 Flashman's first and middle names were invented for the character as Hughes's novel does not give Flashman's first name.Fraser uses the names to make an ironic allusion to Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, one of the heroes of Waterloo, who cuckolded the Duke of Wellington's brother Henry Wellesley and later—in one of the period's more celebrated scandals—married Wellesley's ex-wife.In "Flashman", Flashman says that his great-grandfather, Jack Flashman, made the family fortune in America, trading in rum, slaves and "piracy too, I shouldn't wonder".