How even the great and good shook like jelly when they met the Queen

Those who were presented to the Queen often found the experience discombobulating. Though it may have been the first time they had ever set eyes on her, they were often more familiar with her face than with their own.

They knew it in profile; they knew it head-on; they had seen it refracted through the visions of countless artists and photographers. So to meet the Queen face-to-face was apt to make you feel giddy or woozy, as though a well-loved family portrait had suddenly sprung to life.

America’s First Lady first met the Queen at in 2009. ‘Sitting with the Queen, I had to will myself out of my own head – to stop processing the splendour of the setting and the paralysis I felt coming face-to-face with an honest-to-goodness icon,’ she wrote. ‘I’d seen Her Majesty’s face dozens of times before, in history books, on television and on currency, but here she was in the flesh, looking at me intently and asking questions.’