Dan Snow's History Hit - England & Portugal: The Oldest Alliance in the World

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

If you’re enjoying a glass of port during the festive period, you have the world’s oldest treaty to thank.Winston Churchill once described the Anglo-Portuguese alliance as ‘without parallel in world history.’ Forged in the backdrop of the Hundred Years War 650 years ago, the alliance is the oldest in the world.In this episode Dan explores the medieval roots of this diplomatic friendship, which has benefitted both nations politically, culturally, and commercially.Hear why John of Gaunt travelled to an unassuming town outside Porto to lay the foundations of the alliance in the 1300s, and find out how often the treaty’s been invoked in the six centuries since. From the hills of Porto to west London, Dan and the History Hit team uncover the incredible history of the world's oldest alliance.Produced and mixed by Mariana Des Forges and Charlotte Long. Special thanks to Portugal-UK 650, Maria Joao Rodrigues de Araujo, and the City Council of Vizela.Don’t miss out on the best offer in history! Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 for 3 months with code BLACKFRIDAY sign up now for your 14-day free trial https://historyhit/subscription/.Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.We'd love to hear from you! You can email the podcast at [e-mail] can take part in our listener survey here.

Welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. Now this is a classic pub quiz trivia question, you'll have heard it before, but let's see if you remember the answer. With which country has England, now the UK, enjoyed the longest period of being allies? You might think it could be the USA, all of that talk of special relationships, lots of collaboration stretching back. Once we sorted out our few little differences in the early 19th century, you might think it was the Swedes, but you'd be wrong. Because the UK's oldest ally is in fact Portugal. England and Portugal signed a military alliance way back in 1373,

which makes it England and the UK's oldest treaty and the oldest standing military alliance in the world as well. 650 years old and still going strong. The alliance has been invoked time and again through the Hundred Years' War, when Portugal was occupied by its Spanish neighbours, the Napoleonic Wars and even the great world wars of the 20th century. So in today's episode, we're going to delve into the story of this great alliance, two medieval heavyweights forging a strategic bond,

which benefited both nations politically, culturally, commercially, militarily. In this episode, I'm joined by history producer charlotte long she's uncovering the medieval origins of this alliance and that's the story of two men with a claim to the castilian throne john of gaunt son of the king of england and the king of portugal and they joined forces to fight their common enemy henry ii of castileile. Charlotte Long travels to Tegild, a small incongruous town just outside Porto, where the first treaty document of this mighty alliance was signed, as well as Porto itself, which became a lucrative place for British traders for centuries. So if you're a port drinker, you have this treaty to thank. Meanwhile, I'm going to the National Archives back in London

to the actual treaty for myself. Between us and a host of expert guests, including medieval historian Dr Jenny Benham and head of medieval records at the National Archive, Dr Sean Cunningham, history is marking the 650th anniversary of this treaty, the beginning of the Anglo-Portuguese alliance, the oldest in the world. Please enjoy, or as I should say, por favor, a province. war with one another again. And liftoff, and the shuttle has cleared the tower. England in the 14th century was having a reasonably tough time, to say the least. The country was at war, there was social unrest, there were raids along the Channel Coast, and there was a global pandemic. From 1337 to 1453, England was at war with France, as you know, nearly continuously.

A few territorial disputes, a few dynastic arguments, known as the Hundred Years' War. 1346 saw the Battle of Crecy, which was a great English success. It rocked the European order, shocked the leaders of Europe, who watched as a small, disciplined English force fought on foot to overwhelm the finest cavalry on the continent. At home in England there was family dispute within the ruling dynasty as ever with those Plantagenets absolutely always falling out with each other and there was inevitable bickering with the church over the ecclesiastical settlement.

England was hit like all European countries with a devastating outbreak of what was called the Black Death, a plague that wiped out probably a third of Europe's population and destroyed economies, communities and rocked the social order. The aftermath of the plague saw a shortage of labour, spiralling costs and eventually full-scale revolt. So safety saves a lot going on. But some of the change was not necessarily for the worst. You see arguably the emergence of a more powerful sort of middle class, if you like, a gentry class in England. You see great literature being written and architecture reaching new heights, literally. It was a time of technological change, the hourglass, some mechanical clock spins come in, and gunpowder weapons.

