1.
Kingdom of Great Britain
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The Kingdom of Great Britain, officially Great Britain, was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 31 December 1800. It did not include Ireland, which remained a separate realm, the unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster. Also after the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, the early years of the unified kingdom were marked by Jacobite risings which ended in defeat for the Stuart cause at Culloden in 1746. On 1 January 1801, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom, the name Britain descends from the Latin name for the island of Great Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, the land of the Britons via the Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The term Great Britain was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Edward IV of Englands daughter Cecily and James III of Scotlands son James. The Treaty of Union and the subsequent Acts of Union state that England and Scotland were to be United into one Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain. However, both the Acts and the Treaty also refer numerous times to the United Kingdom and the longer form, other publications refer to the country as the United Kingdom after 1707 as well. The websites of the UK parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the BBC, additionally, the term United Kingdom was found in informal use during the 18th century to describe the state. The new state created in 1707 included the island of Great Britain, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, both in existence from the 9th century, were separate states until 1707. However, they had come into a union in 1603. Each of the three kingdoms maintained its own parliament and laws and this disposition changed dramatically when the Acts of Union 1707 came into force, with a single unified Crown of Great Britain and a single unified parliament. Ireland remained formally separate, with its own parliament, until the Acts of Union 1800, legislative power was vested in the Parliament of Great Britain, which replaced both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In practice it was a continuation of the English parliament, sitting at the location in Westminster. Newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain were given the right to sit in the Lords. Despite the end of a parliament for Scotland, it retained its own laws. As a result of Poynings Law of 1495, the Parliament of Ireland was subordinate to the Parliament of England, the Act was repealed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782. The same year, the Irish constitution of 1782 produced a period of legislative freedom, the 18th century saw England, and after 1707 Great Britain, rise to become the worlds dominant colonial power, with France its main rival on the imperial stage
2.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
3.
British Army
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The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. As of 2017 the British Army comprises just over 80,000 trained Regular, or full-time, personnel and just over 26,500 trained Reserve, or part-time personnel. Therefore, the UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the Army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years, day to day the Army comes under administration of the Ministry of Defence and is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. Repeatedly emerging victorious from these decisive wars allowed Britain to influence world events with its policies and establish itself as one of the leading military. In 1660 the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were restored under Charles II, Charles favoured the foundation of a new army under royal control and began work towards its establishment by August 1660. The Royal Scots Army and the Irish Army were financed by the Parliament of Scotland, the order of seniority of the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. At that time there was only one English regiment of dragoons, after William and Marys accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance, primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring Marys father, James II. Spain, in the two centuries, had been the dominant global power, and the chief threat to Englands early transatlantic ambitions. The territorial ambitions of the French, however, led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. From the time of the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, Great Britain was the naval power. As had its predecessor, the English Army, the British Army fought the Kingdoms of Spain, France, and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. With native and provincial assistance, the Army conquered New France in the North American theatre of the Seven Years War, the British Army suffered defeat in the American War of Independence, losing the Thirteen Colonies but holding on to Canada. The British Army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars and served in campaigns across Europe. The war between the British and the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte stretched around the world and at its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. A Coalition of Anglo-Dutch and Prussian Armies under the Duke of Wellington, the English had been involved, both politically and militarily, in Ireland since being given the Lordship of Ireland by the Pope in 1171. The campaign of the English republican Protector, Oliver Cromwell, involved uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, the English Army stayed in Ireland primarily to suppress numerous Irish revolts and campaigns for independence. Having learnt from their experience in America, the British government sought a political solution, the British Army found itself fighting Irish rebels, both Protestant and Catholic, primarily in Ulster and Leinster in the 1798 rebellion. The Haldane Reforms of 1907 formally created the Territorial Force as the Armys volunteer reserve component by merging and reorganising the Volunteer Force, Militia, Great Britains dominance of the world had been challenged by numerous other powers, in the 20th century, most notably Germany
4.
