Sharpe | "A Man Who Loses The Kings Colours Loses The Kings Friendship"

Sir Henry tries to make Sharpe a scapegoat and intends on ruining Sharpe's career via his connections at Horse Guards. Sharpe concludes that only by capturing an Eagle can he remain in the army and keep his promotion.

From Season 1 Episode 2 "Sharpe's Eagle": It is July 1809. During the Talavera Campaign, Sir Arthur Wellesley's army has entered Spain to confront Marshal Victor. Richard Sharpe and his small group of thirty riflemen, separated from their regiment during the retreat from Corunna, are attached to the newly arrived South Essex Regiment.

From Talavera, General Wellesley dispatches the South Essex, alongside Sharpe's riflemen and Major Michael Hogan's engineers, to blow up the bridge at Valdelacasa. Due to a combination of arrogance, poor training and incompetence, the two regiments are routed by the French, with hundreds of men killed and wounded, Lennox fatally wounded by the enemy, and the loss of the King's Colours.

Sharpe's old friend, Lieutenant Colonel William Lawford, relieves Simmerson of command and orders the South Essex back into position, where their volleys destroy the column's cohesion. Sharpe leads the Light Company and his rifles into the fray and captures a French regiment's Eagle. Returning from the battlefield, Sharpe is ambushed by Gibbons, who attempts to murder Sharpe and take the Eagle for himself, but is killed by Harper. The capture of the Eagle secures Sharpe's promotion and restores the honour of the South Essex.