ENGLAND — Author Susan Page, who has covered Washington for decades, has published "The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History," a book detailing Queen Elizabeth II's meetings with 13 sitting U.S. presidents over her 70-year reign. The queen met with more U.S. presidents than any other American or foreign leader during that period.

Queen Elizabeth II managed the strategic relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States despite having no formal power over policy. She did not give public interviews and did not write a memoir, though she kept a diary. She received daily briefing papers and weekly top secret intelligence documents and was aware of contingency plans for nuclear war throughout her reign.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill once told her, "Stay close to the Americans." The queen's engagement with U.S. leaders began early — she knew Dwight D. Eisenhower when he was a wartime general before he became president, and her first trip to the United States occurred in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis.

The queen's relationships with individual presidents varied. She was a fan of movies and had seen Ronald Reagan acting in films before he entered politics. The two bonded over horses and met multiple times. She also met with George W. Bush several times but met with Jimmy Carter infrequently. Some members of Reagan's administration opposed supporting Great Britain during the Falklands War.

The queen also met with President Donald Trump during his first presidential term. Trump said that one of his earliest childhood memories was watching the queen's coronation on television at age six while sitting next to his mother. On the day Trump arrived in England, the queen wore a brooch that had been given to her by Michelle Obama. She had first worn the brooch at a reciprocal state dinner with Barack and Michelle Obama but had not worn it again for seven years until Trump's arrival.