Portugal of the Portuguese

by Aubrey F. G. Bell

At Aljubarrota.

It was, however, in the fourteenth century that the old treaty between the countries became a definite and strong alliance. Portugal was in need of a foreign ally against her neighbour Castille, and when old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster, laid claim to the throne of Castille, a further tightening of the relations between England and Portugal indicated itself as the obvious policy. A treaty between John of Gaunt and King Ferdinand of Portugal was drawn up at Braga in 1372. It is true that eight months later Ferdinand signed a treaty of peace with King Henry II of Castille against the Duke of Lancaster and the King of England, but England continued to have many friends and partisans at the Portuguese Court, and eight years later, when Portugal was again at war with Spain, an English fleet with three thousand soldiers commanded by the Earl of Cambridge (Cambris and Cãbrix in the old Portuguese chronicles) appeared in the Tagus to the assistance of Portugal. Unhappily the English soldiers incurred the hatred of the inhabitants by their pillaging and lawless behaviour, as if they were in a hostile country. They remained in Portugal till 1383 when a fresh treaty between the Kings of Castille and Portugal turned the tables on them, and the King of Castille blandly provided ships to convey them back to England. However that might be, King Ferdinand’s successor, the Infante João, Master of Aviz, when he laid claim to the crown of Portugal, was glad enough to be able to count on the support of England, and the prosperity of his reign certainly owed something to English influence. English soldiers fought side by side with the Portuguese in the victory of Aljubarrota in 1385, and the great Nun’ Alvares evidently learnt from English soldiers the best way of making his infantry effective against cavalry. At Aljubarrota, as at Crécy and Agincourt, the infantry stood firm in close formation against vastly superior numbers, and all the efforts of the cavalry were as powerless to break them as were the French charges at Waterloo. The influence of the Earl of Cambridge and the other English commanders was great in Portugal, and when João I married an English princess in 1387, English ascendancy became supreme at the Portuguese Court. There are many indications to show how wide that influence extended. The dignity of Constable and Marshal were introduced directly from England; Nun’ Alvares, the first Constable, was deliberately a second Galahad; the chivalry of the Round Table became the incentive and fashion of the Portuguese courtiers and nobles; the royal princes were given an English education by their English mother.

Queen Philippa.

To her Portugal owes a great debt. The Portuguese chronicles admit that her children received a more careful education than was habitual at the Courts of the Peninsula, and one of these children was Prince Henry the Navigator, real founder of Portugal’s glory in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The treaty of 1308 between Portugal and England had been constantly renewed: in 1353, 1372, and 1380. After King João I’s accession it was confirmed in 1386 and 1404. The fishermen and traders of Portugal, as indeed of the whole coast as far as Bayonne, had much in common both in character and interests with the English, and even if close relations had not existed between the Courts of Portugal and England it is probable that some such treaty would have been formed as existed between Basque fishermen and King Edward II of England.

Alliance Broken Off and Renewed.

In 1470 these friendly relations were disturbed. Portuguese ships were plundered by English pirates. But actual war was avoided, and the treaty signed in 1472 lasted unbroken between Portugal and England for the next hundred years. In 1580, when Portugal came under Spanish sway, her alliance with England naturally fell to the ground, and it was actually in the harbour of the Tagus that was equipped the greater part of the Invincible Armada of 1588. Portugal, which had sometimes found England’s friendship unpleasant, when English soldiers were quartered for long periods in Portugal, and, as says an old chronicle, would kill an ox in order to eat its tongue, now experienced the very much more unpleasant consequences of the cessation of that friendship. All her coasts and all her colonies were at the mercy of her former ally’s attacks. As soon as the yoke of Spain was thrown off the Duke of Bragança as João IV sent ambassadors to England to conclude peace. A treaty was signed in January, 1643, by which many mutual privileges, both of trade and individuals, were recognised. Among other privileges of British subjects in Portugal, it was agreed that British Consuls need not belong to the Roman Catholic religion. Generally the treaty increased in a high degree the facilities of trade and commerce between the two countries. But when Cromwell came to the throne the relations between England and Portugal were not easy, in spite of the fact that they had the same enemies. In 1650, Prince Rupert and his brother Maurice took refuge in Portugal, and King João IV refused to accede to Cromwell’s demand that they should be surrendered. Two years later, however, when both Portugal and England were at war with the Dutch, the old friendship was resumed. The Conde de Penaguião was sent on a special mission to England, and in July, 1654, the treaty of 1642 was revised and renewed. Among other articles it stipulated that the English should have certain rights of trading with the Portuguese possessions in the East, and that in Portugal no British subject might be arrested without a special warrant.

At Ameixial.

The Restoration in England and the marriage of Charles II with Catharina, daughter of King João IV, drew the bond between Portugal and England still closer. In 1662 an English force was sent to Portugal to assist her in her war against Spain, and in the following year took part in the victory over Don John of Austria at Ameixial. The Spanish losses in dead, wounded, and prisoners are said to have numbered 10,000 out of a total army of 16,000. The Portuguese losses are given as 1,500 dead and wounded, and those of their allies, the French and the English, as 300 and 50 respectively. Once more, as at Aljubarrota and so many other fights, the English had contributed in some measure to secure Portugal’s independence. Charles II also helped to bring about the peace between Spain and Portugal, which was signed after many negotiations and difficulties in 1668. The English ambassadors both at Madrid and Lisbon worked persistently for peace, and the two neighbouring countries, which should never have been at war, were finally induced to accept it.

Queen Catharine’s Dowry.

A new treaty between England and Portugal had been signed seven years earlier in 1661, by which all the older treaties were confirmed. Portugal ceded Tangiers to Great Britain, as well as Bombay, and two million cruzados as dowry of the Princess Catharine. Great Britain promised to protect Portugal by land and sea, with cavalry, infantry, and ten of her best warships whenever Portugal might be attacked. Great Britain, moreover, undertook never to form a treaty with Spain which might be in any way prejudicial to Portuguese interests, never to give back Dunkirk or Jamaica to Spain, and to support the Portuguese in India against the Dutch unless the latter made peace with Portugal. At first sight the actual advantages of this treaty are all on the side of Great Britain, those of Portugal being chiefly hypothetical, but Portugal had received in the past proofs of support from England so solid that the promise of British support in the future was considered as anything but nugatory. After the Revolution in England William of Orange informed the King of Portugal of his intention to abide by the existing treaties, and accordingly King Pedro II gave no help to the exiled Stuarts, however much they might have his sympathy.