Lancaster University has marked the 40th anniversary of an honorary doctorate to the then President of Portugal, Mário Soares, with a public lecture celebrating the ties between Lancaster and Portugal.
Leading historian Professor Francisco Bethencourt gave a public lecture, Early Modern Europe and the World, at The Dukes in Lancaster exactly forty years after Lancaster University awarded Mário Soares an honorary doctorate on 20 October, 1986.
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 today.
The treaty has a special connection to Lancaster. The alliance between England and Portugal was sealed by the marriage of King João I of Portugal to Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.
In his address, President 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.
President Soares concluded that "a greater bond between Lancaster University 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 40th anniversary, Lancaster University 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 Camões 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."
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 Brandão Rodrigues, and the Secretary of State for Education, João 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 Camões Institute Chair for Multilingualism and Diversity, in partnership with the Camões 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.
You can find out more about Lancaster's links with Portugal on the Cátedra Camões website.
