Wealth versus Merit

A recurring theme throughout Sharpe's Eagle is that of promotion and status based on wealth and power versus promotion based on merit and performance. Richard Sharpe came from an impoverished background, but he has worked hard and used his natural talents to succeed. Sharpe has been rewarded for his performance by promotion from the enlisted ranks to an officer's commission. But other far less talented and experienced men have been given far greater rewards because of their wealth and social standing.

Sir Henry Simmerson and his nephew Christian Gibbons epitomize what Richard Sharpe sees as an unfair and harmful system. They have no military experience and seemingly little intelligence. They regard all those of lower social standing as inferior, and they treat soldiers under their command as garbage. Sharpe and others see Simmerson and Gibbons as a greater danger to the British troops than the French...