Battle of Balaclava
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The Allies decided against an immediate assault on Sevastopol and instead prepared for a protracted siege. However, this committed the British to the defence of the right flank of the Allied siege operations. The battle began with a Russian artillery and infantry attack on the Ottoman redoubts that formed Balaclavas first line of defence, the Ottoman forces initially resisted the Russian assaults, but lacking support they were eventually forced to retreat. When the redoubts fell, the Russian cavalry moved to engage the second defensive line held by the Ottoman, the British and French fleets departed from the Bulgarian port of Varna on 5 September 1854, heading towards Kalamita Bay in the Crimea. By the 14th, the troops began to land, within four days the Allied force of 61,400 infantry,1,200 cavalry and 137 guns, was ashore. News of Menshikovs defeat was met with disbelief by Tsar Nicholas I in St. Petersburg – it seemed it would only be a matter of time before Sevastopol fell. It is frightful to think what might have happened, wrote Vice-Admiral Kornilov, had it not been for this error of the enemys. John Burgoyne, the British Armys most experienced engineer, advocated an attack on Sevastopol from the south which and this was a view shared by Saint-Arnaud who, having received his own intelligence of Russian reinforcements, had refused to agree to an attack from the north. Burgoynes proposed flank march required the Allies to go round the city to the east in order to attack the harbour from the south where the defences were weakest. Whilst Menshikov moved east, the Anglo-French-Turkish army, with the British in the vanguard, the heat was oppressive, the water sparse, and cholera rife, taking a heavy toll on the men including Saint-Arnaud who was already ill with cancer. The march had been a trial and was not without incident. By the 26th, however, Raglan had reached the village of Kadikoi and that same day Saint-Arnaud, now critically ill, surrendered his command to General Canrobert. The harbour at Balaclava was too small for both Allied armies to use, by rights the French, who had claimed the honour of holding the right of the line, should have occupied Balaclava whilst the British should have moved west to the ports of Kazatch and Kamiesh. The decision by Raglan was a bad mistake, and one for which the British Army was to pay a terrible price, for many, the only justification for the flank march was an immediate assault upon Sevastopol. George Cathcart, commander of the British 4th Division, pleaded with Raglan for instant action, I am sure I could walk into it, with scarcely the loss of a man, wrote Cathcart to Raglan on 28 September from the heights above the eastern approach to the city. We could leave our packs, and run into it even in open day … We see people walking about the streets in great consternation, but caution prevailed, and plans by Burgoyne for a formal siege, backed by Canrobert, were prepared. When Raglan told Cathcart that nothing would happen until the Allied siege trains had been landed, Cathcart could not hide his irritation, but my dear Lord Raglan, what the devil is there to knock down. Having decided upon which port they would occupy the Allies set about deploying their forces on the Chersonese Peninsula, the peninsula is bounded to the north by Sevastopol Harbour, at the head of which the River Chernaya flows from the south-east
5.
James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan
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Lieutenant General James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan KCB 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 episodes of extraordinary incompetence. 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 estates and revenues that went with it. James accordingly became Lord Brudenell, and took up residence in the most grand of households and 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. 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. Brudenell was a 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. His father, however, mindful of preserving the family pedigree from risk of battle, instead in November 1815 he was sent up to Christ Church, Oxford, as an aristocrat he was automatically granted admission without examination. He left in his third year—aristocrats with no academic bent were released only two years—but despite showing some aptitude, he did not take a degree. The intention was to give Brudenell a grounding in parliamentary affairs before, eventually, Brudenells first action on leaving Oxford was not to take his parliamentary seat but, as was traditional for wealthy young men of the time, to take the Grand Tour. His itinerary, with Russia and Sweden included, was more extensive than the destinations of France. The trip allowed Brudenell to enjoy the pleasures of both cultural and social opportunities afforded by the countries he visited. On his return Brudenell took his seat in the House of Commons, naturally on the ruling, Tory, side of the House. His contribution to government was minimal, he served with parliamentarians, such as Canning, Peel and Castlereagh, of commitment and intellect. On one issue, however, he made a stand, in 1829 his party introduced a bill allowing limited Catholic emancipation but his patron, cousin Charles, instructed him to oppose it. In three crucial votes Brudenell abstained, because of his admiration for Wellington, the bills sponsor and his return to parliament in 1830 cost him dearly
6.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
7.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
8.
