Which Country Is England's Oldest Ally?

Though America due to its great military might may seem the greatest ally of England, the honour of the oldest ally of England falls to Portugal. Their friendship begins in the year 1147 when the English fleet on its way to the crusades made a pit stop in Portugal and ended up massacring the moors of Lisbon in return for promises of land by the now new King of Portugal Afonso I. A little while later, an Englishman became the Bishop of Lisbon. The 12th century saw John I, the illegitimate son of the previous King Ferdinand, taker of an English wife, came to the throne. But it was finally a treaty in May 1386 proposed by John I known as the Treaty of Windsor, which was binding in its terms and which has since then never been revoked, why Portugal is sometimes described as the oldest ally of England.

The Portuguese once gave Bombay as dowry to the British on the nuptials of Catherine of Braganza to Charles II. Only the dowry seems illegitimate here.

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