I love history, everything and anything about it, but especially England with all the kings and queens and so forth.
However, I almost always forget that Portugal has a very rich history also with royalty, and very close to England's. I don't know why I never delved more into it's past, but it's something I want to do this year.
Did you know that the two nations have
maintained the oldest continuously active diplomatic alliance in the
world? The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, dates all the way back to 1373
when a treaty was signed between King Edward III of England and the Portuguese
royal family.
They've cooperate in military missions and commercially for many centuries, seeing many royal marriages between the two.
So, I had a book sent over from Portugal, written by Isabel Stilwell, a Portuguese journalist and writer who focuses on historic novels, short stories and children's books.
She has quite a few books on the Portuguese royalty, and the one I picked is called D. Teresa. A great Queen of Portugal who ruled with a fist of iron.
From Wikipedia:
Theresa (Portuguese: Teresa; Galician-Portuguese: Tareja or Tareixa; Latin: Tarasia) (c. 1080 – 11 November 1130) was Countess of Portugal, and for a time claimant to be its independent Queen. She rebelled against her half-sister Queen Urraca of León. She was recognised as Queen by Pope Paschal II in 1116, but was captured and forced to accept Portugal's vassalage to León in 1121, being allowed to keep her royal title.[2] Her political alliance and amorous liaison with Galician nobleman Fernando Pérez de Traba led to her being ousted by her son, Afonso Henriques, who with the support of the Portuguese nobility and clergy, defeated her at the Battle of São Mamede in 1128.
I am so excited to read this one.
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