I think this is more than a pedantic nit to pick....
Further to questions of anachronism in work I was lately reading.
(And in minor quibbles, I would not think 'rubber' was a commodity anyone would be making major dosh in during the Regency - see vulcanisation.)
This was absolutely basic backstory setup. Our Hero is a Duke. He is the sole heir to his father, so he is not Unexpected Heir to Dukedom plucked from unexpected circumstances. He was on good terms with his parents so there was not any matter of Running Off to do something Unsuited to His Rank to spite them.
If he obits sans issue, a loathsome cousin whom he considers will not take the proper attitude towards Dukely Responsibilities will inherit.
Therefore, it is imperative for him to be about Begetting Offspring, Male.
However, he has been Horribly Disfigured in a explosion and the engagement to woman he was betrothed to is off on account of she is repelled by the sight of him and he is desperate to contract a marriage of convenience to some woman in equally desperate circs, stat.
And how did he come by this disfigurement?
Why, he, the Sole Hope of His Line, was in the Battle of Waterloo.
I cannot even.
What was he doing anywhere near a battlefield? (rather than, following the advice of John Donne, doing 'More glorious service, staying to make men'.) Dukes' acknowledged heirs did not pursue a military career, which was traditionally the resort of younger sons, no?
Any duke who was on the battlefield was a career soldier who had been elevated to that rank for his Services to the Nation in thrashing Boney, O Hai Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington!
Surely, if you have to have your hero horribly blown up in order to be tortured and brooding and to get him into a Romantickal Contrivance (I have a lot less problem with this, which is a Literary Device and gets a pass), could he not, I dunno, have mines as part of his Dukely inheritance and be involved in a mining accident? Fall foul of a spring-gun set by a Wicked Gamekeeper on one of his estates? Have a mate doing Scientifick Experimentation who blows them both up?
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