Prosperity and durability to the new representative governments of Spain, Portugal, and Naples, and may the arms of any power who dares to invade their rising liberties be turned against itself.*

Under the terms of the Convention of Sintra, French forces were withdrawn from Portugal in September 1808. But the British remained, not only for the rest of the Peninsular War, but actually retained virtual control of Portugal for many years after the war was over. It was not until August 1820, in the aftermath of the Liberal Revolution in Oporto, that the British ‘occupation’ came to an end. Early in 1809, the Prince Regent had ordered Sousa Coutinho, now Conde do Funchal, to request the British government to recommend a general capable of reorganizing the Portuguese army and restoring its discipline. As Holland noted on arrival in Lisbon in January 1809, ‘The Portuguese army which was in a deplorable state before the arrival of the French was entirely disorganized by them & there seems neither General nor officers capable of forming or conducting them’. Joao was given the names of Sir Arthur Wellesley and Sir William Beresford. Wellesley declined, probably unwilling to serve under Portuguese orders, but recommended Beresford, who accepted.

By a decree of 7 March 1809, Beresford was appointed commander in chief of the Portuguese Army, which he reorganized and disciplined with acknowledged efficacy. Given the ineffectiveness of the regency, Beresford became the de facto ruler of Portugal. The prince regent's absence in Brazil made it impossible to operate the normal machinery of government, not least because measures requiring the regent's approval took months to reach Brazil and even longer to return to Portugal. Thus day- to- day matters had to be left to the Governadores, aided by the armed branch of the state – and that meant Beresford.

Holland strongly disapproved of these arrangements. In the House of Lords, alongside Lord Grenville, he denounced the waste of a ‘glorious opportunity for raising the Portuguese nation from that wretched and degraded condition, to which a lengthened succession of mental ignorance, civil oppression, and political tyranny and prostitution, had reduced it’. In his journals, Holland had already blamed Dalrymple for accepting the appointment of the new Council of Regency, even though he had known that its proposed members were regarded as corrupt and incompetent.