At Washington’s tomb, a British royal honors the man who kicked out the Crown

Tierney L. Cross/Reuters

On an autumn day in 1860, a bearded British man visited George Washington’s tomb at his final resting place in Virginia. While there he paused to plant a small buckeye tree. The tree would grow, and so would he, to become King Edward VII of England, King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Emperor of India.

During that humble pilgrimage, the then Prince Albert Edward, began a long tradition of members of the British royal family visiting George Washington’s Mount Vernon, a sort of reverent homage to the man who helped end British rule, and set a rot in the Empire.

Over 160 years later, on a particularly warm October day the modern Prince Edward followed his Great Great Grandfather’s tradition by laying a wreath at the tomb of Washington at his Mount Vernon home. History was repeating, ancient bonds once damaged in war, silenced, and soothed in the quiet moments after.

A group of tourists at Mount Vernon told the duke and the cluster of those associated with with Mount Vernon, that they had come from all over North America to share the moment, and themselves remake bonds broken some two and half centuries ago.

The duke is the second senior royal to go on a pilgrimage to America this year as it celebrates its 250th birthday. In part it is a reaffirmation of America’s independence by a family who felt its less-than-harmonious divorce from British rule more than any other, and a celebration of the bonds that now exist.

When King Charles III made his first visit as monarch to Washington DC earlier this year, he and US President Donald Trump highlighted the importance of the enduring “special relationship” between the US and the UK.

“Ours is a partnership born out of dispute, but no less strong for it, so perhaps, in this example, we can discern that our nations are in fact instinctively like-minded – a product of the common democratic, legal and social traditions in which our governance is rooted to this day,” the king said his speech to Congress this year.

During the duke’s visit to Virginia that “special relationship” returned to center stage. This week as a UK airbase used by the US military appeared under serious threat, Trump sang his special partner’s praises in partnering to hunt down the assumed attackers, saying the US was “working with Britain, it was an amazing job.”

However, Trump’s announcement last week that he might ban diesel exports, including to the UK — which imports one third of its diesel from the US — became a bit of a buzz kill on the base cooperation vibe. Diesel prices on UK forecourts are the highest they’ve ever been, economists are raising the alarm and the oh-so-elusive special bond is yo-yoing toward breaking point.

Christian Turner, the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to the US, who accompanied the duke as he walked in his long-dead relative’s footsteps, told CNN that these types of government issues do not affect royal visits.

“As his Majesty the King said in his address to Congress it’s really a moment to step up and back and remind us that the relationship is bigger than an ambassador, a president, a duke, a secretary of state, and it’s those ties and those connections that stretch back in history and stretch forward,” the ambassador said.

“It’s true, constitutionally, for us the monarchy is above politics so we’re not discussing day to day policy on trips like this, we’re thinking about those deeper ties and why still, after 250 years, we’re family.”

As the prince and escorts paused to enjoy a farewell stop at the Mount Vernon Whiskey tasting, there was another subtle reminder that no matter how special the bond, even shared histories lead to different places.

In this case, the spelling of the word, “Whiskey,” which in the UK is spelt with an “e” if it comes from Ireland and no “e” if it comes from Scotland.

“Technically it’s either Scottish or Irish, so you’re going to have to try and work out whether you’re going to have to spell it differently to indicate it’s over here,” the duke mused. “You could replace the ‘I’ with a ‘u’,” he quipped.

蒂尔尼·L·克罗斯/路透社

1860年秋日的一天，一位蓄着胡须的英国男子前往弗吉尼亚州，瞻仰乔治·华盛顿的陵墓。在那里，他驻足种下了一棵小小的七叶树。这棵树日渐茁壮，而他本人也最终成为英格兰国王爱德华七世、联合王国及英属领地国王、印度皇帝。

在那次谦卑的朝圣之旅中，当时的阿尔伯特·爱德华王子开启了英国王室成员参观乔治·华盛顿故居弗农山庄的悠久传统，这是一种对这位帮助结束英国统治、给帝国带来腐败的人物的崇敬之情。

160多年后，在一个格外温暖的十月天，现代的爱德华王子效仿他的曾祖父的传统，在华盛顿位于弗农山庄的墓前敬献花圈。历史正在重演，曾经在战争中受损、沉默不语的古老情谊，在战后的宁静时刻得以抚慰。

一群游客在弗农山庄告诉公爵和与弗农山庄有关的人们，他们从北美各地来到这里，是为了分享这一刻，并重建大约两个半世纪前破裂的关系。

今年是美国建国250周年，公爵是第二位前往美国进行朝圣之旅的王室高级成员。此行一方面是对美国独立的一种重申，因为与其他任何王室相比，公爵家族对美国脱离英国统治后并不和谐的局面感受尤为深刻；另一方面也是对如今两国关系的庆祝。

今年早些时候，查理三世国王首次以君主身份访问华盛顿特区时，他和美国总统唐纳德·特朗普强调了美英之间持久“特殊关系”的重要性。

“我们的伙伴关系是在争端中诞生的，但正因如此，它才更加牢固。因此，或许我们可以从这个例子中看出，我们两国实际上在本质上是志同道合的——这是我们共同的民主、法律和社会传统的产物，而我们的治理至今仍然根植于这些传统之中。”国王在今年对国会的讲话中说道。

在公爵访问弗吉尼亚州期间，这种“特殊关系”再次成为焦点。本周，当美军使用的英国空军基地似乎受到严重威胁时，特朗普盛赞他的特殊伙伴英国在追捕假定袭击者方面的合作，称美国“正在与英国合作，这是一项了不起的工作”。

然而，特朗普上周宣布可能禁止柴油出口，包括对英国的出口——英国三分之一的柴油都从美国进口——这无疑给双方的合作氛围泼了一盆冷水。英国加油站的柴油价格已达到历史最高水平，经济学家们纷纷发出警告，而那笔难以捉摸的特别债券也正徘徊在崩溃的边缘。

英国驻美国大使克里斯蒂安·特纳陪同公爵追寻他已故亲人的足迹，他告诉 CNN，这类政府问题不会影响王室访问。

“正如国王陛下在国会讲话中所说，现在正是我们挺身而出，回顾历史，提醒我们两国关系远比大使、总统、公爵、国务卿重要，正是这些历史纽带和联系，一直延续到未来，”大使说道。

“的确，从宪法角度来看，君主制高于政治，所以我们在这样的访问中不会讨论日常政策，而是思考更深层次的联系，以及为什么250年后我们仍然是一家人。”

当王子和随从们在弗农山威士忌品鉴会上稍作停留，享受告别时光时，人们又一次微妙地意识到，无论情谊多么深厚，即使是共同的历史也会将他们引向不同的方向。

在这种情况下，“Whiskey”一词的拼写，在英国，如果源自爱尔兰，则拼写中带有“e”；如果源自苏格兰，则拼写中不带“e”。

“严格来说，它要么是苏格兰语，要么是爱尔兰语，所以你得想想是不是得用不同的拼写方式来表明它是这边的，”公爵沉思道。“你可以把‘I’换成‘u’，”他打趣道。