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Portugal Anglo-Portuguese Alliance
English aid to the House of Avis set the stage for the
cooperation with England that would be the cornerstone of
Portuguese foreign policy for more than 500 years. In May
1386,
the Treaty of Windsor confirmed the alliance that was born
at
Aljubarrota with a pact of perpetual friendship between
the two
countries. The next year, John of Gaunt, duke of
Lancaster, son
of Edward III, and father of Henry IV, landed in Galicia
with an
expeditionary force to press his claim to the Castilian
throne
with Portuguese aid. He failed to win the support of the
Castilian nobility and returned to England with a cash
compensation from the rival claimant.
John of Gaunt left behind his daughter, Philippa of
Lancaster, to marry João I in order to seal the
Anglo-Portuguese
alliance. By this marriage, celebrated in 1387, João
became the
father of a generation of princes called by the poet, Luís
de
Camões, the "marvelous generation," who led Portugal into
its
golden age. Philippa brought to the court the Anglo-Norman
tradition of an aristocratic education and gave her
children good
educations. Her personal qualities were of the highest,
and she
reformed the court and imposed rigid standards of moral
behavior.
Philippa provided royal patronage for English commercial
interests that sought to meet the Portuguese desire for
cod and
cloth in return for wine, cork, salt, and oil shipped
through the
English warehouses at Porto. Her eldest son, Duarte,
authored
moral works and became king in 1433; Pedro, who traveled
widely
and had an interest in history, became regent when Duarte
died of
the plague in 1438; Fernando, who became a crusader,
participated
in the attack on Tangiers in 1437; and Henrique--Prince
Henry the
Navigator--became the master of the Order of Avis and the
instigator and organizer of the early voyages of
discovery.
Data as of January 1993
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