Trade, which was responsible for bringing the Black Death to England, was also responsible for generating economic activity within Europe. There were trade routes right along the coast, carried in ships along the Atlantic seaboard, into the Baltic and the Mediterranean region as well. along the Atlantic seaboard, into the Baltic and the Mediterranean region as well. And Europe was teetering on the edge of ocean-going maritime discovery. It was on the horizon. The sea was becoming ever more important.

And both England and Portugal, right out on the edge of Western Eurasia, were both looking for partners and allies. In the case of Portugal, let's wind it back a bit. In the 8th century, Muslims had sailed from North Africa, hopped across the Narrows, arrived in southern Iberia, and took control of nearly all what is now Portugal and Spain. In Arabic, this was this area known as Al-Andalus. And the region joined the extraordinary Umayyad Empire, which stretched from here all the way across Central Asia

and prospered under Muslim rule. The so-called Moors were reasonably tolerant of other religions and Jews, Christians, Muslims were able to live alongside each other. It's believed that by the 10th century around half the population of Iberia was Muslim. But humans being what they are, it didn't take long for people to try and wrest Al-Andalus back from its occupiers. There was a series of wars over centuries as Christian warlords and rulers tried to grab back Iberian territory. They often had the help of so-called crusaders from other nations. English crusaders had given their support to the Portuguese King Alfonso I in 1147 and he'd managed to capture Lisbon from the Moors. By the beginning

of the 14th century much of Portugal had been recovered from Muslim control and now Catholic Portugal continued to consolidate itself as an independent kingdom. This Portugal was as you might expect very jealous of its sovereignty determined to protect its newfound independence and it was quick to move against any new would-be aggressor or conqueror. And the next great challenge to Portugal came from very close at hand. The kingdom of Castile was growing ever more dominant in what is now Spain and Portugal was getting nervous. King Ferdinand I turned to England and its royal family as a logical ally, someone he could depend upon. Edward III and his son John of Gaunt did not want to see

Portugal swallowed up by its neighbour. That neighbour, Castile, had signed an alliance with France in 1369 and that had caused consternation in England. The English and the French were at each other's throats much the 14th century. There were short uneasy periods of peace and then lengthy costly wars. And by signing an alliance with Castile the French had just signed up one of the largest and most effective fleets in Western Europe. If the French could deploy Castilian sea power into the channel against England it could be terminal. So Edward III and his son, John of Gaunt, look to Portugal, Castile's western neighbour and competitor, as a logical step to counter this threat. Charlotte Long picks up the story in Tagil, in Portugal.

I'm just walking up the road towards a church in the small town of Tejild, which is a quiet town of about 2,000 people situated in the north of Portugal, about an hour drive from Porto. It's a muggy overcast day and it's 11 o'clock in the morning and I've been here about five minutes and I haven't seen any other sign of life yet and the church in front of me at the top of the hill looks like the oldest building in the town. It's surrounded by fairly modern looking residential homes and there's no way if you were driving through you'd know that this spot holds such huge significance in Anglo-Portuguese history as it was here 651 years ago. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and the son of King Edward III of England and King Ferdinand I

of Portugal began the oldest diplomatic alliance between two nations that is still in force. You'd think a treaty uniting two such mighty nations would have been signed in the corridors of power in great palaces or parliament buildings of London or Lisbon, not in a sleepy small town in the hills of the north of Porto. I wanted to find out more so I spoke with medieval historian Dr. Jenny Benham to find out more about the alliance that bonded England and Portugal in this century of change and why they chose Tejil. My name is Dr. Jenny Benham. I'm a reader in medieval history. So the Treaty of Tejil, in terms of where it sits, in terms of the kind of history and the origins of the Anglo-Portuguese alliance. So the Treaty of Tegild is perhaps the first kind of official political statement that there was a kind of wish to be seen as the kind of as the first time that there had been moves around this area. Because we know already in the 12th century that there were connections between Portugal and

England. And then these just got larger and larger as we go into the 13th and then the early 14th century. And in fact, we know that in 1353, for example, many of these contacts then became formalized in kind of one of the first commercial treaties. And we know that this commercial aspect is one of the things that really underpins the alliance between England and Portugal. And then the Treaty of Tegild is really the first time that there is a kind of political statement, shall we say. And because it's not, one might think, official, because the Treaty of Togil is, of course, not concluded between the King of England and the King of Portugal, but it is concluded between the King of England's son, John of Gaunt. And so it's not official in that sense.

