As I understand it, during the early days of the United States a common person could go to the President’s home in Washington DC and ask to speak with the President. Whether this happened often or not I can’t say, but I believe it wasn’t uncommon.
My sense is that this level of informality with regard to meeting a world leader didn’t exist in other countries. For example, what kind of access did a commoner have to the King or Queen of England in the 1700 or 1800’s?
Could I, as a commoner, go to London and arrange an audience with the reigning monarch or would that have been virtually impossible? My sense is that royalty kept a fair distance from common folk except under fairly unusual circumstances. Is that accurate, or was English royalty more accessible in the past?
Constitutionally the great unwashed may speak to the monarchy through Parliament, and MPs and Lords all have a personal and collective right to ask the Queen’s attention.
Any private citizen may also submit petitions to the Queen, too. Under the Bill of Rights, no person may be punished for petitioning the monarch. The American colonists exercised this right in 1774.
In terms of personal visitation I am unsure. My instincts tell me that in theory it was a right for any citizen (i.e. not a serf or indentured servant) to beg an audience with the King, but in practice the King could safely bat away such requests unless he was feeling generous. But audiences from Parliament were serious matters.
I think you’re overestimating access to the President.
Early on, there was an “open house” at the white house to celebrate the new President’s inauguration. This stopped before 1900. Andrew Jackson’s party was criticized for allowing too many commoners and being too wild. Maybe that’s the kind of thing you’re thinking of?
It certainly wasn’t an ongoing open house, and I am sure that the President of any era was a pretty busy guy. I suppose that back in the days before cars and planes made long distance travel easy, it would have created a natural limitation on the number of random people stopping by.
Until the last century US presidents held regular days open for shaking hands with good-wishers and nutters; particularly the New Year’s until 1932 — Hoover, an introvert, got sick of shaking 6000 hands a day; but in the course of his regular duties a president wags the hands of 65k people a year If the President shakes between 100 and 250 hands a day (average of 175), that means he meets an average of 64,875 people a year. And that means he meets an average of 255,500 people in the course of a four year term.
Still, before the 19th century and barely so for another 100 years monarchs had very inadequate guards — unless you were planning to kill them ( same goes for the presidents until say, WWII as attested by those slain in office ) — it wouldn’t be that difficult to get close. There were a lot more servants and serving gentry than actual guards with weapons.
Counting George III as a monarch, he spoke to farmers and all sorts of respectable citizens ( and dodgy aristocrats ) very simply and affably all the time; a very poor person might be herded away unless he was presenting a petition; but how many homeless people can enter the White House now ?
And of course, there were the constraints of existence to stop a monarch from being pestered by too many people. In George’s time there were at least 12 million Britons. No-one could talk to them all individually, even for a few seconds.
However, counting servants and huntsmen and grooms and and soldiery during war and people being presented at court a monarch would meet a fair amount of common folk.
When my wife and I went to Jordan, we had an appointment to see the Minister of Health, and there were several “commoners” in the waiting room. It was explained to us that every day, the king’s ministers set aside some time to hear the grievances of any citizen willing to wait all day to see him. Whether or not King Hussein did, I do not know, but I strongly suspect that he did. He was that kind of guy.
The first three Georges held public levees (for men) and drawing rooms (for both sexes). Those weren’t restricted by rank or office. But they were restricted by dress. Anyone turning up wearing the right (i.e. very expensive) clothes would usually get to be in the same room as the King. They might also get the chance to speak to him, although that usually depended on knowing someone important who could introduce you. But any conversation would be just polite chitchat and it’s not as if any of the Georges were great conversationalists anyway.
Also, the frequency of such events fluctuated wildly across the decades. George II made a special effort to be more visible than his father, especially while Queen Caroline was still alive and, even more importantly, when he was at odds with Prince Frederick. For obvious reasons, they ceased to be held at all as George III’s reign progressed. They were revived again in the nineteenth century and even lingered on into the twentieth century, although by then the rules for attendance had been tightened up.
There were other occasions when others could get close to them. They walked in the royal gardens and in the London parks. Although they had escorts, it wasn’t completely impossible for ordinary people to approach them with petitions. But, again, you couldn’t expect an extended chat with them.
In Britain there was no direct equivalent of the French tradition whereby each Monday morning any subject could place a letter or petition on the table in the Antichambre du Grand-Couvert at Versailles and know that it would be read by the King. But anyone could turn up at the offices of the King’s ministers in London and hand in a letter or petition. That probably stood a slightly better chance of getting a result than writing today to the White House or No. 10. But, then as now, it was knowing the right people that made the real difference.
I think that is a Middle Eastern/Arabic thing. I’ve read articles describing the Saudi royals doing this sort of thing, perhaps in a tent out in the desert.
Within the last 25 years a friend of mine met and spoke with the king of Sweden at a stamp dealer’s convention. They were both active collectors. Until my friend mentioned that, I was unaware that Sweden even had a king.
The Swedish kings, at least recent ones, have been famously accessible. I’ve read stories that the current king’s father was in the habit of riding around town on a bicycle and hanging out in public parks. But the current king isn’t allowed to do that any more because of security concerns.
Olof Palme was the PM of Sweden who was murdered about thirty years ago while walking back to the movies. So that might be one reason that Sweden has security concerns.
If you are on public transport, particularly in Sydney’s eastern suburbs there a better than zero chance you might find yourself seated next to Australia’s current prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
Gawd knows what his security detail thinks about it.
President Grant regularly walked from the White House to the Willard Hotel and sat in the lobby. The people who approached him in time were referred to as lobbyists. So the story goes.