Queen for lunch at Buckingham Palace in June 1989. At the time, Bush also met with then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
In 1991, the Bush family welcomed the Queen and Prince Philip to the White House during a four-day stop for the monarch and her husband. They were pictured on a tour of the White House grounds as they ceremonially reviewed troops.
In July 1991, President Bush again met with the Queen when he traveled to London for a meeting of G-7 leaders.
President Ronald Reagan traveled to the United Kingdom and visited with the Queen on at least three separate occasions between 1982 and 1988.
But he also visited with the Queen when he was running for president, having traveled to St. George's Hall of Windsor Castle for dinner on June 8, 1980. Reagan was sworn in as president on January 20, 1981.
Reagan’s first presidential visit with the Queen came in 1982, and the two were famously pictured on horseback riding in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
President Reagan in 1983 met the Queen when she toured the western United States, although they did not convene at the White House — Reagan, first lady Nancy Reagan, the Queen and Prince Phillip met in Santa Barbara, California in March of that year.
The four met again in the United Kingdom to commemorate D-Day celebrations in 1984, where Reagan also attended celebrations alongside Premier Pierre Elliott Trudeau of Canada, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, King Olav of Norway, King Baudouin of Belgium, President Francois Mitterrand of France and Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg.
Reagan also met with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on numerous occasions.
Subsequent visits also took place in London in 1988, when the president and Mrs. Reagan took tea with the Queen during a stopover following the Moscow Summit.
President Jimmy Carter met Queen Elizabeth one time during his presidency, traveling to the United Kingdom to visit with the monarch and other world leaders in May 1977.
President Ford and Queen Elizabeth also met once during the former’s presidency, although their meeting occurred at the White House.
President Ford and first lady Betty Ford hosted the Queen and her husband for a State Dinner in the Rose Garden on July 7, 1976. As a ceremonial gift, the Queen offered Ford a soup tureen painted with images of the White House and Independence Hall.
President Nixon met the Queen at least twice when he served as vice president under Dwight Eisenhower, once in 1957 in Washington and again in New York in 1959.
Nixon visited the Queen for the first time as president in 1969, when he also met with Prince Philip, Princess Anne and Prince Charles for lunch at Buckingham Palace.
In 1970, Nixon and Britain's Prime Minister Edward Heath visited Chequers, Buckinghamshire to meet with the Queen.
The only U.S. president the Queen did not meet during her reign was Lyndon B. Johnson, who was sworn in after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. According to the Lyndon B. Johnson library, there is no “specific reason” why the two did not meet.
At the outset of Johnson’s presidency, the Queen was pregnant with Prince Edward. Johnson also never visited Britain while in office.
Prince Phillip did, however, meet President Johnson in 1963 at a stateside memorial service for the late President Kennedy a mere three days after he was assassinated.
Queen Elizabeth hosted a lavish royal ball for President John F. Kennedy and his wife, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, in June 1961. A reported 500,000 people showed up in person for a chance to see the American president and his wife.
Following Kennedy’s assasination in 1963, the Queen — joined by Jackie and other Kennedy family members — dedicated a memorial to the late president close to the River Thames at Runnymede, Surrey in 1965.
President Eiseonhower welcomed the Queen to the United States in 1957, and was given a tour of Arlington National Cemetery before attending a State Dinner at the White House. The trip marked the Queen’s first state visit to the United States nearly four years after she was crowned.
Eisenhower visited the Queen in August 1959, meeting with Prince Phillip and several of their children at Balmoral Castle, Scotland.
President Harry Truman hosted then-Princess Elizabeth at Blair House in 1951, shortly before she became Queen following the death of her father in 1952. Truman was president from 1945-1953.
Much of the information in this article comes from the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in the United Kingdom and the White House Historical Association.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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