And it's one of the reasons why people are perhaps less aware of the Treaty of Togil than where it sits in the kind of history, the long history of the Anglo-Portuguese alliance. But it is nonetheless, perhaps what one would think as the kind of the first kind of real statement of intent with regards to the alliance itself. So can you give us a bit more about the context of what was going on in England and Portugal at the time? The Hundred Years' War is going on in the background. But why was the King of England's son doing these negotiations? What was John of Gaunt doing as part of the whole thing? Yes, so England at the time is involved in what we think of as the Hundred Years' War, which was, of course, a war with France. And although it was a war between England

and France and the kings of England and France. It was a war that was actually involving pretty much the whole of Europe. And people were kind of allying themselves in lots of different ways and providing support in many different ways. And as a consequence, one of the other kingdoms that became involved was the kingdom of Castile. And England and France are interested in having Castile on their side, and they're both making overtures to Castile. And England and France are interested in having Castile on their side, and they're both making overtures to Castile for a long time at this period. And as part of that, John of Gaunt, who is the son of the English king, marries the daughter of one of the kings of Castile. And in fact, at that point, the previous king of Castile had just been murdered. So the father of

John of Gaunt's bride had just been murdered. There is a new king of Castile on the throne, Enrique Trastamara. And as a consequence, John of Gaunt then has a claim to the Castilian throne by virtue of being the husband of the daughter of the previous king. And so he then makes this kind of overture and this play to really become involved in this Iberian political struggle that is going in that mainly concerns Castile. But of course, the King of Portugal also has a claim to Castile. And so there is a number of individuals that are kind of vying for power in this particular area. And so John O'Gourmet is one of the political players. The King of Portugal is another one. And then there is then the kind of incumbent, which is Enrique Trastamara.

And that's how all of this comes about. In fact, John O'Gourmet, a little bit earlier in 1372, he had actually asked for the insignia of Castile to be incorporated into his own kind of royal insignia. And I think this is very important, the visual symbol of what he is and his status as a lord and his power. And he's had that incorporated into his own arms as the Duke of Lancaster. So it becomes very important because it's very clear that he's taken his claim to the Kingdom of Castile actually quite seriously. John of Gaunt is, he's the son of the King of England, but he's also a very powerful man in his own right. Why was he so influential?

And what power did he have over the English throne? Yeah, so John of Gaunt is indeed a very powerful man in his own right. So he's the Duke of Lancaster, which is effectively the sort of second most powerful man in the Kingdom of England. If we think about the person at the top is, of course, the King of England, and then he has a son who is his heir. And then John of Gaunt is effectively the next person in the tree as it is. And the Duchy of Lancaster has kind of got huge land holdings and he is someone that can command large resources himself. And of course, having the ear of the king, that is extremely important too. So in order to kind of raise resources, to raise troops and so on and so forth,

that then becomes really important. And Kingland is a rich kingdom at the time. And that then absolutely helps John O'Gorn. Militarily, he has also been someone who's kind of been out on campaigns and he's been successful. He's been involved in the Hundred Years' War. So he is someone that in a lot of ways has a lot of power himself and a lot of experience of doing many things. Quite a capable individual, I would say. So if John of Gaunt and the King of Portugal both had claims to the throne of Castile, what's the reasoning behind them both joining forces?

How would they decide who would take the throne eventually? Yes, so it's an interesting one, I think. The King of Portugal, I think, realises quite early on that he doesn't perhaps have the greatest support in order to, or the kind of, the forces behind him and the kind of the greatest alliances behind him in order to be able to make a real stake to the claim of Castile himself. And also his dynastic links are slightly weaker also than that of someone like John of Gaunt. Of course, the person with the best claim is, of course, Enrique Trasomara, because he is the actual king.

