Amy Sancetta, Associated Press Queen Elizabeth II chats with Prince Philip at the 133rd Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., Saturday.

By Mackenzie Carpenter
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- Tomara McCoy, a server at the upscale Trellis Restaurant in Colonial Williamsburg, hurriedly put a customer's dish on the table.

"Would you excuse me for a minute? I've got to go see the queen!" she exclaimed before dashing out the front door with most of the eatery's other employees -- and diners -- to glimpse Queen Elizabeth II's motorcade as it cruised down the town's main street en route to the College of William and Mary.

		Previous coverage Britain's Elizabeth II tours Jamestown excavation (05/06/07)

Such was the giddy reaction the 81-year old monarch's visit elicited from many of Virginia's residents last week. There was excitement about seeing a historic figure close up -- and pride, too, as if one of their own was returning home.

The queen's visit, to mark the 400th Anniversary of the nearby Jamestown settlement, is the fourth official trip she's made to this country -- amidst numerous private ones -- beginning in 1957.

Since the queen's last visit in 1991, however, there have been shifts both subtle and pronounced in the political, social and cultural relationship between the United States and Great Britain.

Of course, the queen herself has aged. During a museum tour at Jamestown, she looked lovely in a vivid teal outfit and glittery hat, but seemed quiet, almost weary -- and what 81-year old woman wouldn't after a long jet trip across the Atlantic? But she appeared genuinely interested in learning about the settlement's ongoing archaeological excavation and also smiled broadly during a ceremony in a small brick church on the site when presenting a carved Windsor chair to Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine.

"Would you like to try it out?" she asked. He did, and she was among those who joined in the laughter.

Still, it's a very different time, 16 years later.

The queen's late ex-daughter-in-law Princess Diana, a royal superstar whose celebrity elicited hysterical crowds and paparazzi wherever she went, is but a memory now, and Royal-watching in this country has faded into something more temperate, even if the tabloids still enjoy speculating on Prince William's love life and Prince Harry's prospects for seeing combat in Iraq.

Then there's the "special relationship" between the United States and British governments, which dates to World War II. Never official foreign policy, the trans-Atlantic alliance nonetheless has involved close friendships between leaders and the sharing of official secrets, although it has been complicated by the war in Iraq and strong anti-American feeling in Great Britain.

While that relationship "should never deteriorate into a situation where British policy simply becomes subservient to American policy, one of the problems with Iraq is there is a suspicion that that happened," said Lord Watson of Richmond, who was visiting the other Richmond -- in Virginia -- last week.

Americans don't seem to be taking such anti-Yank sentiments personally, at least judging by the queen's reception so far. Indeed, a current of Anglophilia still seemed to be running strongly in some parts of the country, especially in Virginia. The state's revered Thomas Jefferson may have been a Francophile, spurning all things English after the Revolution, but many state residents then and now treasure their British roots.

"It's in the genes," said Wilford Kale, a columnist for the Virginia Gazette, of Virginians' attitudes towards the queen, who drew nearly 8,000 spectators to the state Capitol Thursday in cold, rainy weather.

"There's something in the Virginia psyche that pulls it to the British monarchy," he said. "This was the most British of the colonies and it hasn't gone away," he said.

Indeed, in the New England colonies, there was a "culture of rugged individualism and an elitism based on meritocracy, whereas the South was established by royalist aristocrats who proudly traced their lineage" to the mother country, noted Carl Estabrook, an expert in British history at Dartmouth College.

"In Massachusetts they came to get away from England, while in Virginia, they came to spread English culture and commerce," added Ellen LeCompte, president of the Richmond branch of the English-speaking Union, an international organization that promotes linguistic and cultural ties between England and other countries.

On the second floor of Mrs. LeCompte's Richmond home, there is what she calls her "Royal Room," a treasure trove of books and mementoes from visits to England, as well as Royal memorabilia, including a tiny worn leather-bound prayer book from the Coronation of King George V, "which would be the first thing I'd grab if there was a fire."

Among the visitors observing Mrs. LeCompte's impressive collection of art and books was Lord Watson, a house guest of the LeComptes.

A jovial, decidedly non-stuffy sort, Lord Watson is a prominent businessman and broadcaster in the U.K. who works closely with Prince Philip in his role as chair of the Council of Commonwealth Societies, comprising representatives from the 57 countries that make up the Commonwealth of Great Britain.

He made no bones about the importance of the queen's visit to the Jamestown settlement, which celebrates "not just the crossing of the English language to the New World, but about shared values, the rule of law, habeas corpus, trial by jury, free enterprise and the rights of the individual."

Of course, those shared values would undergo severe testing during the next 400 years, noted Dr. Estabrook, even well into the 19th Century and during the Civil War, when many British leaders supported the Confederacy. Various political crises would flare up periodically until about 1895, when an obscure border dispute in Venezuela marked the last time the two countries openly clashed on foreign policy.

Still, while much is made of Winston Churchill's emphasis on the U.S.-British "special relationship," Dr. Estabrook noted that a 1939 visit to this country by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth was well-received, but it didn't change America's official policy of non-intervention in the war in Europe. The U.S. didn't fully embrace Britain until Pearl Harbor.

But since World War II, the trans-Atlantic alliance has remained in place, even though anti-Americanism in Britain "is as strong and virulent as it's ever been in my lifetime," said Lawrence Goldman, editor of Britain's Dictionary of National Biography.

Most of that feeling, he added, " is misguided, much of it a displaced psychological response to our own modernity," he said in a telephone interview from his offices at Oxford University, noting that the British "guzzle gas and waste resources just like the Americans do."

Nonetheless, throughout the decades since World War II, "our governments have consistently understood that our closest ally since the 1940s has been the U.S." and that won't change, regardless of who replaces Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is expected to announce his schedule for leaving office this week.

The queen's handlers must have also felt the time was right for a visit that would remind Britons of how beloved she is in America at a time when there's been much talk of a monarchy in crisis, said Dr. Estabrook.

"This could be a shrewd opportunity on the part of the royal handlers to give the queen some high profile press," he said. "It doesn't do her damage to consort with President Bush. She's not representing an official policy of the government, she is a delegate representing the good will of her subjects. From a strategic point of view, there's no better way to appear to appear important even if the man she's appearing with is loathed by many in Britain."

It doesn't hurt, either, that interest in the queen has been fueled by Helen Mirren's Oscar-winning portrayal of Elizabeth II in "The Queen." While the real queen has made no official comment, officials at Buckingham Palace traveling with her this week said privately they loved the film.

Lord Watson complained a bit about the actor who played Philip, "who was a cardboard caricature. The Duke of Edinburgh has a marvelous sense of humor and that wasn't captured."

Hollywood's riveting portrait of the British monarch, and the real queen's visit here, seem to underscore a continuing affection and fascination by Americans towards Great Britain that is most gratifying, said Lord Watson.

"You seem to like our accent a lot," he said, noting that once, when he bought some toothpaste and thanked the cashier, "she said, 'Ooh, I love your accent, say that again.'

"It was wonderful to be praised for that, rather like finding out you can fly, or something."

Yesterday, the queen had a finish-line vantage point for the running of the 133rd Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Ky., and was visible standing on a balcony overlooking the track.

Race fans said the queen's presence added to the event's glamour. For at least one day, they said, they were on the same footing with royalty, The Associated Press reported.