Peninsular War - Cultural

Cultural

Goya's series of 82 prints The Disasters of War (1810–20) remains the most famous and powerful depiction of the war and its effects on the civilian population. The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki (1814) is narrated from the time of the Peninsular War. Prosper Mérimée's Carmen (1845), on which Bizet's opera (1875) was based, is set during the war. The Spanish zarzuela, La Viejecita (1897) set in 1812, celebrates the entry of the joint forces into Madrid. The C. S. Forester novel Death to the French (1932) concerns a private in a British Rifle Regiment who is cut off from his unit and joins a group of Portuguese guerrillas. The 1957 motion picture The Pride and the Passion, also set during the war, was based on Forester's The Gun (1933). F. L. Lucas's novel The English Agent – A Tale of the Peninsular War (1969), about the Battle of Bailén and its aftermath, is the account of a British Army officer who, gathering information before the first British landings, buys a Frenchwoman at auction to save her from the Spanish mob. Lucas's poem "Spain 1809" (in From Many Times and Lands, 1953), the story of a Spanish village woman's courage during the French occupation, was turned into the play A Kind of Justice by Margaret Wood (1966). Curro Jiménez was a successful Spanish TV series (1976–79) about a generous bandit fighting against the French in the Sierra Morena. The Sharpe novels (1981–2007) by Bernard Cornwell were a series likewise following the adventures of a British Army officer and set, partly, during the Peninsular War. They were later made into a series of television movies featuring actor Sean Bean as Sharpe (see Sharpe (TV series)). A short but dramatic episode from the war is given in Gary Jennings's Aztec Rage. A board wargame called Wellington – The Peninsular War 1812–1814 was produced by GMT Games in 2005.

The Peninsular War saw the first use of medal bars. Also known as "devices", these are clasps affixed to the ribbons from which medals are suspended. The Peninsular Medal, more properly known as the Army Gold Medal, was issued to senior officers in Wellington's army. Clasps were added, each giving the name of a major battle in which the holder participated. When four clasps were earned a Peninsular Cross was awarded. Each arm was inscribed with one of the battles named on an earned clasp. Subsequent clasps were then added to the ribbon. Wellington's Peninsular Cross, featuring a unique nine clasps (thirteen battles), can be seen on his uniform in the basement of Apsley House. In 1847, the surviving lower ranked officers and enlisted men received the Military General Service Medal, with battle clasps, for service in this conflict.