Lieutenant-General James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, KCB (16 October 1797 – 28 March 1868), styled as Lord Cardigan, 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 aristocrat of the period. His progression through the Army was marked by many episodes of extraordinary incompetence, but also by 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. His most notorious exploit took place during the Crimean War on 25 October 1854 when, in command of the Light Cavalry Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava, he led the Charge of the Light Brigade reaching the Russian guns before returning unscathed, in a manoeuvre that cost the lives of about 107 out of the 674 men under his command who took part in the charge (although others may have died of wounds later on). The extent to which Lord Cardigan was to blame is unproven, since he attacked only after expressing his doubts and receiving a direct order in front of the troops from his immediate superior Lord Lucan, commander of the Cavalry Division. The two men were barely on speaking terms as Lucan was married to one of Cardigan's sisters and, as Cardigan believed, did not treat her well. The order had been conveyed by Captain Louis Nolan, who died in the charge, and both Lucan and Cardigan blamed him for passing on the order incorrectly. Cardigan's first action on his return from the charge was to report the undisciplined behaviour of Captain Nolan (whom he did not know to be dead) in riding ahead of him at the start of the attack. A staff officer to army commander Lord Raglan, Colonel the Hon. Somerset John Gough Calthorpe, alleged in his book Letters from a Staff Officer in the Crimea that Cardigan had survived only because he had fled the scene before the charge made contact with the enemy. In his first edition, Calthorpe allowed that Cardigan's horse may have bolted, but later editions pointedly stated the earl was too fine a horseman for this to be a satisfactory explanation. The horse, "Ronald", a famous charger bred on Cardigan's Deene Park estate, survived the war and returned safely to England. After some preliminary legal skirmishing, Cardigan sought an indictment for criminal libel in 1863, but his action failed, although the bench made plain that it was only his competence, and not his courage, that was in doubt. They found that he had led his men onto the enemy's guns with "valour...conspicuously displayed" but thereafter "his conduct as a General was open to criticism". This conclusion is shared by historian Alexander Kinglake, who concludes that although Cardigan displayed a "want...of competence" after the charge, he had lost contact with his men only through his brave persistence in galloping too far ahead of them. There is no doubt that Cardigan had reached and overrun the enemy battery: he was recognised beyond the guns by Prince Leon Hieronim Radziwiłł (ru), an enemy officer with whom he was acquainted before the war; Radziwiłł issued instructions that Cardigan was to be taken prisoner and not killed. Cardigan, considering his duty then done and disdaining, as he later explained, to "fight the enemy among private soldiers", turned about and made his way steadily—he himself said that his return was at the walk to avoid any unseemly appearance of haste—for his own lines. Lord Lucan recalled things differently, later giving evidence that Cardigan had been galloping back, only slowing to walk when he realised he was being watched. This hurried retreat was also noticed by General Liprandi, Russian commander, who made enquiries to identify the English officer whom he saw galloping away after the attack. Officers and men of the second and third lines—men for whom as brigade commander Cardigan remained responsible—were still advancing at the charge when they saw their commander riding in retreat. Lord George Paget of the 4th Hussars later declared that Cardigan alone could issue the required orders when the time came to break off the engagement and some needless fighting, hand-to-hand and intense against great odds, could thus have been avoided. Other officers too had noticed his absence: one, Lord William Paulet on Lucan's staff, had noticed Cardigan "riding like a madman" towards the rear. When Colonel Paget, one of the last to return, encountered a "composed" Cardigan, he challenged him to account for himself. Unsatisfied with the response, Paget wrote an official complaint to the new Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of Cambridge. Cambridge forwarded the letter to Cardigan for comment and Cardigan's reply in turn complained that Paget had not in fact taken the part he claimed during the attack that day. Inconclusive claim and counter-claim followed, until Cardigan's attentions were diverted to the allegations made public when Calthorpe's book Letters went on sale. In the week following the battle of Balaclava, the remnants of the Light Brigade were posted inland, to high ground overlooking the British lines surrounding Inkerman. Cardigan, who had spent most nights of the campaign aboard his luxury yacht Dryad in Balaclava harbour, found this move a great inconvenience and his leadership of the brigade suffered as a result. He missed the Battle of Inkerman (4 and 5 November 1854), casually asking journalist William Russell (who was returning from the conflict) "What are they doing, what was the firing for...?" as he rode up from the harbour at noon on the first day. The decisive stages of the battle were on the second day and again Cardigan was absent, although he managed to arrive at a more creditable 10.15 am. The part played by the brigade was not great and, to avoid embarrassing the earl, it was not mentioned in the official account of the battle forwarded to London. Whatever Cardigan's faults, he had always tried to ensure that the troops under his command were well equipped. However, as the Crimean winter fell over the Light Brigade's exposed position, food, fodder, clothing and shelter were all in short supply. Beyond writing letters pointing out the deficiencies, Cardigan did nothing. Food and fodder were available at the coast, but he refused to release any men and horses to carry up stores, as his officers pleaded, in case of a surprise attack by the enemy and because "I had no orders to do so". Colonel Alexander Tulloch, who gave evidence to a board of enquiry into the failure, noted that in fact Cardigan had more horses than he had needed: indeed more horses than men to ride them, and wrote privately after his evidence was excluded from the final report: "Because Lord Cardigan might have had some difficulty in carrying up all the barley to which his corps was entitled he [resolved himself] therefore justified in bringing up none." There was great hardship and many horses died. On 5 December 1854, citing ill-health, Cardigan set off for England. In these circumstances, the word of an officer regarding his fitness to serve would normally be accepted, but Raglan permitted his departure only after a medical board had confirmed his claimed disability.