Who is Sharpe?

Richard Sharpe is the creation of a man by the name of Bernard Cornwell.

In 1980, Bernard Cornwell lived in a London basement flat and was due to marry an American woman, and move there to live with her. Unfortunately he could not get a work permit, and so decided to become a writer, as it was a profession that did not require a work permit (or green card as it is known). It was there in London, that Sharpe was first created, before he moved to America.

He wanted to write a land based version of C.S.Forester’s Hornblower, and tried to think of a name for his character that would be as dramatic as Horatio Hornblower. He however could not think of one, and so decided to give him a temporary name, until he could think of a better name.

He decided to name his main character after a famous rugby player Richard Sharp, but simply added an 'e' to the end of his surname. However the name stuck, and Richard Sharpe was born.

The Character

The character Richard Sharpe was a London born infantryman in the British Army of the late 1700's and early 1800's. He first saw action in Holland at the age of just 17 and then shot, stabbed and hacked his way through India, Portugal, France and Belgium before his final action in Chile at the stately age of 42.

By actions such as saving Sir Arthur Wellesley's life at Assaye (for which he was was given a field commission of Leftenant), taking the wall at Badajoz, and performing above and beyond the call of duty, Sharpe rose from the ranks of the 33rd Foot in Holland to become a Lieutenant-Colonel during the Waterloo campaign, also serving in the 74th of foot, and most prolifically the 95th South Essex regiment, leading his crack squad of riflemen

In his 25 years as a proffessional soldier, Sharpe suffered eleven serious wounds, including pistol wounds inflicted by the woman who would become his third wife, Lucille Castineau. Despite these, Sharpe always came out on top with 65 confirmed kills with either his heavy cavalry sword, a "brown bess musket" or the state of the art Baker rifle.

The Chosen Men

Sgt. Patrick Harper

Sharpe's right hand man, closest ally, and best friend. He grew up in a small village in Donegal, The fourth of eleven children - he left home at the age of 16 to go to Derry to find a better life for himself. However one morning he found he had joined the army, after a recruiting sergeant had got him drunk...

Rifleman Daniel Hagman

Originally a poacher from Cheshire, who rather than go to jail chose to join the army. One of the older members of Sharpe's chosen men, he is an excellent marksman and has endeared himself with the other soldiers with his sense of humour and musical talents. He is often found singing "Over the hills and Far away" at social gatherings.

Rifleman Harris

Harris is arguably the most well educated of the group. In his own words : 'I was a courtier to Lord Bacchus and an unremitting debtor'.

Rifleman Cooper

Probably joined the army the same way as Dan Hagman, he was brought up on the rough streets of London, and made his way in life as a thief and a pick-pocket.

Rifleman Isaiah Tongue

A character that differed in the two versions (TV and Book) of the story of Sharpe. In the book version he was quite intelligent (being able to read and quoting the bible), and also a drunk (probably the reason he joined the army - i.e. the King's Shilling). In the TV series he was perhaps a bit slower, and his background is a bit more hazy.

Rifleman Perkins

The youngest member of the group, and also the first to die on screen in the TV series. He was well thought after by the other members of the regiment, who acted as his extended family.

Sharpe's Allies

Teresa Moreno

Nicknamed ‘La Aguja’ ¹, Teresa was a guerilla leader around the city of Badajoz. She originally meets Sharpe in the events of Sharpe’s Gold and falls in love with the young officer. By Sharpe’s Company, she is resident in the besieged fortress, along with her daughter Antonia Sharpe, first of Richard’s three offspring, and is attacked by the deserting Hakeswill before being saved by the timely intervention of Sharpe and Sergeant Harper. After the siege she married Sharpe, before heading off to harass the French once more.
She comes into the series for a third and final time in the events of Sharpe’s Enemy where she is murdered by a mercenary by the name of Obidiah Hakeswill in the town of Arados.

After Teresa’s death, Antonia is handed over to her mother’s family in Portugal, and is raised as an orphan, never seeing her father again.

Lucille Castineau (nee Lassan)

The daughter of French aristocrats in Normandy and the widow of Colonel Xavier Castineau, Lucille’s full title* is Madame la Vicomtessa de Seleglise, although by her own admission ‘nearly every pig farmer in Normandy has a grand title’. Her first meeting with Sharpe during the events of Sharpe’s Revenge led to her shooting our hero with a Horse Pistol, blowing off the top of his ear and seriously damaging his shoulder. However when the two ended up alone in the Chateau Castineau after her rejection of Captain William Fredrickson’s affections, she became Sharpe’s mistress and fell pregnant with his illigitimate son Patrick Lassan*.
After Waterloo, she and Sharpe settled down in Normandy and by the events of Sharpe’s Devil the two had a daughter, Dominique. She became the third Mrs Sharpe in 1844 after the death of Jane Gibbons and according to Cornwell, the two lived happily ever after.

