ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Anglo-Portuguese maritime relations, drawing on recently discovered original documents that detail one of the earliest episodes of interchange and rivalry between Portugal and England: the first systematic English voyages to West Africa in the 1550s. It analyzes the diplomacy, espionage, and interchange of maritime knowledge between both sides and its role in the re-emergence of English overseas expansion. The goal is to demonstrate how, already during the early 1550s, the pattern of rivalry, emulation, and interchange of nautical knowledge was present in Anglo-Portuguese maritime relations.