And if you are the person that is actually holding the throne, then you, of course, are always in the best position. And so as a consequence, John of Gaunt makes overtures to the king of Portugal in order to get the King of Portugal on his side as a way of kind of building up his own strength to this kind of claim to the Castilian throne. So I think it's a question of that the King of Portugal, he just simply doesn't have quite the same power behind him. He doesn't have the same alliances and the same kind of resources behind. And that is definitely a reason for him. And I think part of it, I mean, depending on which one of the chronicles that you want to believe, he has also got some problems that are internal to Portugal. So for instance, this marriage with

his wife, Leonor Telles, is alienating part of his own court. And this then kind of puts him in a kind of tricky position. And so this makes his alliance with John O'Gaunt more important to him personally. And so there are reasons for both sides to kind of ally against Enrique Trastamara in order to get someone who has a genuine claim to the Castilian throne. Do we know why Tjild? Because I went there earlier this year and it seems like quite a random choice to be chosen as the place to forge

the treaty. Do we know why Tejild was chosen? Yeah, so this is really connected to what was happening inside Portugal at the time. This is relating to the king of Portugal's kind of internal trouble and his kind of marriage politics. And he wants to marry Leonor, who is the daughter of a courtier at the Portuguese court. And one of the things that she is already married, and so it's all quite messy as to how this is to be done. But if one is to believe the chronicler, he's apparently in love with her. And that's how this kind of comes about. But Leonor Telles is already married. She abandons that kind of marriage in order to marry the king of Portugal. And what they do is that they actually turn up close to Tagild. And so it is at that point, this marriage has been, the wedding has kind of been going on. And Tajild, of course, very interesting,

it's quite close to the border. And so this is something that we know also about other kind of conferences between rulers, for example, that very frequently they are quite close to the border. So Tajild is a kind of ideal location in lots of different ways, both because it's close to where these marriage negotiations and the wedding feasts and so on has been taking place and it's also close to the border where John of Gaul has been kind of stationing troops and so on and so forth so it kind of completely makes sense. And at the time England and Portugal were both very powerful and affluent empires. Could you tell us why they were so powerful? Yeah, so England has been one of the most powerful kingdoms in Europe for quite a long time at this point. It is, of course,

we talk of it as Kingdom of England, but it also has claims not only to the throne of France, but to very large landed areas within France. And it has ruled many of those landed areas for a very long period by the time we get into the 14th century. So England is a much expanded kingdom from what we think of it as today. And it has huge kind of sway and it has large number of alliances and that makes it a pretty powerful player. And its commerce makes it rich. It has textiles, for example. The wool trade is really starting to kind of become extremely important. And he has alliances to facilitate very many of these things. And he makes it a pretty rich and pretty powerful kingdom in the 14th century. And Portugal, by contrast, is a kingdom that has had

fortunes that have come and gone, shall we say, struggling to make its way into a kind of independent kingdom away from more powerful neighbours, such as Castile, for example. But what it does have is a very strong commercial aspect to it. And that is, of course, one of the most fortunate things for it, because that commerce then makes it a valuable ally to other kingdoms, such as that of England, for example. And that commercial treaty of 1353 that I mentioned earlier is a big part of that, because that treaty, which is not actually concluded by the Portuguese king, it is concluded by the towns, it says that it's concluded by the towns and cities and more powerful neighbours, such as that of the king of Castile.

So England and Portugal would be trading with each other with lots of different commerce, you mentioned wool, but what was Portugal sending to England? And is it right that the king of England made a treaty before the Treaty of De Gilles, which allowed ships to pass through without any obstruction? Yes, absolutely. So this is about free passage, both of men and also so this is what we think of in the modern world as free movement of people effectively, and then also to have toll free trade. And it can be anything from things like olives, things that are coming from further afield in the Mediterranean also, and also Africa, I should say, as well.

So there are a number of things that are coming from Portugal at this particular time. But what's interesting about the commercial treaty is that it encompasses both goods as well as men. So that indicates also that it's people that are moving as well as services, as well as goods themselves. Last question. You mentioned this treaty, the Treaty of De Gilles, is one of the four treaties which sort of make up the basis of this whole Anglo-Portuguese alliance. Could you go over the four treaties briefly, what they are and their significance? So we can see the origins of the Anglo-Portuguese alliance in terms of treaties. We can see it originating with four of them. So the first is the 1353 Commercial Treaties. This is the one that is concluded between England and a number of towns and cities

and the good men, le bon gens, of Portugal for free passage of their men and their goods and so on. And then we get the statement in 1372, the political kind of intent, statement of intent, between John of Gaunt, who is a claimant to the throne of Castile, and the Portuguese King Ferdinand. And that is the first time that they are kind of setting out that they are going to be ally and that they will support each other against enemies, whatever those might be, and

