The names of these noblemen are worthy of record, not only because of the daring and successful revolution they initiated, but because they show how patriotic the Portuguese nobility were as a body, since most of the famous families of the early history of Portugal and of the heroic period are represented among them. The leaders of the famous forty who planned the revolution were Miguel de Almeida, a venerable nobleman, at whose house the first meeting of the conspirators was held; Pedro de Mendonça Furtado, Hereditary Grand Chamberlain or Camereiro-Mor; Antonio and Luis de Almada; Jorge de Mello, Hereditary Grand Huntsman; Antonio de Mello de Menezes, his brother; Estevão, and Luis da Cunha; Rodrigo and Emmanuel de Sá; Pedro Mascarenhas, Carlos de Noronha, Gaston de Coutinho and Antonio de Saldanha. The Archbishop of Lisbon, Rodrigo da Cunha, the most popular ecclesiastical dignitary of the realm, if not actually a conspirator, certainly had some knowledge of what was going on through his relatives, the Almadas and Da Cunhas. The conspirators met regularly and skilfully planned their rising, and in all their deliberations João Pinto Ribeiro, though not a nobleman himself, and rather looked down on by the forty, showed himself the boldest and most sagacious leader of them all. There was no idea of establishing a republic, in imitation of the Netherlands, as Vertot absurdly states, for the keystone of their plan was to make a show of legality, and to assert that they were merely placing the rightful king upon the throne. Their preparations were fully made, when João Pinto Ribeiro brought the news that the blow must be struck at once, or else that the Duke of Braganza must proceed to Madrid.