Anglo-Portuguese Alliance

Anglo-Portuguese relations

United Kingdom	Portugal

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The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance (

The alliance has served both countries throughout their respective military histories, influencing the participation of the United Kingdom in the Peninsular War, the UK's major land contribution to the Napoleonic Wars and the establishment of an Anglo-American base in Portugal. Portugal aided England (and later the UK) in times of need, for example, in the First World War. Today, Portugal and the United Kingdom are both part of NATO.

English aid to the

It is cordially agreed that if, in time to come, one of the kings or his heir shall need the support of the other, or his help, and in order to get such assistance applies to his ally in lawful manner, the ally shall be bound to give aid and succour to the other, so far as he is able (without any deceit, fraud, or pretence) to the extent required by the danger to his ally’s realms, lands, domains, and subjects; and he shall be firmly bound by these present alliances to do this.[3]

In July 1386, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, son of the late king Edward III of England and father of the future King Henry IV of England, landed in Galicia with an expeditionary force to press his claim to the Crown of Castile 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 brought to the

] and she reformed the court and imposed rigid standards of moral behaviour. On the other hand, the more tolerant Portuguese aristocracy saw her methods as too traditional or outdated.

Philippa provided

Order of Christ

and the instigator and organiser of Portugal's early voyages of discovery.

Disruption and renewal

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The

captured the Portuguese garrison of Ormuz

in Persia in 1622.

However, in 1640, England supported the Portuguese

• The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), when Portugal together with the Duchy of Savoy initially sided with France, but after the Battle of Blenheim reunited with its ally.
• The Seven Years' War (1756–1763), when Spain invaded Portugal in 1762; Britain intervened as Portugal's ally. Although faced with vastly superior numbers, the Portuguese and British forces together with Portuguese militia and peasants defeated the Spanish and French forces, which suffered huge losses during their three invasion attempts.
• The
  vice-royalty of Brazil, under escort by the British fleet. The Portuguese also helped the failed British invasions of the River Plate
  .
• The Portuguese Civil War (1828–1834), when the United Kingdom gave important support to the Liberal faction.
• The
  Portuguese East Africa. This was done in response to an expedition by Serpa Pinto into the region.^[4] The 1890 ultimatum was said to be one of the main causes for the Republican Revolution, which ended the monarchy in Portugal 20 years later.^[4]

• After
  Portuguese East Africa (today Mozambique), Portuguese troops fought on the Western Front alongside Allied soldiers during the First World War.^[5]

• Portugal provided assistance to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, while the United Kingdom pursued non-intervention and neutrality.