come to each other's aid if needed. And then that particular statement is then renewed in 1373 between Ferdinand of Portugal and now the English king, Edward III. And again, this particular alliance very clearly says that they are going to be allies against all others. So confirming that this is the kind of deterrence element of it, an extension. So although John of Gaunt is extremely powerful, he is only Duke of Lancaster in England and King of Castile, whereas now this treaty is extending for the whole of England as well as the whole of Portugal. So this is a real kind of statement of intent. And then the fourth treaty is the one that comes in 1386. This is the treaty that is known as the Treaty of Windsor. And in this particular

treaty, we get the two main elements of this. So both the political statement that we are going to be allies and that we are going to support each other and in case anyone kind of attacks us, and then also the commercial aspects of it. So the Treaty of Windsor of 1386 is the one that incorporates all the aspects of it, whereas the previous three treaties kind of have aspects of this built in different ways. Winston Churchill once described the Anglo-Portuguese alliance as without parallel in world history and in the last 650 years it has been invoked on both sides a number of times. Not long after the Treaty of Tijild was signed, the Portuguese called upon their new allies for help. King Ferdinand I, who'd instigated the treaty, died on 23 October 1383, throwing Portugal into a future of uncertainty. And before he

was even cold in his grave, his son-in-law, the Castilian King John I, started stripping away Portuguese independence in favour of political and dynastic union with Castile. Those who were determined to ensure Portugal's independence looked to Ferdinand's brother, John of Avize, to take up the mantle of Portugal's protector, and resistance quickly escalated into civil war. Desperate for outside military help, he sent ambassadors to England to request permission to recruit soldiers there. And while on English shores, the Portuguese ambassador managed to rally a modest 800 troops. Though relatively small in number, these soldiers played a crucial role in the eventual defeat

and withdrawal of Castilian forces from Portugal, particularly in the Battle of Alhubirota on the 14th of August, 1385. Over the years, the treaty was strengthened. It was ratified and slightly updated in 1386, becoming known as the Treaty of Windsor. And later, the marriage of Philippa, daughter of the Duke of Lancaster, to John I of Portugal in 1387 added a crucial dynastic element to the alliance between the two kingdoms, strengthening it further. The treaty has remained solid for six centuries now and, as Dan mentioned, has even been invoked several times in the 20th century. Although Portugal remained technically neutral in the Second World War, it still allowed British ships to refuel in Portuguese ports, while Portuguese planes participated in the

reconnaissance missions for the Atlantic convoys. Also in 1943, Portugal agreed to British and American Air Force squadrons being stationed in the Azores. Forty years later, these bases were again requested during the Falklands War in 1982. Dan went to the National Archives in London to meet Dr Sean Cunningham, the head of medieval records there, to see the centuries-old original treaties in real life, the ones that were signed at Tijild and Windsor. I'm Matt Lewis. And I'm Dr. Eleanor Janaga. And in Gone Medieval, we get into the greatest mysteries. The gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research from

the greatest millennium in human history. We're talking Vikings, Normans, kings and popes who were rarely the best of friends, murder, rebellions and crusades. Find out who we really were by subscribing to Gone Medieval from History Hit wherever you get your podcasts. Sean, how's it going? Hello, Dan. So you're just laying out all these wonderful documents on the table here? Yes, we've got a whole load of materials linked to the alliance with Portugal, how the treaties were formed up, but also how people behaved as a result of the treaty being in place. This one is the centrepiece. Tell me through the one that's right in front of us now.

We've got a beautiful seal there, a red wax seal. It sets out the terms of the agreement. There's a rather long preamble, which kind of rehearses the friendship and why this is happening. And then you get to the clauses about what's actually going to be enforceable. And what are the – at the heart of it, what is it? Is it my enemy's enemy is my friend? Is it trying to get at the French and the Castilians? Or is it about trade? What's going on? Yeah, I think it is about that ability to call on your friend to help you. And it would be through maritime help mainly. But it's also about invading territory and coming to the support of your ally, because obviously the English are

fighting in the southwest of France to preserve the Gascony and Aquitaine lands. Right. So, because when you think about Edward III as king of England, in fact, some of his richest territory is what is now southwest France, around Bordeaux, Gascony. They were quite close neighbours, really. That's right. And it's protecting those sea routes because obviously you're delivering soldiers to Bordeaux, but you've also got the wine trade. And then this extends it down the coast of Spain and Portugal. And at this time, you're getting a kind of slightly more expansive connection

