PORTUGUESE MONARCH

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31830, 7 November 1968, Page 7

PORTUGUESE MONARCH

Research ByLecturer Dr G. V. Orange, a senior lecturer in history at Canterbury University, will spend all next year in Lisbon preparing a biography of King John, a fifteenth century monarch of Portugal. Dr Orange will begin work in Lisbon next January, drawing on historical records held at public and private libraries.

He said he had been, attracted to the study of the life of King John because of his efforts in opening up Africa and India to European influence.

There had always been a tendency to make much of the deeds of the great navigators. Columbus. Magellan, and Vasco da Gama without mentioning King John, who promoted their voyages. Important Reign

Dr Orange considers King John’s reign as one of the most important in early modern European history. He expects to receive full co-opera-tion from the Portuguese, who look mi the fifteenth century as the golden age of their history. King John reigned from 1481 to 1495. He was the nephew of Henry the Navigator, who inspired John to search for routes to India and Africa.

Dr Orange will leave Christchurch on November 16. He will return to Christchurth in time for the start of the 1972 academic year.