[2] He was decorated for his services at the battles of Albuera (fought on May 16, 1811, and at which Beresford, operating independently from Wellington, commanded the allied forces), Salamanca (July 22, 1812), Orthez (February 27, 1814), and Toulouse (April 5, 1814).

He then declined the governorship of Portuguese Angola, offered him by the regent, Dona Isabel Maria, and was instead made Captain General (governor) of Madeira and Porto Santo in 1827.

[3] When Dom Miguel returned and seized power from the rightful heir, his niece Maria II, and proclaimed himself 'Absolute King', Travassos Valdez held out in Madeira until his defence of the island was overwhelmed by an expeditionary force despatched from Portugal.

As Miguel had given orders that Travassos Valdez should be hanged if captured, he was forced to flee the Portuguese realms and, with his wife, brother, and six children, sailed to England under the protection of the British Royal Navy in September 1828.

After the Battle of Ponte Ferreira, when Dom Pedro instituted changes in his high command, Travassos Valdez exercised the functions of Adjutant-General and chief of the General Staff of the Army of Liberation.

Dom Pedro died immediately after his victory and a long period of political unrest between competing factions began under the young queen Maria II.

These two officers, with the constitutional forces, attacked the marshals' troops at Rio Maior on the 28th of August, and, although on both sides they had more than six weeks in which to make preparations, neither of the armies counted 800 men.

After a slight infantry skirmish in which the Portuguese had sensible losses to deplore, the marshals gave the order to charge to their little squadron and the Viscount de Sá advanced at the head of his troop.

Bonfim resigned the premiership when he encountered resistance to his plans to reform the National Guard, and was succeeded in office by Joaquim António de Aguiar, who had been his deputy.

[7] Expected reinforcement from the troops commanded by the Conde of Antas, the President of the Junta, was not forthcoming in time, and Bonfim and his army were besieged by Saldanha in the fortress of Torres Vedras and defeated, December 22–23, 1846.

He escaped from there with his sons in a skiff, intending to sail to Saint Helena, but was recaptured; the safe return of the exiles by the British Royal Navy and their honourable reinstatement was a condition of the Peace negotiated by the Four Powers at the Convention of Gramido, 1847.

A sixth son, Pedro de Alcântara Travassos Valdez (1827–1887), settled in the English village of Dalwood in Devon and is buried in the graveyard of St Peter's Church there, with an elaborate headstone summarizing his father's career.