through Canary Islands and Muir Azores. So there's a growing kind of maritime importance to this. It's leapfrog diplomacy. So, the French are friends with the Scots and the English are friends with the Portuguese. It makes sense. And you think that might be a modern thing? You know, thinking about the First World War and how alliances drew powers into the conflict, but actually this is much the same in the Hundred Years' War as well. There's some beautiful illustrations on this one as well. So, these documents were, well, they were very grand. Were they supposed to be seen by people? I don't think they were meant to be publicly shown as items. They were meant to be certainly

preserved as treasures. So, these were all kept in the treasury in Westminster Abbey's cloister, mainly, in a very secure chapel of the Picts, you might have seen already. So, these were, you know, the highest form of international have seen already. So, these were the highest form of international agreement between kings as people, but also the nations they represented. So, in that sense, it's committing the whole resources of a country to uphold this agreement that two individuals have made. So, they have to be preserved for that reason. It's in Latin, in medieval handwriting, and therefore, I am unable to penetrate its prose. Tell me what it says. This sets out how it shall be drawn out and then the detail of what's being agreed. So,

you've got three main clauses. So, the first one is that from this day forwards, King Edward of England and King Ferdinand of Portugal and their successors and their kingdoms in all their lands and territories will be faithful friends, faithful and true friends. They shall henceforth reciprocally be friends to friends and enemies to enemies and shall ever assist, maintain and uphold each other mutually by land and sea against men who may live or die of whatever dignity, station, preeminence or condition. So the standard kind of high level. Very flowery, very nice. Definitely friends.

And then a bit more practical stuff. So neither party shall form friendships with the enemies of the other. So basically you're committed now to not be friends with our enemies. You're friends with us only. And obviously negotiations over that. And then it's basically about if other territories are invaded.

This is really setting the scene for the future because obviously they're expecting maritime connections to be the basis of this. So in the future, any invasions will be able to call on their allies to supply ships and men or money for them to recruit mercenaries to defend themselves. Is this the kings playing nice to each other or does this matter on the ground? kings playing nice to each other? Does this matter on the ground? If I'm a mariner and I'm in Lisbon and some taxman comes on and tries to give me a hard time or impounce on my sailors or goods, do you think I can say, hang on, mate, we've got a treaty? This is where we know that people were aware of the high-level diplomacy working because you see petitions over piracy, shipwreck, confiscation of goods, misunderstandings often, but because they wouldn't necessarily know the difference between a Spanish, a Portuguese, or a French ship on the high seas, grab it

first, ask questions later. When people actually say, look, we're Portuguese, we're the king's friends, you see that reflected back in petitions, in responses of the king to complaints to the council or to the king directly. So, people knew about it. They had repositioned their activity maybe because of the alliance, there might have been slightly more trade or an increased kind of willingness to connect with Southampton or Bristol. So, in that sense, the treaty propels more connection because it's realizing an agreement, it's acknowledging the existing trade, but it's also encouraging a lot more. But this one document is not the reason we're still friends, is it? I mean, presumably,

this has to get reissued and relitigated every generation, really, every so often. Absolutely. A lot of the collection we have here linked to the treaty, the subsequent negotiations, the powers for ambassadors to negotiate the drafts and the copies and the exchanged versions of how this evolves, but it actually doesn't depart too much from the core clauses here. And that's still being kind of implemented today, I guess. The Treaty of Windsor in 1386 is the last great sort of change in evolution of this. But this is the first national treaty, Richard II renegotiates it. And that's the one that was kind of constant for the next four centuries or so. And when, say, for example, in the Napoleonic Wars, the Portuguese call on Britain to step in and help defend Portugal, would they have referenced these treaties?

Yeah, I think that's exactly what the treaty was intended to do, to be a basis for action. And it wasn't really the case that it was called upon very often, but that Peninsular War was the great time of activating almost what it had been stored up to do for 300 years since it was first agreed. Geography makes us natural allies. We're both on the very western tip of Europe.

We've both got big old superpowers next door. We've got a band together. It's about the sea, really. That's really what drives this forward. So there would always have been trading links with them. Is it wine? What's going on? Olives? What's the big thing? Yeah, we see in the things that are arriving, certainly in the accounts of shipwrecks and piracy, a lot of it is wine, a lot of it is

Algarve wine and sugar, and also figs and raisins. So, we can think of thousands of barrels of ingredients for English fine cooking coming in. A lot of white wine, actually. And it's later on you get the port wine trade in the 17th century. And some of these records show how deeply established that was by the mid-18th century. Shipping back the best English wool. Yes. So it's a good exchange of high-quality products. Thank you very much. That was great.

