The One U.S. President That Queen Elizabeth Never Met

Joe Biden will become the 13th out of the 14 U.S. presidents to meet Queen Elizabeth II during her reign—with just one having not sat down with the monarch.

The president will be fresh out of a grueling three days of G7 meetings when he arrives at Windsor Castle for tea on Sunday.

Along with Dr. Jill Biden, he will be greeted by a Guard of Honor, the U.S. National Anthem will play and then he will sit down with the 95-year-old royal, who has seen the great leaders of his nation come and go.

The Bidens will have tea with Elizabeth at the oldest occupied castle in the world, where the monarch has been living during the coronavirus pandemic.

He will be just the fifth U.S. president invited to the historic landmark, scene of Prince Philip's funeral in April and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding in 2018.

Of the 13 U.S. leaders who came before him, only Lyndon Baines Johnson did not have an audience with the queen.

LBJ, president from November 1963 to January 1969, and the queen exchanged correspondence but neither head of state invited the other to visit.

The LBJ Presidential Library created a Twitter thread about the mystery in 2018—but staff conceded they did not know why no meeting ever went ahead.

The post read: "President Johnson and Queen Elizabeth corresponded from March 1964 to July 1967.

"Nothing serious—congratulations on births, birthday wishes, and a condolence message after the death of [Winston] Churchill.

"Queen Elizabeth never sent an invitation to President Johnson to visit Great Britain. And, President Johnson never sent an invitation to the Queen to visit the United States."

It added: "We thought that President Johnson and the Queen would have met at the memorial service of Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt (Dec 22, 1967), but they did not."

The Crown brought to life the relationship between Johnson and the royals in its somewhat fictionalized retelling of a visit that Princess Margaret made on November 17, 1965.

The meeting did happen and the Netflix series presented a very colorful version in which the queen's sister drank heartily and told rude rhymes.

According to the Washington Post, citing historians, while the evening was entertaining, it was not as "wild" as The Crown depicted.

Episode Two of Season Three, called "Margaretology," suggests Johnson rejected the queen's invites to Britain, which does not appear to be backed up by evidence.

Buckingham Palace on Thursday released plans for the queen's meeting with Biden at Windsor Castle today.

A spokesperson said: "The Queen will meet the President of the United States of America and First Lady Jill Biden at Windsor Castle on Sunday 13th June 2021.

"Her Majesty will welcome the President and the First Lady at the dais in the Quadrangle of Windsor Castle.

"Upon the President and the First Lady's arrival, a Guard of Honour formed of The Queen's Company First Battalion Grenadier Guards will give a Royal Salute, and the US National Anthem will be played.

"The President will then accompany the Officer Commanding the Guard of Honour, Major James Taylor, and Major General Christopher Ghika, to inspect the Guard of Honour, before returning to the dais to watch the military march past alongside The Queen and the First Lady.

"The President and the First Lady will then join Her Majesty for tea in the Castle."

Update 6/15/21, 10 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include further information about why Queen Elizabeth II never met President Johnson.