Anita Arnon

Because if you did have any sort of mixed blood, they would go for you, even if your dad was from the Canary Islands, right?

Yeah.

And he fought in the American Revolution.

I like to sort of think about him as kind of like a Lafayette character.

There's a revolution.

I'm on my way.

I'm on my way.

At the turn of the 19th century, Miranda was spending a lot of time in London.

He also was all about Venezuelan independence.

He'd been, as you say, in France for the revolution.

In America, he saw what was possible.

So he thought, why not for my own homeland as well?

Even Leeds actually, I mean, it's a failed attempt at independence in 1806.

And then he gets booted out of Venezuela because he's an undesirable and he moves in exile to London.

So true.

But the person who smooths that introduction, remember, is Miranda.

Miranda has a huge part to play in this because Miranda is so much seen as this wedge that can drive a space between Spain and its colonies that he can get people like Marcus of Wales to see this man Bolivar from nowhere who's supposedly representing the King of Spain and who is doing no such thing.

But they do, they kind of like each other, they get on with each other.

And there are some very important seeds that are sown at this meeting with the Marquess of Wales, the Apsley House.

Because later on in this story, you are going to see six and a half thousand British volunteers joining Bolivar and actually at one point saving his life, but more of that to come.