Take Juana for example… do we truly understand her thoughts and feelings when her character seems to be based on the writings of her husband, rather than her own words?Īnd Harry? Do we really need to know so much about his boils?Īnd then there’s the whole thorny issue of Juana being 14 when she marries. We also talk about the impact of a novel being based on real people, with details drawn from their memoirs. She brings alive military life during the Regency period, how the armies marched and fought, as well as how the nobility provided for its own comfort with servants, horses, dogs and furniture.Early on in this episode we talk about the horrors of war, including rape and murder, so do please skip past this episode if that’s not what you need to hear about right now. Heyer's research encompassed every available diary from that time period, including Harry Smith's, and all of the Duke of Wellington's writings and dispatches. It was her love that took her from the battlefields of Spain to fashionable London and the agony of Waterloo.īased on the true love story during the Peninsular Wars, when the Duke of Wellington's forces fought Napoleon's army in Spain and Portugal. In spite of the danger, Juana thrived on military life and her passionate, if somewhat stormy. Juana became a camp favorite, charming all with her youthful enthusiasm.

For the first time in his reckless life, Captain Smith was afraid.Īfter getting married, the Spanish bride 'followed the drum,' marching at the back of the troops along with the other wives and the officers' servants. What had he done? He looked into her eyes and read a girl's hero-worship there. Had he the right to lead her into a life of the cold of an officer's tent in winter, the searing sun and horror of the summer's battles? She was alone among foreigners, barely out of the convent, bred to the sheltered life of a noble lady.

Harry looked down at his little bride, and with all of his will mastered the desire to crush her in his arms. As he led her to his tent, the laughter of the wedding faded. In his child-bride, Juana María de los Dolores de León, he finds a kindred spirit, and a temper to match.

With the same ardour he so frequently displays in battle, Henry Smith dives headlong into marriage. From the moment that 14 years old beautiful Doña Juana María de los Dolores de León looked into the eyes of Harry Smith, the dare-devil officer in the rifle-green, she knew they were made for each other. Yet at the seige of Badjos in 1812, his friends foretell the ruin of his career. Shot-proof, fever-proof and a veteran campaigner at the age of 25, Brigade-Major Henry George Wakelyn Smith is reputed to be the luckiest man in Lord Wellington's army.

The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer