The Queen

[Obo]

I was once told that the Queen (or reigning monarch) is only allowed to visit countries outside of the Commenwealth once during her reign... can anyone tell me if this is true?

[ravenhair]

Complete nonsense - as she spends most of her life gadding about, the chances are she racks up plenty of visits to lots of countries. And in any case, "allowed" by whom? Who or what would stop her? Britain has no constitution, remember, and it's not going to be passed by law.

[Obo]

That's what I thought, she does spend her whole time "gadding" about, but to the best of my knowledge only to Commenwealth countries. I happened to be in Moscow when the Queen made her only ever visit there a few years ago which is when I was told this and it got me thinking, when was the last time she went to France or the US...? Canada and Australia maybe. Regarding allowed by whom again I agree with you Ravenhair who would stop her? Maybe there's some international agreement or some archaic law who knows? Someone must!

[ravenhair]

Aaahhh . . . I'm intrigued now. Time to interrupt work for some critical Internet surfing. Will see what I can find.

[sep41999]

Completely true! As you can imagine, she is not allowed to got to France, especially when she opened the tunnel (she was only allowed to stay on the English side). She has also never been to Greece, Germany, Spain etc to see her in-laws. Who told you that? What an appalling load of rubbish!

[Obo]

sep41999, you may of misread my question, I am not suggesting that she has never visitied these countries only that she has only visited them once as ruling monarch. I too find it hard to believe and suspect it to be rubbish but having been told it am waiting for actual evidence to the contrary. Einstein do you have details of the Queen's multiple trips to the US or maybe a link to somewhere which details the Queen's foreign trips?

[geofbob]

Obo: Don't forget that it's not just for the Queen or her advisors to decide that she should go somewhere. State visits are arranged at the invitation of the host country; and they are usually a reciprocal arrangement with the opposite Head of State visiting Britain at some point. And of course; there are hundreds of countries who possibly would like the Queen - as the UK Head of State - to visit them. So it would not be surprising if the Queen had not made more than one official visit to most countries.