• Upon the declaration of war in September 1939, the Portuguese government announced on 1 September that the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance remained intact, but since the British did not seek Portuguese assistance, Portugal would remain neutral. In an aide-mémoire of 5 September 1939, the British government confirmed the understanding. British strategists regarded Portuguese non-belligerency as "essential to keep Spain from entering the war on the side of the Axis."^[6]
• On 15 May 1940, Douglas Veale, the Registrar of the University of Oxford, informed Portuguese Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar that the University of Oxford's Hebdomadal Council had "unanimously decided at its meeting last Monday, to invite you to accept the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Civil Law".^[7]
• July 1940: Salazar's decision to stick with the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance allowed the Portuguese island of Madeira to help the Allies: that month, around 2,500 Gibraltar evacuees were shipped to Madeira.^[8]
• September 1940: Winston Churchill wrote to Salazar, congratulating him on his ability to keep Portugal out of the war, asserting that "as so often before during the many centuries of the Anglo-Portuguese alliance, British and Portuguese interests are identical on this vital question".^[7]
• Samuel Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood, the British Ambassador in Madrid from 1940 to 1944, recognised Salazar's crucial role in keeping Iberia neutral during the war. Lord Templewood asserted that in his thirty years of political life he had met most of the leading statesmen of Europe and that he placed Salazar very high on the list of those who impressed him. He stated that Salazar "being a man of one idea – the good of his country – he was convinced that the slightest step from the narrow path of neutrality would endanger the work of national regeneration to which he had devoted the whole of his public life". He also affirmed that "Salazar detested Hitler", that the Portuguese régime differed fundamentally from Nazism and Fascism, and that Salazar never left a doubt in his mind that he desired a Nazi defeat.^[9]
• During the Second World War, Salazar steered Portugal down a middle path, but nevertheless provided aid to the Allies. The British Ambassador in Lisbon, Ronald Campbell, saw Salazar as fundamentally loyal to the Alliance and stated that "he [Salazar] would answer the call if it were made on grounds of dire necessity". When, in August 1943, the British requested base facilities in the Azores and invoked the alliance that had existed for over 600 years between Portugal and Great Britain,^[10] Salazar responded favourably and virtually at once:^[11] Portugal granted naval bases on Portuguese territory to Britain, in keeping with the traditional Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, letting them use the Azorean ports of Horta (on the island of Faial) and Ponta Delgada (on the island of São Miguel), and the airfields of Lajes Field (on Terceira Island) and Santana Field (on São Miguel Island).^[12]
• In November 1943, the British Ambassador in Lisbon, Sir Ronald Campbell, wrote (paraphrasing Salazar) that "strict neutrality was the price the allies paid for strategic benefits accruing from Portugal's neutrality and that if her neutrality instead of being strict had been more benevolent in our favour Spain would inevitably have thrown herself body and soul into the arms of Germany. If this had happened the Peninsula would have been occupied and then North Africa, with the result that the whole course of the war would have been altered to the advantage of the Axis."^[13]
• From November 1943, when the British gained the use of the Azores, to June 1945, 8,689 U.S. aircraft departed from the
  Orly Field
  near Paris. Flights returning from Europe carried wounded servicemen. Medical personnel at Lajes, Azores, handled approximately 30,000 air evacuations en route to the United States for medical care and rehabilitation. By using Lajes Field, it was possible to reduce flying time between the United States and North Africa from 70 hours to 40. This considerable reduction in flying hours enabled aircraft to make almost twice as many crossings per month between the United States and North Africa and clearly demonstrated the geographic value of the Azores during the war.

• Portugal and the United Kingdom were two of the founding members of NATO, in 1949.
• The establishment of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) took place in 1960 following the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957. Portugal and the UK were two of the seven founding members of EFTA. In 1973 the UK left EFTA to join the EEC alongside with Denmark and Ireland. Portugal did the same in 1986 alongside with Spain.^{[citation needed]}
• During the 1982 Falklands War, the facilities of the Azores were again offered to the Royal Navy.^[1]

On 13 June 2022, the Prime Minister of Portugal and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom signed a new agreement between the two nations in London, known as the UK-Portugal Joint Declaration on Bilateral Cooperation, thereby reinforcing the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance and confirming its status as the longest-running alliance still in force.^[14] The Joint Declaration was also signed to celebrate the 650th anniversary of the Treaty of Tagilde.^[15]

The 650th anniversary of the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 was officially commemorated by both nations on 16 June 2023. The British government stated at this time that they intend to enter into "a new bilateral Defence Agreement, due to be signed later in the year, set to take our defence cooperation to the next level."^[16]

Both countries continue to be members of the wider military alliance, NATO.

• Portugal–United Kingdom relations
• Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1878
• Dutch–Portuguese War
• Anglo-Dutch Wars
• Operation Alacrity
• Auld Alliance (an alliance between Scotland and France made in 1295).

• Country profile of Portugal,
  Foreign and Commonwealth Office
  website
• Hoare, Samuel (1946). Ambassador on Special Mission (1st ed.). UK: Collins. pp. 124 and 125.
• Kay, Hugh (1970). Salazar and Modern Portugal. New York: Hawthorn Books.
• Leite, Joaquim da Costa (1998). "Neutrality by Agreement: Portugal and the British Alliance in World War II". American University International Law Review. 14 (1). Washington College of Law: 185–199. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
• Meneses, Filipe (2009). Salazar: A Political Biography (1st ed.). Enigma Books. p. 544.
  ISBN 978-1929631902
  .
• ISBN 9780861932276
  .

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division.