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Virginia was named for the first Elizabeth, but it was Elizabeth II who actually crossed the pond to visit.
During her 70 years on the throne, Britain’s longest reigning monarch visited Virginia a handful of times, meeting state and tribal leaders, and touring some of the Commonwealth’s most iconic spots.
In 1957, five years after taking the throne, the Queen visited Williamsburg and toured the William & Mary campus as the university marked the 350th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown colony.
“I cherish this link between the crown and your college because it is a part of our joint history,” the Queen told her American audience. “Particularly, it is a part of our history of which we can both take pride.”
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on the balcony of the Wren Building at William & Mary in 1957.
She returned in July, 1976 during America’s bicentennial, touring Monticello and the University of Virginia, both designed by the author of the declaration that separated this county from hers.
In 1991, she came back to visit Texas, Florida and Maryland, but also stopped at Arlington Cemetery, where she laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
In 2007 Elizabeth came back to William & Mary and visited the state’s General Assembly in Richmond. She expressed sympathy for the victims of the then-recent shooting that had occurred at Virginia Tech, and talked about how society was reappraising the colonization of Virginia by white settlers as it marked the 400th anniversary of Jamestown.
Queen Elizabeth II in 2007 at William & Mary, talking with former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who was then the chancellor of the university.
“(We) are now in a position to reflect more candidly on the Jamestown legacy,” she said. “Human progress rarely comes without cost. And those early years in Jamestown, when three great civilizations came together for the first time - Western European, Native American and African - released a train of events which continues to have a profound social impact, not only in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom and Europe.”
