It are french line infantry m
It are french line infantry m
It's not just that, they refer to the crown prince of my country as silly billy and make him out as an idiot and the Dutch as useless cowards in an other episode.
Even him heroicly getting wounded on the field of battle becomes: silly billy being shot by sharpe to save brittish lives
The sharpe series is increadibly racist in it's portrayal of every non englishman it features, just because those they mock aren't black or northern african, doesn't make it any less insulting and racist
He was KNOWN and RECORDED as being extremely brave but a terrible tactician, at least during his time under Wellesley. Wellesley himself says it, though he blames it on inexperience(which is likely the case). At the end of just about every novel in the Sharpe series(at least the ones I have read)Cornwell has a section that more or less tells the real history and how he had to find ways to weave Sharpe in. I never watched much of the television series but in the novels a large number of the British officers are portrayed as useless s. I doubt it has anything to do with racism or some English superiority complex.
As much as I hate Sharpe's distortion of history (claiming that the fall of Toulouse to Wellington would force Napoleon to surrender ) you are wrong here.
In sharpe's Waterloo, the eponymous hero states that the Dutch troops fought bravely and well. You see them rout a French battalion.
That is an historically accurate portrayal of the British attitude to the Prince of Orange and the Netherlands army after 1815 campaign, so its not something that Cornwell can be blamed for, the blame really lies at the feet of British historians of the period who coloured the events of the battle to appeal to British attitudes of superiority over their allies and enemies.
Its a fictional regiment called the 'Real compania irlandesa', given to the Duke of Wellington by King Ferdinand the vii in Sharpes battle.
Highland regiments, wore the Kilmarnock with ostrich plumes (many 'highland' units losing their special distinctions during reforms in the period when more non-Scottish recruits were drafted in), and the 71st wore a Kilmarnock stretched to resemble the stovepipe, but with the Scottish distinct dicing band around the base - as far as I'm aware, the 71st never were ever issued stovepipes during the period. The Kilmarnock did go through some design alterations during this time - peakless and peaked versions are both documented, and also a version with a detachable peak.
Light Infantry regiments, such as the 43rd Monmouthshire, 51st Yorkshire, 52nd Oxfordshire (I forget the others, off the top of my head) wore stovepipes throughout the period, many soldiers forming their headgear into more rounded 'sugarloaf' styles (LI wanting to look more rakish, of course!) I've seen some depictions of LI regiments adorning their shakos with short green turbans as well.
The Rifle regiments, 95th and 60th were issued with stovepipes, with various arrangements of cords.
As far as I know, the 23rd weren't given any special types of headwear - they had stovepipes just like everyone else on service. They may have been issued with bearskins, as they were designated as "Fusiliers", but fusiliers and guards regiments didn't wear bearskins on campaign.
A number of regiments weren't issued with the new false-fronted Belgic shako till late in the period, some retaining their stovepipes even after the end of the war. The 27th wore the stovepipe at Waterloo (with their distinctive badge arrangement:
http://www.28thglos.co.uk/28thFigure.png)
The famous Lady Butler depiction of the 28th at Quatre Bras is misleading (or totally inaccurate, depending on how you want to describe it!) as she's dressed them in Belgics. Still, she was a woman, and women like dressing things up...
I'm an illustrator, and have been working on a large Napoleonic project for the last three years - hoping to get all of my details exactly right, I've been reading shedloads of books, and making hundreds of sketches.
The project starts in earnest now - 36 to 46 depictions of British companies from different regiments standing in line to receive cavalry. I have, therefore, 3600 to 4600 individual soldiers to draw, in full historically accurate detail (although, they will be idealised rather than campaign soiled...)
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"Riflllllles! To me!.... Fix Swords!"
Its worth noting that there is nothing Scottish or distinctive about the dicing around the hat band of the Kilmarnock. at least not until it became a stylized feature. The original dicing was really not dicing at all but the natural result of feeding the headband ribbon back and forth through the slits in the headband, which produced a sort of diced effect, which was then exploited by the soldiers using red ribbons. The results are constantly misdrawn by artists who do not understand what the function of the head band actually was and how the diced effect was created. For example if one looks at earlier images of scottish soldiers before the affectation became popular you can see soldiers with solid red and solid black headbands and even white, black and red dicing effects where a mixture of ribbons was used.
Last edited by Didz; September 06, 2015 at 06:05 AM.
I've no idea about the origins of the dicing effect, but mentioned it as distinctly Scottish because it only appeared on 'Highland' regiments or the 71st...
(really enjoyed your in depth stuff on Prussian recruitment in another thread Didz, amongst other stuff - lots of information no doubt painstakingly researched).
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"Riflllllles! To me!.... Fix Swords!"
Several things:
1. That is what it does say, but Bernard Cornwell go this all wrong, King Ferdinand couldn't have given that Order, only the Juntas could, as King Ferdinand VII was basically being im-prisoned in France by Napoleon Bonaparte, along with Manuel Godoy, Queen Maria Lusia and King Carlos IV.
2. There were no Irish Lifeguard Regiments, as the Spanish Lifeguard consisted of:
. Guardias du Corp: Flemish, American, Italian and Spanish,
. Carabineros Reale: Spanish,
. Guardias Valonia: Walloon,
. Infanteria Guardia Espanoles: Spanish,
. Artillerie Cazadores: Spanish,
. Guardias Alabaderos: Spanish,
3. Irish Regiments in Spanish service wore White at this time of the War, (Except for Hibernia which wore Sky Blue), the Irish formerly wore Red before 1794,
4. Swiss Regiments wore Blue, Guard Regiments wore Blue, Spanish and Italian Regiments wore White, and, Marines wore Blue,
5. Only Cavalry wore Green in the Spanish Army at this time, however, very few Regiments did, (Light Infantry did often wear Green in the 1802 reforms, however these were quickly gotten rid of, due to dis-content in the Army),
6. In other words, "Cornwell Cocked Up"!
He didn't 'cock-up' at all, in so far as he openly admits that the regiment is fictional.
His historical note clearly states that The Royal Guard of Spain in the Napoleonic Wars consisted of four companies; the Spanish, American, Italian and Flemish companies, you have already identified as the Guardias du Corps.. He goes on to add that alas there was no Real Compania Irlandesa. Although there were three Irish Regiments in Spanish Services (de Hibernia, de Irlanda and de Ultonia.) each composed of Irish exiles or their descendants.
So, no so much a 'cock-up' as a deliberately unhistoric plot device. Something which Cornwell uses quite often in his books, and which he is usually quite open about in his notes. In fact, the whole idea of a wandering band of men from the 95th Rifles led by a former sergeant is a bit of a stretch of imagination.
cornwell writes a good story, BUT he basicly writes the same one in each time period, bastard son of an english noble born of a husbandless pesant, If you want something more accurate, Brigadier Allan Mallinson is a bit better, but still has some issues, problem is, if scope is limited to a regiment, then they'll miss some of the fun, fictional regiments mean you can have the best of everything. He's good at describing battles and arms though, which is what counts. XD
GIVE CREDIT TO YOUR ENEMY AND LITTLE TO YOURSELF, AS IT MAKES YOUR VICTORY ALL THE GREATER!-Under the influence of medically prescribed drugs, please take much salt with this post, you have been warned!
the video is gone, but from the comments, im guessing you're talking about the Real Compania Irlandesa (Royal Irish company)
in his book, Cornwall says in the prologue, that these were based on a real regiment, however, he omits to mention the real regiments name.