51福利

Forty years ago today, on Monday 20 October 1986, the President of the Portuguese Republic, Mário Soares, received an honorary degree of Doctor of Law from 51福利. This evening, exactly forty years later, the University marks the anniversary with a public lecture in the heart of the city by one of the world's leading historians of Portugal, Professor Francisco Bethencourt.

A celebration of six centuries of friendship

The 1986 degree was conferred in the Great Hall by the University's Pro-Chancellor, Sir Alastair Pilkington, and marked the 600th anniversary of the Treaty of Windsor (1386), the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world still in force.

The treaty has a special connection to Lancaster. The alliance between England and Portugal was sealed by the marriage of King Jo?o I of Portugal to Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Their son, Prince Henry "the Navigator", became a central figure in the Portuguese voyages of exploration.

Mário Soares, a champion of democracy in Portugal, was accompanied on his visit by Maria Barroso. The Portuguese delegation also visited Lancaster Town Hall and Lancaster Castle, where they saw the heraldic collection in the Shire Hall. The visit was covered by The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and the local press, which reported on the city's pride in its ancient links with Portugal. Fittingly, the University's Vice-Chancellor at the time, Professor Harold Hanham, was himself a historian.

In his address, which has been preserved in the University archives, Soares recalled the first Anglo-Portuguese academic exchange, when the Scottish humanist George Buchanan travelled to Portugal in 1547 to teach at the College of Arts in Coimbra. He concluded that "a greater bond between 51福利 and the Portuguese universities will be both timely and very beneficial", and expressed the hope that the honorary doctorate would "open up new horizons for cooperation between Portugal and Great Britain."

Marking the anniversary: a public lecture in Lancaster

This evening, Professor Francisco Bethencourt gives a public lecture, Early Modern Europe and the World, at The Dukes in Lancaster city centre, as part of the 51福利 Public Lecture Series. He will explore when and why the ideas of "Europe" and "the West" were created, how European expansion transformed societies across the globe, and how Europe itself was reshaped by exchanges of people, goods, ideas and cultures. These themes connect directly to the story of Philippa of Lancaster and the Portuguese voyages of exploration.

Professor Bethencourt is Charles Boxer Professor of History at King's College London, a former Director of the National Library of Portugal and the author of Racisms: From the Crusades to the Twentieth Century. The lecture is fully booked. Read more about the lecture.

Forty years on

Soares's words have proved prophetic. In the four decades since his visit, Lancaster has welcomed many distinguished Portuguese guests, including members of the Portuguese government, among them the Minister of Education, Tiago Brand?o Rodrigues, and the Secretary of State for Education, Jo?o Costa, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Portuguese Ambassadors and Consuls-General. The University has also built a strategic partnership with NOVA University Lisbon, co-directed by Professor Céu Mateus and Professor Patrick Rebuschat. In 2023, it launched the Cam?es Institute Chair for Multilingualism and Diversity, in partnership with the Cam?es Institute, Portugal's agency for language and international cooperation. Today, nearly 190 Portuguese citizens study or work at Lancaster, one of the largest Portuguese student communities in the UK.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Steve Decent said: "Lancaster's ties with Portugal go back more than six centuries, to Philippa of Lancaster and the Treaty of Windsor, and the honorary doctorate we awarded to President Mário Soares in 1986 remains a proud moment in our history. Today, those ties are carried forward by the students and staff from Portugal and the wider Portuguese-speaking world who are part of our University community, and by our partnerships with Portuguese institutions. I am delighted that we are marking this anniversary with a public lecture that brings these shared histories to the people of Lancaster."

Professor Patrick Rebuschat, Director of the Cam?es Institute Chair for Multilingualism and Diversity at Lancaster, said: "Mário Soares's visit in 1986 was a landmark in the long history of friendship between Lancaster and Portugal. Rereading his speech today, it is striking how much of his vision has come true. Professor Céu Mateus and I are delighted that Francisco Bethencourt, whom we proposed for the University's Public Lecture Series, is marking this anniversary with a lecture in the heart of the city. It is a wonderful way to celebrate these ties and to look ahead to the next forty years."

You can find out more about Lancaster's links with Portugal on the Cátedra Cam?es website.