Encountering Leite's smaller body of soldiers outside Évora, the French easily brushed them aside and went on to storm the city, which was held by poorly armed townsmen and militia.

In November 1807, a French army led by Jean-Andoche Junot mounted a successful Invasion of Portugal supported by allied Spanish troops.

Abandoning the north and south regions of the country, the French concentrated their forces to hold central Portugal.

But he was soon recalled to help repel a British army under Sir Arthur Wellesley that had landed on the coast north of Lisbon.

Portugal's Prince Regent John of Braganza had declined to join the Continental System against British trade.

On 2 August, the 1st Corps of the Gironde Observation Army was established with General of Division Jean-Andoche Junot in command.

The French Invasion of Portugal encountered no armed Portuguese resistance and Junot entered Lisbon with a flying column of 1,500 weary men on 30 November.

[6] Following a previous arranged plan, the Prince Regent and his Court (including most of the Government's officials and their families, in a total of around 15,000 people) embarked in the Portuguese Fleet and escaped to Brazil, escorted by Admiral Sir Sidney Smith's Royal Navy squadron, shortly before the French arrived at Lisbon.

While Junot's soldiers saw no formal resistance, numbers of them had died from exposure during the march, while others had been lynched by angry Portuguese peasants.

[8] Because Portugal's ports were closed by the British blockade, her wines could no longer be sold to England nor could her goods be traded to Brazil.

The French put 10,000 persons to work in the arsenal and shipyard, but Lisbon soon filled with large numbers of unemployed people who thronged the streets begging for alms.

[9] A message from Napoleon arrived in May ordering Junot to send 4,000 troops to Ciudad Rodrigo to support Marshal Bessières in the north of Spain and 8,000 more to link up with General of Division Dupont in Andalusia.

When news of the revolt reached Porto on 6 June, Belesta seized as prisoners the governor of the city General of Division Quesnel, his staff, and his 30-man escort.

At Bragança, retired General Manoel Jorge Gomes de Sepúlveda was selected as the commander, while Colonel Francisco Silveira was chosen to lead at Vila Real.

Colonel Maransin gathered the one battalion each of the Légion du Midi and the 26th Line Infantry Regiment that served as the garrison of Algarve.

Junot's position was complicated by the presence of a French-allied Russian naval squadron under Admiral Senyavin in Lisbon harbor.

Avril reached the frontier to find his force faced by a body of artillery-armed Spanish militia[14] behind the Guadiana River.

Hearing that Dupont never got beyond Córdoba and that Badajoz was held large numbers of Spanish troops, the French general backtracked to Estremoz in Alentejo Province.

Taking 2,000 men and a few cannons, he set out for Porto but on 21 June stumbled into a hornet's nest of guerillas who sniped at him and rolled boulders down from the heights.

[16] On 18 June, a popular riot broke out in Porto which forced the authorities to declare in favor of the rebellion.

[14] In a 25 June 1808 council of war, Junot and his generals decided to abandon the northern and southern provinces and defend central Portugal.

Orders went out to Loison at Almeida, Avril at Estremoz, Maransin at Mértola, and General of Division Kellermann at Elvas.

Kellermann left one battalion of the 2nd Swiss Regiment and four companies of the 86th Line, a total of 1,400 men, in garrison at Elvas and returned west to Lisbon.

Because his troops' path was marked by a line of wrecked villages, Loison acquired the name Maneta (One-Hand) and he was cursed for years afterward by the Portuguese.

A student, Bernardo Zagalo led a force to Figueira da Foz where it captured a small French garrison.

Though the numbers add up to 8,805, historian Charles Oman wrote that 1,200 men need to be subtracted from the total to account for the detached grenadier companies.

[19] On 29 July 1808, Loison's troops reached the outskirts of Évora to find a Portuguese-Spanish force arrayed across their path.

From Badajoz, Colonel Moretti brought an additional one and a half battalions of Spanish infantry, the Maria Luisa Hussar Regiment Nr.

Behind them, manning the ancient walls of Évora was a motley collection of townsmen and peasants armed with bird guns and pikes.

On 1 August, Loison continued his march to Elvas where he drove off a large number of militia that were besieging the place.