Thank you. Great for you to come down and see these things. Back in the present, with other political and military alliances around, like NATO, the UN, the G7, this treaty could feel like a relic of the past, lost among these more important and contemporary global relationships. But even today, those trading partnerships, predating the alliance itself and strengthened by it, still bears fruit for both nations. As Sean mentioned, Portuguese wine was the hottest commodity in the 17th century and it's still pretty drinkable in the 21st. If you've ever been to Porto and you walk down the Juro River on the side of the upper town where Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, once fought the French

but that's a separate podcast, you will see it today lined with restaurants, cafes and buskers but you look to the other side of the river and you see lots of historic red-tiled warehouses, all of them belonging to the port companies right up the hillside. And at night, their many signs light up portos downtown. Most of them are British. I'm Matt Lewis. And I'm Dr. Alan Orjanaga. And in Gone Medieval, we get into the greatest mysteries,

the gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research from the greatest millennium in human history. We're talking Vikings, Normans, kings and popes, who were rarely the best of friends, murder,

rebellions, and crusades. Find out who we really were by subscribing to Gone Medieval from History Hit wherever you get your podcasts. Graham's. Coburn's, Taylor's. Adrian Bridge is CEO of Taylor's Port,

whose warehouse is one of the oldest of the founding porthouses in the city. They've been making fortified wine in the same spot since 1692. So my name is Adrian Bridge. I am the chairman and CEO of an organization called the Flatgate Partnership, probably better known through our leading brand, Taylor's Port, which has been trading from Portugal to Britain for the last 331 years. This is a very important 650th Treaty of Perpetual Friendship, which dealt with a number of aspects. Trade and connection between the two countries was hugely important. Indeed, our own companies started with the export of British wool being traded back for port wine from the Douro Valley.

I think one of the advantages of being a family company with 330 years of history is we tend to look beyond some of the short-term challenges to the bigger picture and certainly that was true if we go back to the peninsular war when you know we were occupied by in the france the french the french napoleonic forces were here we actually one of our wineries in the dura was used by the duke of wellington as a field hospital. The reason, apparently not, was that it was full of great port. It was because there was a natural spring in the winery that was producing about five barrels of water a day, and that was needed for the field hospital.

So, you know, at those moments, perhaps, of a French invasion, when all looked a little bit bleak, we could look beyond it. When we look to more recent political upheavals, you know, there's a time of adjustment and we kind of look beyond that and feel that it will get adjusted. If we pick out specific moments, clearly, you know, Brexit has happened at a time when with the global pandemic, there was an awful lot of other change. But, you know, I feel confident that the relationship, you know, will continue to thrive. We'll continue to sell fine port in Britain. And, of course, we'll continue to see an awful lot of British people coming here to Portugal because the Brits make up, you know, I think the number one source of tourists to this country. And there's about 16 million visitors a year to Portugal. Three million come from Britain.

So you can say that it accounts for about,% of Portugal's tourists. And given that 15% of Portugal's GDP comes from tourism, you can probably directly say that about 3% of Portugal's GDP comes from British tourism. That's hugely important and I think underscores the importance of this friendship and, as I say, the ability of it to continue to allow the two nations to work closely together. What's great about seeing these treaties in the flesh, as it were, is you just realise how astonishingly physically durable those materials were. The paper I saw was 650 years old, and yet it was still absolutely fit for purpose. And it just makes me wonder whether anything we create today will have the longevity of those documents

and also the longevity of what they represent. The spirit of that treaty has endured for 650 years, which is so surprising given how we know, particularly in Europe, how frequently alliances change and shift. One minute we are at the throats of the French and the next minute we are fighting alongside them, charging into battle knee to knee. And yet here are these two little countries on the Atlantic coast which for political and geographical and cultural reasons, maybe thanks mostly to the wine, have remained friends for 650

years. I wonder how much that is down to luck or geography and how much of it is due to the treaty itself. But the fact remains that few treaties in history have proved as enduringly successful as that Anglo-Portuguese one. Started six centuries ago in the small town of Tagild

in the hills of Porto. Those who negotiated it and those who sealed it should be very proud. you you