Sir Arthur Wellsley (Lord Wellington)

The Peer, as he was known, has been described as Britain’s greatest ever professional soldier. His reputation, much like Sharpe’s, was forged in the heat of India where he became the famous ‘Sepoy General’ He then went on to command the British forces in the Penninsular War, and then again at Waterloo, and was never once defeated in his career. After retiring from the military at the rank of Commander in Chief he became Prime-Minister of Great Britain before retiring from public life in 1846. Since his death in 1852, Wellington has lain in St Paul’s Cathedral, as befits one of the worlds greatest military heroes.

Sharpe's Enemies.

Obidiah Hakeswill

Sharpe's oldest enemy was the twitching psycopath Obidiah Hakeswill. Hakeswill suffered from a nervous twitch in his face and hideous scarring on the neck caused by an event at the age of 12 he was hung and left to die. When his uncle cut him down, Hakeswill began to think he was invulnerable, a man who could not be killed. It was Hakeswill who enlisted "Sharpie" * into the 33rd foot where he framed Sharpe and had him flogged. He later murdered Sharpe's friend Hector McCandless at Assaye.

Hakeswill followed Sharpe into the South Essex, had Patrick Harper flogged and then deserted after the siege of Badajoz. As a deserter he murdered Sharpe's wife Teresa Moreno but was eventually brought to justice.

However, a firing squad was no match for the "immortal" Hakeswill and he had to be finished off with a rifle shot to the head from Sharpe before being uncerimoniously dumped in an unmarked grave.

Major Pierre Ducos

Unusually for Sharpe, Ducos was an enemy who wasn't part of the British Army. A French Intelligence officer, Ducos was a revolutionary who had his own parents guillotined, which shows just what lengths he would go to for the revolution and the Emperor Napoleon.

As part of the army of the revolution, Ducos took part in the civilian massacres of Lyon, Castile and Estramadura.

Ducos first crossed swords with Richard Sharpe at the Spanish town of Adrados in December 1812, where, still mourning the loss of his wife Teresa, Sharpe humiliated him by breaking his spectacles and refusing to surrender. They met again in 1813 when Sharpe was attempting the rescue of the Marquesa de Casares . After the peace of 1814 had been declared between Britain and France, Ducos stole part of Napoleon's treasure and framed Sharpe for the theft, and the murder of Xavier Lassan. After hunting Ducos across Italy, to Naples, Sharpe's ally General Calvet charged the increasingly paranoid Major Ducos with reason and had him killed by a firing squad.

Sharpe's Adventures

The India Campaign

Sharpe still only a private face the Tippoo and the Tippoo's professional strongmen, who had interesting ways of putting prisoners to death, using nothing more than a nail, in India. Sharpe meets Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill who will continue to harass Sharpe all through the later India Campaign novels. This is the first book in the Sharpe stories from the character’s point of view.

Sharpe, now a Sergeant, finds himself alongside Sir Arthur Wellesley at the terrifying Battle of Assaye. Sir Arthur always believed Assaye to be his finest achievement. It was at Assaye that Sharpe meets Wellington and renders him a service. The treacherous 'villain' in this book (apart from Hakeswill) is Anthony Pohlmann, a jovial fellow who began life as a mercenary and rose to became one of India's most successful generals.

Sharpe's first story as a lowly lieutenant takes him to the daunting fortress of the Tipoo Sultan, Gawilghur. Sir Arthur Wellesley was never one for patience and as such was not as brilliant at sieges as he was at command of a battlefield. When he had to lay siege to great fortresses, and few are greater than Gawilghur up on its vast cliff over the Deccan Plain he reverted to throwing men at the walls. The Fortress finally fell, mainly due to the bravery of one of the Scottish Highland regiments, with a little help from Lieutenant Richard Sharpe.

Huh? Trafalgar? That’s not in India! No, but the book starts there and tells of Sharpe’s journey back to England. Somehow, instead of being on an East Indiaman (the merchant ships of the Honourable East India Company and the usual method for travel to England from India and vice-versa), Sharpe is on a Royal Navy vessel, and is just in time to catch this most important and famous of sea battles.

