'The Twelve Adventurers' is the first of two stories in the earliest of Charlotte Brontë's manuscripts, and was written by her when she was only twelve years of age. Her early admiration for the hero of the story, the 'Great Duke, ' was first noted by Mrs. Gaskell in The Life of Charlotte Brontë, 1857, vol. i. p. 94, where she says: All that related to him (the Duke of Wellington) belonged to the heroic age. Did Charlotte want a knight-errant, or a devoted lover, the Marquis of Douro, or Lord Charles Wellesley, came ready to her hand. There is hardly one of her prose writings at this time in which...their 'august father' does not appear as a sort of Jupiter Tonans, or Deus ex Machinâ. The country 'discovered' by the twelve adventurers became the scene of nearly all the stories written by Charlotte Brontë during the following eleven years. Originally named 'The Country of the Genii, ' the fairies deserted it after Charlotte's school-days at Roe Head (1831-1832), and the country was re-named 'The Kingdom of Angria.' The 'great city' became 'The Glass Town' or 'Verreopolis, ' which was afterwards changed to 'Verdopolis, ' the chief city of Angria.
