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| Harry and Juana Smith, painted in London when Juana was about 17 (around 1816) |
Introduction to these pages
In 1939 while Heyer was researching her epic Waterloo novel "An Infamous Army", she came across a little known autobiography by a Sir Harry Smith. In his own words it was 'written on the gallop,' and it shows. While it is not a brilliant piece of writing, it does tell an incredible story of love and adventure. His own story of how as a young soldier he met and married a young Spanish girl, just turned 14 years of age, in the middle of the Peninsular War. Heyer was clearly fascinated by this amazing meeting and marriage and their subsequent life as they followed the drum together first campaigning on the peninsula until the war ended in 1814, later at Waterloo and then all around the world. She limited her story to the most tempestuous years of their life - from when they married within two days of meeting in April 1812, to the conclusion of the Napoleonic wars in the decisive bloody battle of Waterloo on June 18th 1815.'The Spanish Bride' has never rated in the popularity stakes for Heyer fans. There are long scenes where people just seem to march all over the place without any sense. Few people really know or care what the Peninsular War was all about and 'Waterloo' is just a song that once made Abba famous.
Which is fine, not everyone is keen on military history, but I hope some people will enjoy the book more with a little background so these pages have been designed to help you put the book in perspective while you are reading it.
Just added! "Voices" - This section can be found on the Regency Collection and has accounts from the diarists of the day in their own words of some of the events and life on the peninsula in general.
How to use the Spanish Bride Web site
Short and simple
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The top six pages on the right are held on the Web site and have everything essential you'll need for understanding
The Spanish Bride. The Notes and Queries have been divided into their chapters and put on a white
background so you should be able to print them off easily.
Instead of restricting myself to explaining only the issues, I have added some quotes from contemporaries to give you a feel for what the life was like at the time. The page numbering is from my Pan Giant edition of the novel. I am pretty sure I have listed everything by page that I think people will ask but if you have any other questions you should email me.
Just added to this is the Epilogue which tells in brief, the story of what happened to Juana and Harry after Waterloo. There are also 2 more portraits of Harry in later life and one of Juana on this page.
The other pages listed are extra resources for that give extra explanation if you would like to go beyond the general scope of these pages. They mostly just explain things in a bit deeper detail of the period, who the people were, and the army of the time.
For those that are interested - the background for this site comes from Laurie Osbourne who kindly provided the artwork from a copy of "The Spanish Bride" and gave it to me a range of colours. I've chosen to use green, not only because it is my favourite colour, but because green was the uniform colour of the 95th Regiment.
On a matter Heyer, the background for this page is courtesy of Laurie Osborne - the site is well worth a look for its extensive collection of covers and pictures that can be used as backgrounds etc
Laurie Osborne's Homepage
The Spanish Bride Web site is part of the Heyer collection of pages made possible by our Patroness. To see what other pages, links and other bits on bobs of interest about Heyer then see
The Heyer Home Page
 Regency Ring site is owned by Anne. |
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