This entry was posted on 5/5/2007 10:01 PM and is filed under Footnotes.
Her Majesty The Queen is in the United States this week. As a royalist myself, I am pleased to fly the Union Flag outside my house to mark the occasion. When a BBC TV news report showed highlights of the Queen's speech to the audience in the Virginia State Capitol, I commented to a friend, she will soon announce that the British navy has the country surrounded and she is here to take back the colonies, my friend seemed almost to believe me - until I said it was a joke. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have made three previous State Visits to the USA: in October 1957 during events commemorating the 350th anniversary of the arrival of British settlers in the New World (at the invitation of President Eisenhower); in July 1976 for the US Bicentennial (President Ford); and in May 1991 (President Bush). Her Majesty and His Royal Highness also made an official visit to the West Coast of America in February/March 1983 (1). Her 2007 visit occurs on the eve of America’s Anniversary Weekend, the centrepiece of the 18-month international commemoration of the Jamestown settlement’s 400th anniversary (2). '[King] James [His] Towne' was established on 14 May 1607 by settlers who had set sail from Britain in three ships in search of gold and other metals (3). Seventeenth Century Britain was still on the verge of creating a world empire, but the colonisation of the New World was initially seen as a commercial venture rather than an imperial acquisition. The trouble with these kinds of early explorations was that over time the visitors tended to stay and in this case, arguably, overstayed their welcome, at least according to the native people. As the BBC reported:
Organisers of the anniversary are said to have banned the word "celebrations" in favour of commemoration. Jamie Ware-Jondrau, one of the native Americans taking part in the ceremony, said Jamestown's was a sad history. "It's not a celebration. It's a commemoration to remember all of the native people who have lost lives," she said. "It's very sad but I don't stay stuck on sad. How would you feel if a generation of your people was almost annihilated? (3). "You can't change history, it was ugly and native people died. But today is a new day."
In 2007, happily
"The Queen's programme of events is aimed at forging bonds between Britain and the US and focusing on their shared future" (3).
Indeed, the Queen has been warmly received in every location and the objectives of the trip would seem to have been achieved so far (4). As a head of state, much of HM Queen's work involves meeting other kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers and all manner of government officials. It is a job she does supremely well. In addition, she opens hospitals, bridges, parliaments and conferences; launches new ships and hosts luncheons and garden parties; confers honours, passes out the Maundy Money and carries out investitures - the numbers of activities disclosed on the British Monarchy website are very impressive (5). Some nineteen centuries before, the Roman Emperor Hadrian was doing much the same. This Spanish-born leader of the Roman world "traveled as a fundamental part of his governing, and made this clear to the Roman senate and the people" (6). While there was often a military dimension to the trips, such as to inspect frontiers and the legions guarding them,
"Hadrian's visits were marked by handouts which often contained instructions for the construction of new public buildings. Hadrian was willful of strengthening the Empire from within through improved infrastructure, as opposed to conquering or annexing perceived enemies. This was often the purpose of his journeys; commissioning new structures and projects and settlements" (6).
Hadrian's first tour began in 121CE, five years into his reign, and appears to have been aimed at allowing himself the freedom to concern himself with his general, though largely Greek, cultural aims. He travelled north and inspected the extensive Rhine-Danube frontier, allocating funds to improve the defences. Receiving news of a recent revolt, he crossed the 'German Ocean' to Britannia. It was during this trip that he commissioned the Wall that still bears his name (7). He went on to Mauretania (in 123CE), thence to the Near East as far as the Euphrates in what is now Iraq, and west to the Bithynia, the province lying next to the Black Sea. The next year he went to Anatolia (modern Turkey) and Greece, reaching Athens in 125CE. He called in to Sicily on his return to Italy. He stopped in Rome long enough to inspect the completed Pantheon and his villa complex at Tivoli, but set off again on a tour of the Italian peninsula in 127CE. The following year, not letting sickness hold him back, he made a quick trip to north Africa before returning to Italy. Hardly had he returned to Rome when he set off on another three year jaunt. In 128CE he was in Greece and in 130CE had arrived in Egypt. It was while cruising the Nile at Besa that Antinous, his sixteen year old male partner, tragically drowned. He seems he never properly recovered from that loss. By the winter of 131/132 CE he was back in Athens. Later that year, news reached him that a rebellion had broken out in Judaea under the leader Bar Kochba. The revolt dragged on for three years, during which the former province functioned as a free governing state. Hadrian's response was ruthless. Several legions were involved in quelling the insurrection and inscriptions make it clear that he took the field in person against the rebels with his army in 133CE. The consequences of that Second Jewish War were far reaching, as you can read from an earlier blog (Lessons of History: The Middle East, February 13, 2007). With that campaign under way, he returned via Illyricum, arriving in Rome in 134CE. He spent his time between business in Rome and his private villas. He died aged 62 in Baiae on July 10, 138CE. Yet
"The man who had spent so much of his life travelling had not yet reached his journey's end. He was buried first at Puteoli, near Baiae, on an estate which had once belonged to Cicero. Soon after, his remains were transferred to Rome and buried in the Gardens of Domitia, close by the almost-complete mausoleum. Upon the completion of the Tomb of Hadrian in Rome in 139 by his successor Antoninus Pius, his body was cremated, and his ashes were placed there together with those of his wife Vibia Sabina and his first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who also died in 138" (7).
No Roman emperor before or since travelled as extensively as Hadrian. When the empire passed to his successor, Antoninus Pius, it was secure and prosperous (8). The period under his stewardship had, in part, been made largely successful precisely because of his active engagement with the provinces and his curiosity to travel and see things for himself. The achievement is all the more remarkable because travel in Hadrian's day was by foot, horse and boat. Elizabeth II has certainly done her share of travel by foot, horse and boat, but modern trains, planes and automobiles make light work of long distances. The willingness of a head of state to travel bodes well for the nation he or she leads. A certain enlightenment comes from seeing other countries and experiencing first hand cultures different from one's own. It was Mark Twain who wrote "travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness" (9). Maya Angelou tempered this insight a little when she wrote
"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends" (10).
The visit of HM Queen to Virginia four centuries after the first British settlers shows how far Britain and America have come in the process of mutual understanding and developing friendship. Happy 400th anniversary, Jamestown!
