Plot summary
Part One: Bussaco
Captain Richard Sharpe and his riflemen rejoin the South Essex Regiment during Wellington's retreat in Portugal. Sharpe is in a foul mood because Lieutenant Cornelius Slingsby has been foisted on him by the South Essex's commander, Colonel William Lawford, at the insistence of Lawford's wife in England (Slingsby's sister-in-law) to advance the latter's career. Sharpe believes Lawford is seeking to ease him out and replace him with Slingsby as commander of the South Essex's Light Company.
Sharpe discovers a Portuguese Army major, Ferreira, and his criminal brother, nicknamed "Ferragus" due to his size and strength, trying to sell a stockpile of flour to the advancing French, in contravention of Wellington's strict policy of stripping the land bare of any resources the enemy could use. Over the major's objections, Sharpe subdues Ferragus and has the flour scattered on the ground. Sharpe's friend, Major Hogan, later gives him a light reprimand, explaining that Ferreira is an intelligence officer for the Portuguese Army with contacts among the Portuguese sympathisers in the French Army; Ferreira claims he was giving them the flour to gain the confidence of the French. Later, Sharpe is ambushed by Ferragus and his men and savagely beaten, and saved from death only by the chance appearance of some provosts.
On the morning of the Battle of Bussaco, Lawford uses Sharpe's injuries as an excuse to temporarily relieve him of command of the Light Company and place Slingsby in charge. The French launch a frontal attack up the steep ridge, only to be decimated by the Allies' cannon and musket fire. Because of Slingsby's incompetence, the Light Company is separated from the rest of the regiment and almost overrun by the retreating survivors of one of the destroyed French columns. Sharpe takes charge and narrowly averts disaster. Afterward, Slingsby complains to Lawford, who orders Sharpe to apologise for his harsh language. Sharpe refuses, and Lawford assigns him to replace the regimental quartermaster, confirming Slingsby as captain of the Light Company.
Part Two: Coimbra
Sharpe is sent ahead to Coimbra to prepare billets for the regiment. His friend, Portuguese Captain Jorge Vicente (whom he met in Sharpe's Havoc ), goes along. Sharpe goes to Major Ferreira's house and finds it abandoned, except for his children's English governess, Sarah Fry, naked and locked in a room. Ferragus and his men had been guarding his brother's house, and Ferragus was planning to rape Sarah, but had to leave ahead of the arriving British soldiers. Ferragus, still seeking revenge against Sharpe, lures him, Sergeant Patrick Harper, and Vicente (along with Sarah) to a warehouse where he has hidden an enormous stockpile of food and other supplies for sale to the desperate French Army. Ferragus traps the four in the stone cellar, planning to return and finish them off after the British and Portuguese forces depart.
Ferragus is sure the cellar is escape-proof, but Sharpe and Harper pry up the floor and break into a sewer, through which they escape. By the time they emerge, the British Army has left and the French are raping, pillaging and murdering the city residents. Sharpe and Harper save a young Portuguese woman, Joana, from being raped by three French soldiers. Before fleeing the city, Sharpe manages to set fire to the warehouse, destroying much of the supplies. Ferragus and his brother have already been paid by the French for their stores, but flee the city when they see the warehouse burning, realising they will be blamed for its loss.
Part Three: The Lines of Torres Vedras
Marshal Masséna and his army march south from Coimbra, but are stopped by the immense Lines of Torres Vedras, two lines of fortifications constructed by Wellington. The fortifications appear impregnable, but Masséna, knowing that his army has no supplies for a long retreat, orders a probe into what appears to be an unfortified valley.
The valley is defended by the South Essex and a Portuguese unit. Meanwhile, Lawford has posted the South Essex's Light Company as a picquet to give Slingsby another opportunity to distinguish himself. Instead, Slingsby disobeys Lawford's order to remain sober and is completely drunk when the French attack, forcing his junior lieutenant to take command. Ferreira and Ferragus arrive, claiming to have important information for Wellington, and Ferreira orders the lieutenant to accept a French surrender offer, so that he and Ferragus can slip away. However, Sharpe and his party show up. They quickly subdue Ferreira and Ferragus, and Sharpe takes charge. The French attack, and in the confusion Ferragus breaks free and attacks Sharpe. During the fight, Sharpe backs Ferragus up against a window, where he is killed by French musket fire from outside.
Under Sharpe's leadership, the Light Company successfully drives off the French, then employs a ruse thought up by Sharpe to drive off a second French force that is threatening the South Essex, brought up by Lawford to try to rescue the Light Company. Sharpe orders Ferreira be sent to Wellington, then asks Lawford if he should resume his duties as quartermaster. Lawford, having had enough of Slingsby's drunkenness and incompetence, irritably tells Sharpe to stop being "tedious."
