A ballad by the name "Spanish Ladies" was registered in the English Stationer's Company on December 14, 1624, however the song with its present lyrics was more likely of the Napoleonic era, probably created during the First Coalition (1793–96) when the British navy carried supplies to Spain to aid its resistance to revolutionary France. Also perhaps in the later Peninsular War when British soldiers were transported to Spain to assist fighting against French occupation but after victory forbidden to bring home with them any Spanish wives, lovers or children.