A talk by Peter Kingdon Booker 

In the mid-nineteenth century, there was an amazing similarity between the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves.  Each country found itself ruled by a young Queen in need of a husband.  Both Queen Maria II of Portugal and Queen Victoria found her future spouse in the same German family, that of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.  At the age of 18 in 1836, Queen Maria II married her Ferdinand (her third husband).  And in 1840 at the age of 20, Queen Victoria married her first husband Albert, her own first cousin and the cousin of Ferdinand.  Each of these marriages was both productive and short.  Victoria had nine children before Albert died in 1861, and Maria had seven children before in 1853 she pegged out in childbed.  Albert was regarded with suspicion by the political establishment in Britain and lent his weight to the abolition of slavery, the running of the Queen´s household and the organization of the Great Exhibition.  Similarly, Ferdinand was excluded from the government of Portugal, even though he was king in title.  He was interested in art and architecture, and we owe to him the salvation of many of the buildings associated with the history of Portugal, such as the Mosteiro da Batalha and the Torre de Belém; and his own great contribution to Portugal´s heritage, the Pena Palace in Sintra. Without Ferdinand´s enormous contribution to his adopted country, the built environment which illustrates Portuguese history would be very much poorer.

This will be followed by a Literary lunch at 12h30, Tavira Gardens with Maria João Neves  - TROIKA-ME!

Pena Palace