As a child, Cornwell loved the novels of C. S. Forester chronicling the adventures of fictional British naval officer Horatio Hornblower during the Napoleonic Wars. He was surprised to find that there were no such novels following Lord Wellington's campaign on land, so he wrote that series himself—further motivated by the need to support himself through writing. He created his chief protagonist as a rifleman involved in most of the major battles of the Peninsular War, taking the character's name from rugby player Richard Sharp.