Queen Luisa faced trouble within her family as the young king Afonso, for whom she ruled, was both mentally and physically weak and the subject of unscrupulous politicians determined to turn him against his mother. Of immediate concern was evidence that one or more members of the queen's government that sat as a council of war was a traitor. Anxious to assist the Portuguese queen against her many enemies, England and France combined to send Luke Tremayne to assess the situation.