James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan
| The Earl of Cardigan | |
|---|---|
Lieutenant General James Thomas Brudenell,
7th Earl of Cardigan |
|
| Born |
16 October 1797 Hambleden, Buckinghamshire, England, Great Britain |
| Died | 28 March 1868 (aged 70) Deene Park, Northamptonshire, England, UK |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch |
 British Army
|
| Years of service | 1824–1866 |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Unit |
8th King's Royal Irish Hussars 15th The King's Hussars 11th Hussars |
| Commands held | Light Cavalry Brigade |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards |
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Legion of Honour (France) |
Lieutenant General James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan KCB (16 October 1797 – 28 March 1868) was an officer in the British Army who commanded the Light Brigade during the Crimean War. He led the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava.
Throughout his life in politics and his long military career he characterised the arrogant and extravagant of the period. His progression through the Army was marked by many episodes of extraordinary incompetence, but this can be measured against his generosity to the men under his command and genuine bravery. As a member of the landed aristocracy he had actively and steadfastly opposed any political reform in Britain, but in the last year of his life he relented and came to acknowledge that such reform would bring benefit to all classes of society.
James Brudenell was born in a modest, by the standards of the Brudenell family, manor house at Hambleden, Buckinghamshire. In February 1811 his father inherited the Cardigan earldom, along with the immense estates and revenues that went with it, and the family seat of Deene Park, Northamptonshire. James accordingly became "Lord Brudenell", and took up residence in the most grand of households, at the age of fourteen.
He was educated at Harrow where, notwithstanding the fears of his family that a childhood head injury caused by a dangerous fall from a horse had seriously damaged his intellect, he showed aptitude in Greek and Latin. He made good academic progress, but after he had settled a quarrel with another pupil by an organised fist-fight, his father removed him from the school. (Fist fights were tolerated at Harrow: it was the fact of Brudenell's receiving punishment for unauthorised absence while having a broken bone in his hand attended to by a London surgeon that had annoyed the earl.) He was subsequently educated at home. Here, as the only son among seven sisters, he developed into something of a spoilt child, accustomed to getting his own way. This is seen as a cause of his arrogance and stubbornness in later life.
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