The Danish Campaign

Sharpe makes it into one of the most obscure campaigns of the whole of the Napoleonic wars. The Danes had a huge merchant fleet, second only in size to Great Britain's, and to protect it they possessed a formidable navy. But Denmark was a very small country and when, in 1807, the French decide they will invade Denmark and take the fleet for themselves, Britain has to act swiftly. Sharpe after much intrigue (and sex with a beautiful foreign women, a theme that runs throughout the Sharpe series) finds himself stuck in the city as the bombardment begins.

The Peninsular War

Many think this to be the first Sharpe book, as the peninsular campaign takes up most of the Sharpe series, and was the one written first. However, it was actually written later, to tie with the opening episode to the TV adaption. This book begins during the infamous retreat to Corunna, where Lieutenant Sharpe, a quartermaster, finds himself stranded and in charge of a group of chosen men. After attempted mutiny, fighting drinking and general debauchery Sharpe manages to assert his authority and ally himself with a group of partisans, who go one to win a purely fictional battle.

Sharpe and his squad of riflemen are sent to the city of Orporto to rescue two British women, and try and resist Marshal Soult's invasion of Portugal which could spell disaster for the newly arrived Sir Arthur Wellesley.

Sharpe and Harper rejoin Wellington to fight at the decisive battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Although the day is won by the allies, "Chosen Man" Daniel Hagman is greivously wounded and dies in Sharpe's arms.

Sharpe and his company are assigned to a Colonel with two deep secrets. One a women, the other treason. Sharpe, as is to be suspected saves the women from the clutches of the treasonous Colonel, and thwarts his and the French plan; ending in aiding the newly arrived General Sir Arthur Wellesley in routing the French from Oporto and driving them out of Portugal.

The South Essex (Sharpe’s new regiment) have lost one of their colours, and an old acquaintance of Sharpe’s lies dieing, due to the cowardice and ineptitude of Colonel Sir Henery Simmerson. Sharpe vows to avenge the loss of the colour with the capture of a new trophy, one as yet untaken by any army on the fields of Europe. At the battle of Talevera Sharpe attempts to take the standard of Napoleon, given by the emperor himself to every French battalion. Sharpe tries to cage a French Eagle.

The British Army in Portugal are nearly bankrupt. But then come rumours of a treasure in the hands of the partisans. Sharpe, under direct orders of Wellesley is ordered to retrieve this treasure at all costs. Sharpe takes this rather literally. So after taking the betrothed of the leader of the partisans (as well as the Gold) who fall desperately in love with each other, a large fight between the partisans and Sharpe’s men ensues. Oh yes and Sharpe destroys the British held fortress city of Almeida in a huge explosion, which is then taken by the French. Wellesley though would rather have the gold than Almeida for it paid for a very special secret.

Sharpe’s Captaincy has not been ratified by horse guards. His only hope of keeping the rank of captaincy is to lead a Forlorn Hope, the first company into a breach. Sharpe’s nemesis, Obadiah Hakeswill also makes a return, and upon learning that Sharpe’s wife (the partisan from Sharpe’s Gold, Teresa) and daughter in the city vows to make it to them before Sharpe, after his advances were spurned by Teresa. Where does this all take place. Badajoz, the greatest of Spain’s fortress cities, now in the hands of the French.

Who else could this be about, but Obadiah Hakeswill. A secret army of deserters, made up of Spanish, Portuguese, French and English soldiers led by Obadiah and Marshal Pot-au-Feu, has attacked raped and captured a village in the mountains of Spain, along with its castle and convent. Newly promoted Major Sharpe and two crack companies of riflemen, supported by a battalion of Fusiliers, retake the village and punish the deserters only to be attacked by a huge force of French infantry. Sharpe holds the castle long enough for reinforcements to arrive, but suffers a great loss. Oh and don’t forget the rockets; and as for Hakeswill, well……

The South Essex’s second Battalion has gone missing from its English barracks. Unless Major Sharpe and Harper, now the Regimental Sergeant Major, can find them the South Essex will be disbanded. In his return to England, Sharpe enters a world of money grabbing gentry and political machinations all centreing around another old acquaintance, Sir Henry Simmerson. Sharpe gambles all by leaning on his patron, the Prince Regent, the Prince of Wales.

Bernard Cornwell on Sharpe:

"Sharpe though is settled in Normandy. I suspect he has had enough excitement for one life, and I like to think he dies of old age in his chosen exile. There were many like him, old soldiers and sailors who carried their memories of Waterloo and Trafalgar, Salamanca and Badajoz into the Victorian age, where, unseen by us, Sharpe must fade away."