[3] 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.

[4] Brudenell was a fine rider and, inspired by the decisive role of cavalry at the battle of Waterloo, his wish was to purchase a commission in a fashionable regiment and serve as an army officer.

[10] In February 1818, during his last term at Oxford, and again following his father's wishes, he became Member of Parliament (MP) for Marlborough, a pocket borough owned by his cousin Charles, Marquess of Ailesbury.

[15] He was serving with his regiment in India in 1837 and did not seek re-election at the general election that year; a few days after it took place he inherited the earldom from his father, together with the extensive family estates, including Deene Park.

Adeline, excluded from fashionable society for the rest of her days, accustomed herself to life in the country, happily forsaking her previous interests of books, painting and music, while Cardigan spent large sums of money making their home together comfortable.

[16] Making extensive use of the purchase of commissions system then in use, he became a lieutenant in January 1825, a captain in June 1826, a major in August 1830 and a lieutenant-colonel, albeit on half-pay, only three months later, on 3 December 1830.

[32] After a leisurely passage with his wife, he joined his new command in India in October of the following year, just in time to enjoy some tiger-shooting before seeing the regiment off for Britain at the end of its long posting.

[38] Reynolds was arrested and in due course received a strongly worded reprimand from Lord Hill, who although privately believing that his misgivings about Cardigan had been well founded, felt that, in the interests of good order and discipline, a public demonstration of support was necessary.

[39] Reynolds's guardian sent the details of the case to all the London papers and for many months thereafter Cardigan, his regiment and the commander-in-chief were subject to ridicule, hissing and cat-calls of "black bottle" whenever they appeared in public.

This added to his unpopularity, with The Times alleging that there was deliberate, high-level complicity to leave the loop-hole in the prosecution's case and reporting the view that "in England there is one law for the rich and another for the poor" and The Examiner describing the verdict as "a defeat of justice".

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.

[60][61] 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.

[62] 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.

[64] 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.

[65][68] 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.

Cardigan, who had spent most nights of the campaign aboard his luxury sailing yacht Dryad in Balaclava harbour,[73] found this move a great inconvenience and his leadership of the brigade suffered as a result.

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,[76] in case of a surprise attack by the enemy and because "I had no orders to do so".

[80] Conveyed on the gunboat HMS Caradoc (1847) to Scutari, where he visited the military hospital, he embarked for Marseilles on the P&O steamer PS Ripon on 26 December 1854, continuing by train, via Paris, to Boulogne.

[81] Newspaper accounts of the gallant charge had been given wide circulation in England by the time Cardigan's ship berthed at the port of Folkestone on 13 January 1855 and the town offered him a rapturous welcome.

[83] Victoria noted how "modestly" he presented his story,[82] but this reticence was absent in his public appearances: on 5 February, he gave a highly exaggerated account of his participation in the charge at a banquet held in his honour at the Mansion House, London.

[84] On 8 February, at a speech in his home town of Northampton, he went even further, describing how he had shared the privations of his men by living the "whole time in a common tent" and how, after the charge, he had rallied his troops and pursued the fleeing enemy artillerymen as far as the Tchernaya river.

[82] Cardigan was able to enjoy many months of adulation before doubts about his conduct emerged: the government recommended him for the Order of the Garter, although the Queen denied him this honour because of the previous unseemly incidents in his private life.

On 1 February 1855 he was made Inspector-General of Cavalry and he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (along with Commissary-General William Filder, General James Airey and Lord Lucan) on 7 July 1855.

[86] Merchants, eager to profit from his fame, sold pictures depicting his role in the charge and written chronicles, based on his own accounts, were rushed into print.

He was possibly an unwise choice as his arrogant behaviour towards his hosts, themselves no strangers to high self-esteem among military officers, resulted in numerous challenges to duel; he was quickly sent home.

[99] In 1866 he was, with Thomas Carlyle, one of the organisers of public demonstrations of support for Edward Eyre, controversial Governor of Jamaica, against allegations that he had dealt too harshly with the Morant Bay rebellion of the previous October.

In acknowledging his change of heart he said that the time for trying to stem the tide of reform, an endeavour in which he had long strived, had passed and given "good luck" the extension of the vote would "confer ... a great benefit upon every class of the community".

[104] He died on 28 March 1868 from injuries sustained the previous day, caused by a fall from a dangerous horse "he would not have permitted any friend to ride",[105] possibly following a stroke,[106] and was buried in a specially built tomb in the family chapel at St Peter's Church, Deene.

The 9th edition (1889) of the Encyclopædia Britannica noted that his actions at Balaclava had become "the subject of much controversy, some critics having an eye only to the splendid daring and unquestioning obedience to orders, and others seeing only a foolhardy and unjustifiable throwing away of valuable lives",[109] while the 11th edition (1910–11) rephrased the passage to read that "Cardigan and his men alike have been credited by the bitterest critics of the charge with splendid daring and unquestioning obedience to orders".

[110] In her sweeping condemnation of the Victorian class system, The Reason Why (1953), Cecil Woodham-Smith used the Earl as a prism on the ills of British society of the time (but conceded that in the Charge itself Cardigan conducted himself with unwavering courage and discipline).