Sent to Madrid in February 1801 to try to prevent the invasion of Spanish troops, allies of Napoleon's imperial pretensions, José Maria - the 5th Morgado de Mateus, a pioneer of the College of Nobles and a graduate in Mathematics from the University of Coimbra, later a diplomat and publisher, but with a solid military background - saw his efforts wasted and witnessed the rapid fall of several Portuguese squares, in what would become known as the War of the Oranges. After a provisional peace was obtained with the Treaty of Badajoz, Morgado de Mateus assessed the Portuguese military disaster and proposed solutions for reorganising the army.