Awal Oktober 1808, menyusul skandal di Britania terkait Konvensi Sintra dan penarikan kembali para jenderal: Sir Hew Dalrymple, Sir Harry Burrard, dan Wellesley, Sir John Moore mengambil alih komando 30.000 tentara Britania di Portugal.[5] Selain itu, Sir David Baird mengomando ekspedisi bala bantuan dari Falmouth, Cornwall, konvoi HMS Louie, Amelia, dan Champion yang mengangkut antar 12.000 dan 13.000 orang tentara, memasuki pelabuhan Corunna pada 13 Oktober.[6] Menjelang November 1808, tentara Britania, dipimpin oleh Moore, menuju Spanyol untuk membantu tentara Spanyol melawan invasi Napoleon.[7]
Setelah tentara Prancis menyerah di Bailén[8] dan lepasnya Portugal, Napoleon mulai meyakini akan bahaya yang dihadapinya di Spanyol. Karena sangat terganggu dengan berita mengenai Sintra, Sang Kaisar mengatakan,
Saya melihat bahwa semua orang mulai kehilangan akal sehatnya karena kekalahan hina di Bailén. Saya menyadari bahwa saya harus ke sana sendiri untuk mendorong mesin bekerja lagi.[9]
Catatan
^Fortescue, Oman. hlm. 582, menyebutkan 15.000; Hamilton 14.500.
^Napier. hlm.121 dan Fortescue. hlm. 377 menunjukkan mungkin ada 12: 8 Britania dan 4 Spanyol. Demikian pula, Gates. hlm. 112.
^Chandler. hlm. 617. "This was an historic occasion; news of it spread like wildfire throughout Spain and then all Europe. It was the first time since 1801 that a sizable French force had laid down its arms, and the legend of French invincibility underwent a severe shaking. Everywhere anti-French elements drew fresh inspiration from the tidings. The Pope published an open denunciation of Napoleon; Prussian patriots were heartened; and, most significantly of all, the Austrian war party began to secure the support of the Emperor Francis for a renewed challenge to the French Empire.".
Chandler, David G. The Campaigns of Napoleon. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. ISBN 0-02-523660-1
Fortescue, J. W.A History of The British Army. Vol VI 1807–1809. MacMillan and Co., Limited, 1915, OCLC 312880647. [1]
Fremont-Barnes, Gregory. The Napoleonic Wars: The Peninsular War 1807–1814 (Essential Histories, No 17), Osprey, 2002, ISBN 1841763705.
Gates, David. The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War, Pimlico, 2002, ISBN 0-7126-9730-6
Hamilton, Frederick William. The Origin and History of the First Or Grenadier Guards Vol.II, London 1874. OCLC 59415892. [2]
Napier, William.History of the war in the Peninsula and the south of France, from the year 1807 to the year 1814 (1873) New York: D. & J. Sadlier. [3]
Neale, Adam, Hopetoun, John Hope (4th earl), Malcolm, John (esq.), Rocca, Albert Jean Michel. Memorials of the Late War, Vol.I, Edinburgh, 1828. OCLC 9981233.[4]
Richardson, Hubert N.B. A dictionary of Napoleon and his times, New York, 1920, OCLC 154001.[5]
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