Siege of Badajoz (1812) - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

In Thomas Hood's poem Faithless Nelly Gray (1826), the protagonist tells Nelly that, "At duty's call I left my legs, In Badajos's breaches."

The plot of both the novel & TV adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Company, revolves around the events of Badajoz. Richard Sharpe, and his handful of chosen men are finally successful storming the walls and holding them till reinforced, after many other attacks had been repulsed.

The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer is a historical novel which opens with the taking of Badajoz (spelled “Badajos” in the novel) and tells the story of the marriage of Juana de los Dolores de León (the Lady Smith after whom the town in South Africa was later named and who died in 1872) and Brigade-Major (as he was then) Harry Smith. The same story formed part of the narrative of "The Other Side of the Hill" by Peter Luke.

In An Act of Courage by Allan Mallinson his hero Matthew Hervey is imprisoned in Badajoz in 1826, and recalls taking part in the siege. The bad behaviour of the British troops is emphasised; indeed, Hervey kills one of them himself.

The siege of Badajoz is also the setting for Old Sam's Christmas Pudding, a humorous monologue by Marriott Edgar featuring Sam Small, the character created by Stanley Holloway.

Ra's al Ghul, a near-immortal supervillain and arch-enemy of Batman claims to have led the siege on Badajoz after being foiled in his search for the Holy Grail, in the Batman comic The Chalice.