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Death of Queen Elisabeth II: Portugal “lost a friend”
A unique personality, full of humor, a true symbol of the United Kingdom.
A unique personality, full of humor, a true symbol of the United Kingdom.
Published
2 years agoon
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Copy writingThe head of Portuguese diplomacy, Joao Gomes Cravinho, signed this Friday the book of condolences for the death of Queen Elizabeth II at the official residence of the British ambassador in Lisbon, stating that Portugal “lost a friend”.
La Queen Elizabeth II of England, longest-reigning monarch in the history of the United Kingdom (1952-2022), visited Portugal in two important moments for the country. The first, in 1957, led Salazar to a representation of the country that cost the state a fortune, while the second, in 1985, was important for the country's entry into the European Economic Community (EEC).
It was his fourth overseas visit since he came to the throne aged 25 after the sudden death of his father, King George VI, and the first in 50 years for a British ruler. to the "faithful Ally", at the invitation of the President of the Portuguese Republic at the time, General Francisco Craveiro Lopes, who had been received by the monarch in London two years earlier, in 1955. He was the third head of Foreign state to visit the young queen, just two years after her coronation (1953).
During this visit, February 1957, Elizabeth II, was transported from the royal yacht Britannia, anchored in the Tagus, in a sumptuous XNUMXth century brigantine, the beauty of which she praises, declaring: “the Portuguese have beautiful things”, and received with pomp and circumstance at Cais das Colunas, where the highest Portuguese dignitaries were present, followed then by a parade with six thousand men at Terreiro do Paço. Queen Elizabeth II was installed in the Palace of Queluz, where 3 men worked for several months for the fittings and decoration.
In addition to the capital, Elizabeth II visited Porto, Vila Franca de Xira, Nazaré, Alcobaça and the monastery of Batalha.
The Portuguese Radio Television (RTP), still in the experimental phase, made the first report from abroad with this visit.
En 1977, three years after the end of the dictatorship, the Portuguese president at the time, Antonio Ramalho Eanes, paid a state visit to the United Kingdom, following a visit to the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France, seeking to highlight the change of regime in Portugal and the desire for European integration.
As a sign of support for the young European democracy, Elizabeth II returned to Portugal in 1985, a few months before the official accession of Lisbon to the European Union (then the European Economic Community), signed by the then Prime Minister, Mario Soares. The socialist leader will play an important role in this last state visit between the two countries, when he travels to the UK in 1993 as President of the Republic, taking the opportunity to decorate the Queen with the Grand Collar of the Order of the Tower and the Sword.
Elizabeth II was the third foreign statist to receive Portugal's highest honor, which required approval in Lisbon by special decree, after being awarded to two dictators: the Spanish head of state, General Francisco Franco, and Brazilian President Emilio Garrastazu Médici. The special decree was necessary because it is a distinction exclusively intended to distinguish the former presidents of the Portuguese Republic at the end of their respective mandates, a rule that was only changed in 2011.
Elizabeth II did not return to Portugal, however Jorge Sampaio, in 2002, and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in 2016, were both received as Heads of State by the Queen at Buckingham Palace, albeit on official, not state, working visits. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa's meeting with the Queen was marked by the brief exchange of words captured by television cameras, when the President recalled having personally attended the monarch's two visits to Portugal. “I was there, I was a child”, he said, referring to the monarch's first visit, in 1957, when he was eight years old, to which the queen replied with wit: "I'm sure it was".
Elizabeth II's platinum jubilee – sound 70th anniversary of reign, whose celebrations took place between February and June of this year – coincided with the 650th anniversary of the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world, between Portugal and the United Kingdom, which lasts until the present.
The treaty of alliance between Portugal and England, or Treaty of Tagilde, was signed on July 10, 1372, in the Church of São Salvador de Tagilde between King Fernando the Fair and representatives of the Duke of Lancaster (son of Edward III of England). The Treaty of Tagilde was the first of a series of agreements that consolidated the Anglo-Portuguese alliance, the oldest between independent states in the world, in particular the Treaty of Windsor (1386), which resulted in the marriage of the King of Portugal , João I, with D. Filipa of Lancaster.
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