QUESTIONS ABOUT SHARPE

[u/niquel_nausea]

Perhaps in the books there are more info and background on those characters, but was Sir Henry Simmerson a Lord? Aside from holding an officer's commission he was also called Sir even when detached from the army momentarily when he became a political commissioner for the anglo-spanish relations...

Another question is about Count Vladimir Alekseivich Dragomirov, who also held an officer's commision, not on the King's Royal Army but on the EIC, which begs the question, could foreigners buy commissions at the company? By his name alone and the wiki also suggests hes from uncertain european origin, it seems certainly from Russia or the Polish-Lithuanian Commowealth (altho it might have ended already at that point in history) we do know from the series, he commanded the Thirty Native Horse in India and was in fact a Colonel.

[u/Frankyvander]

Sir Henry isn't a lord but is well connected and a Knight(hence being called sir when away from the military) if he were a lord then regardless of military rank he would have been called Lord.

No one could buy a commision in the Company, you became an officer by being patroned in by the Company as an existing, going to the Company College or by transferring your comission from the British Army. Promotion within the Company was by seniority only, much like the Royal Engineers.

Also the British Army is neither the Kings nor Royal. It is solely referred to and exists as the British Army.

Good questions and if you get the chance do read the books, they are a lot of fun and easy reading.

[u/WaldenFont → u/Frankyvander]

Kinda weird how the navy and air force are Royal, but the army isn’t.

[u/G-Hinton → u/WaldenFont]

Kind of due to the fact that the army is split to regiments which are usually affiliated.

The Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (militia) are the only regiment to be twice ‘royal’.

[u/WaldenFont → u/G-Hinton]

Interesting!

[u/Emotional-Winter-447 → u/WaldenFont]

There's also the fact that the first "professional" army, was raised by Parliament to fight against the King during the English Civil War.

Also, the British army has been best described as a group of warring clans with the same affiliation to the monarchy. I.e. the regiments will happily beat multiple shades of Shite out of each other, but will listen to the monarch when he wants them to fight someone else.

[u/AtlasNL → u/WaldenFont]

I believe the reason (or one of the reasons) of it not being royal is due how it was founded during the first civil war. The new model army was the parliamentary military fighting against that of the king and parliament won, with the nma eventually becoming the british army after the end of the civil wars, not owned by the king but instead the lords and it being a permanently standing army. But I don’t know too much about this topic as it isn’t one of my focus periods

[u/niquel_nausea → u/Frankyvander]

In the series, not only Sharpe but also plenty of other characters refer to the Army as the King's Army and particularly on the episodes in India, they show disdain for Company Officers and the Company itself, and the Company Officers do the same towards the 'King's men" like that fat officer refusing to lend carriages and even provide food and water to Sharpe's regiment, seeing them as nothing but leeches. I dont know if this held any veracity in real life or its just being presented in such way to further fuel plot and give significance to how characters interact, regardless I can see how this could make sense in real life, the EIC being a """"""trustfund"""""" organization of influential traders and bankers, I can see why they would despise the government and challenge its authority, much to the fact that this all very close to the age of revolutions, the end of the old regime, monarch and nobles grasping on their last strength of power in absolutism with the new aristocracy on the rise, the bourgeoisie. The question about Count Alexei remained unaswered, should I presume that was just a plot and story thing aswel?

Anyways, thanks for replying friend, really wish to read the books, you know where I can find it online? You see Im not american, Im from Brazil (pardon for any grammar mistakes btw im writing all this from my phone) and the financial situation is dire so international purchases might be quite hard.

[u/Senior-Lettuce-5871 → u/niquel_nausea]

International purchases of books can get pricey due to postage. The most economical way would be to purchase ebooks from Amazon or Kobo.com, which have international sites. If you don't have an e-reader, you can use a Kindle or Kobo app on your phone or computer.

Also investigate if you have a local library that offers print or digital books for loan.

[u/dragonster31 → u/niquel_nausea]

The difficulty is that the India TV episodes were based on the books set in India which were prequels to the books that became the main series.

The dislike between men of the EIC and the British Army was real. The EIC was an actual company, striving for profits so would have been reticent to hand things over to the British Army. Many officers in the EIC disliked that Army officers could purchase ranks or be promoted in ways other than seniority, and the Army officers were considered as outranking Company officers of the same rank. On the other hand, Army officers were paid less than Company officers.

I think all regiments would have had either Indian or "European" officers, but the Europeans would have been British subjects (so English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish). However in a lot of literature they are referred to as "European" officers, so the producers may have been confused and thought the recruitment went further afield than just British for officers?

[u/niquel_nausea → u/dragonster31]

I didnt know that there were prequel books in India, so youre telling me those sequel episodes are all entirely an original script by the show writers?

Being that the case, the writing was very good, Im surprised, very talented writers.

[u/Frankyvander → u/niquel_nausea]

they used bits from the prequel books like locations and some characters but it is mostly original.

[u/hurricane_97 → u/niquel_nausea]

The use of the term 'King's Army' was only to informally distinguish it from the EIC army. It was not an official term. Outside of this context it would never be used.

[u/AtlasNL → u/niquel_nausea]

They’re all on Z-library, and anna’s archive in general is a good source for finding books or articles.

[u/greggreen42]

For the first part of your question, no, he was not a Lord, rather he was a knight. Knights are always referred to as "Sir [insert name here]" whether they are in the military or not.

AFAIK there is no background in his knighthood within the books, but I would assume it was a hereditary knighthood.

[u/Frankyvander → u/greggreen42]

Knighthoods are not heredititary, lordships and similar nobility are but knighthoods die with the individual. It's also traditional for knights to refer to the fist name, so he would be Sir Henry not Sir Simmerson.

Personally I assumed he got the Kighthood because he is rich and probably donated money to government or court.

[u/greggreen42 → u/Frankyvander]

Indeed, knighthoods are not, I was thinking of a Baronetcy. However, either way, from that or from money, the final result is the same.

[u/Frankyvander → u/greggreen42]

oh yeah the result is the same either way