“ But the junta soon alienated the nobility by the boldness with which it asserted democracy and total abolition of privilege, while it courted defeat in the field by appointing to the supreme command of its forces not Padilla but Don Pedro de Giron, who had no recommendation but his high birth. After the army of the nobility had recaptured Tordesillas, Padilla did something to retrieve the loss by taking Torrelobaton and some other towns. ”