At the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro, the Anglo-Portuguese Army under Wellington checked an attempt by the French Army of Portugal under Marshal André Masséna to relieve the besieged city of Almeida.
Sharpe is a series of historical fiction stories by Bernard Cornwell centred on the character of British soldier Richard Sharpe. The stories formed the basis for an ITV television series featuring Sean Bean in the title role.
The Battle of Buçaco or Bussaco, fought on 27 September 1810 during the Peninsular War in the Portuguese mountain range of Serra do Buçaco, resulted in the defeat of French forces by Lord Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army.
Sharpe is a British television drama series starring Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars, with Irish actor Daragh O'Malley playing his second in command Patrick Harper. Sharpe and Harper are the heroes of the Sharpe series of novels by Bernard Cornwell; most, though not all, of the episodes are based on the books. Produced by Celtic Films and Picture Palace Films for the ITV network, the series was filmed mainly in Crimea, with recording of other episodes in Turkey, England, Portugal, and Spain. The two final episodes were filmed in Jaipur, India.
Sharpe's Regiment is the seventeenth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1986. The story is set in England as Sharpe looks for the missing Second Battalion of the South Essex Regiment needed in Spain to fight in the Napoleonic Wars.
The South Essex Regiment, later the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers, is a fictional infantry line regiment in the British Army that was created by Bernard Cornwell in the Sharpe novel series.
Sharpe's Tiger is the fifteenth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell and was first published in 1997. It acts as a prequel to the "original" Sharpe series, which begins in 1809, while Sharpe is a captain in the Peninsular War during the Talavera Campaign in Spain. In Tiger, Sharpe is a private in the 33rd Regiment of Foot, serving in southern India during the Siege of Seringapatam in 1799.
Sharpe's Eagle is a historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1981. The story is set in July 1809, in the midst of the Talavera Campaign during the Peninsular War. It was the first Sharpe novel published, but eighth in the series' chronological order.
Sharpe's Battle is the twelfth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1995. The story is set during the Peninsular War in Spain in 1811.
Sharpe's Company is a historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1982. It was the third in the series to be published, but is thirteenth in chronological order. The story is set January to August 1812 featuring the Siege of Badajoz during the Peninsular War.
Sharpe's Sword is a historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. It is the fourth in the series, being first published in 1983, though the fourteenth chronologically. Set in the summer of 1812 including the Battle of Salamanca on 22 July 1812, the story follows Sharpe and his friend Sergeant Harper involved in espionage while hunting down the sadistic and highly dangerous Colonel Philippe Leroux.
Sharpe's Eagle is the second in the series of Sharpe historical war television dramas, based on the 1981 novel of the same name. Shown on ITV in 1993, the adaptation stars Sean Bean, Daragh O'Malley and Assumpta Serna.
Sharpe's Company is a British television drama, the third of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. This episode is based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.
Sharpe's Regiment is a British television drama, the ninth of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. This episode is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.
The Battle of Sabugal was an engagement of the Peninsular War which took place on 3 April 1811 between Anglo-Portuguese forces under Arthur Wellesley and French troops under the command of Marshal André Masséna. It was the last of many skirmishes between Masséna's retreating French forces and those of the Anglo-Portuguese under Wellington, who were pursuing him after the failed 1810 French invasion of Portugal.
"Sharpe's Skirmish" is a historical short story by Bernard Cornwell in the Richard Sharpe series.
Nicholas Trant (1769-1839) was a British Army officer of Irish descent who led Portuguese irregular troops in several actions during the Peninsular War. His best known exploits were the recapture of Coimbra from the French in October 1810 and the successful defense of the line of the Mondego River in March 1811.
In the Blockade of Almeida a French garrison under Antoine François Brenier de Montmorand was surrounded by approximately 13,000 Anglo-Allied soldiers led by Generals Sir Alexander Campbell, 1st Baronet and Sir William Erskine, 2nd Baronet.
The Battle of Redinha was a rearguard action which took place on March 12, 1811, during Masséna's retreat from Portugal, by a French division under Marshal Ney against a considerably larger Anglo-Portuguese force under Wellington. Challenging the Allies with only one or two divisions, Ney's 7,000 troops were pitched against 25,000 men. In a typical rearguard action, Ney delayed the Allied advance for a day and bought valuable time for the withdrawal of the main body of the French army.
