Queen Barbara participated regularly in the affairs of state: the ministers, who respected her, presented to her all documents of state before they were given to the king, because: "only she knows what ought either be said or hidden from the king": she was the channel through which the ministers worked with the king, as it was she who advised them how to achieve the desired result from the king, and the ministers relied upon her for their work as, the British ambassador Benjamin Keene reported: "She can sway him as she pleases, with as much power, but much less difficulty, than ever the Dowager did with the late King, his father." In 1754, she was behind the fall of her previous ally Ensenada. Keene and Huascar presented the Queen with a paper implying that minister Ensenada was making puppets of the royal couple. They succeeded in convincing her to act against Ensenada, and in cooperation with Richard Wall and Huascar, Barbara convinced Ferdinand to exile Ensenada.