A presentation by Peter Kingdon Booker

If you ask someone to name five famous Portuguese, it is a safe bet that one of the names will be Vasco da Gama. He is famous for making the first sea voyage from Europe to India and back again in 1498-9. But what about the rest of his life? How did he come to be selected for this historic voyage of discovery? What sort of person was he? An aristocrat, or a humble mariner? What qualities were needed for this type of journey? And what about his life after the momentous journey? Did he retire quietly to rest on his laurels? Or was he soon awarded a peerage and pressed into further royal service? Did Vasco make any further India voyages? And lastly, when he died in 1524, where was he buried? And what happened to his remains in between his first interment, and the re-interment in the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in 1880? Are his remains really there? Join Peter Booker to discover more about this champion of Portuguese maritime history.

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