10th Royal Hussars
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The 10th Royal Hussars was a cavalry regiment of the British Army raised in 1715. It saw service for three including the First World War and Second World War but then amalgamated with the 11th Hussars to form the Royal Hussars in October 1969. The regiment was raised at Hertford by Brigadier-General Humphrey Gore as Humphrey Gores Regiment of Dragoons in 1715 as part of the response to the Jacobite rising. The regiment was involved in cavalry charges at both the Battle of Falkirk Muir in January 1746 and the Battle of Culloden in April 1746 during the next Jacobite rising and it was retitled as the 10th Regiment of Dragoons in 1751. The regiment took part in the Raid on St Malo in June 1758 during the Seven Years War and it also saw action at the Battle of Minden in August 1759, the Battle of Warburg in July 1760 and the Battle of Kloster Kampen in October 1760. At Kloster Kampen the regiments commanding officer, Colonel William Pitt, was badly wounded, the regiment went on to take part in the Battle of Villinghausen in July 1761. In 1779, the troop was detached to form the 19th Regiment of Dragoons. In June 1794 Beau Brummell, who became an arbiter of fashion in regency London. In 1806, the regiment was again re-designated, this becoming a hussar regiment as the 10th Regiment of Dragoons. The regiment saw action at the Battle of Sahagún in December 1808, at Benavente the regiment captured General Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes, the French cavalry commander. The regiment then took part in the Battle of Corunna in January 1809 before returning to England. In 1813, having landed once more in Spain, the regiment fought at the Battle of Morales in June 1813, during the battle the regiment destroyed the 16th French Dragoons between Toro and Zamora, taking around 260 prisoners. As part of the 6th Cavalry Brigade, the regiment charged the French cavalry and infantry at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. The regiment was sent to India in 1846 and then saw action at the Siege of Sevastopol in winter 1854, in 1861, it was renamed the 10th Royal Hussars. The regiment saw action at the Battle of Ali Masjid in November 1878 during the Second Anglo-Afghan War and at the First, with the outbreak of the Second Boer War, the regiment sailed for South Africa in 1899. After fighting at Colesberg, the regiment participated in the relief of Kimberley in February 1900 and it was also involved at the Battle of Diamond Hill in June 1900. The regiment was deployed in action on the North-West Frontier in 1909. After brief service in Ireland after the war, the regiment returned to the UK in 1921 and was retitled the 10th Royal Hussars, deploying to Egypt in 1929 and India in 1930, the regiment returned to the UK in 1936 and began the process of mechanisation. It was assigned to the 2nd Armoured Brigade of the 1st Armoured Division in 1939, at the same time, it became part of the Royal Armoured Corps
9.
Thomas Gage
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Thomas Gage was a British general best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as military commander in the early days of the American Revolution. After the fall of Montreal in 1760, he was named its military governor, during this time he did not distinguish himself militarily, but proved himself to be a competent administrator. From 1763 to 1775 he served as commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, in 1774 he was also appointed the military governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, with instructions to implement the Intolerable Acts, punishing Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. His attempts to seize military stores of Patriot militias in April 1775 sparked the Battles of Lexington and Concord, after the Pyrrhic victory in the June Battle of Bunker Hill he was replaced by General William Howe in October 1775, and returned to Great Britain. Thomas Gage was born on 10 March 1718/19 and christened 31 March 1719 at Westminster St James, Middlesex, England, son of Thomas Gage, 1st Viscount Gage, Firle Place, Firle, Sussex, is where the Gage family had been seated since the 15th century. His father, Thomas Gage, 1st Viscount Gage, was a noted nobleman given titles in Ireland, Thomas Gage had three children, of whom Thomas was the second. The first son, William Hall Gage, 2nd Viscount Gage, was born 6 January 1717/18 and christened 29 January 1717/18, in 1728 Gage began attending the prestigious Westminster School where he met such figures as John Burgoyne, Richard Howe, Francis Bernard, and George Germain. Despite the familys history of Catholicism, Viscount Gage had adopted the Anglican Church in 1715. During his school years Thomas the younger became firmly attached to the latter church, after graduating from Westminster in 1736 there is no record of Gages activities until he joined the British Army, eventually receiving a commission as ensign. His early duties consisted of recruiting in Yorkshire, in January 1741 he purchased a lieutenants commission in the 1st Northampton Regiment, where he stayed until May 1742, when he transferred to Battereaus Regiment with the rank of captain-lieutenant. He saw further service in the Second Jacobite Uprising, which culminated in the 1746 Battle of Culloden, from 1747 to 1748, Gage saw action under Albemarle in the Low Countries. In 1748 he purchased a commission and transferred to the 55th Foot Regiment. The regiment was stationed in Ireland from 1748 to 1755, Gage was promoted to lieutenant colonel in March 1751. During his early years, he spent leisure time at Whites Club, where he was a member. He was a figure in the army and at the club. His friendships spanned class and ability, charles Lee once wrote to Gage, I respected your understanding, likd your manners and perfectly adord the qualities of your heart. In 1750, Gage became engaged to a lady of rank and fortune, the engagement was eventually broken, leaving Gage broken-hearted. In 1753, both Gage and his father stood for seats in Parliament, both lost in the April 1754 election, even though his father had been a Member of Parliament for some years prior
10.
John Singleton Copley
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John Singleton Copley RA was an American painter, active in both colonial America and England. He was probably born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Richard and Mary Singleton Copley and he is famous for his portrait paintings of important figures in colonial New England, depicting in particular middle-class subjects. His portraits were innovative in their tendency to depict artifacts relating to these individuals lives, Copleys mother owned a tobacco shop on Long Wharf. His father was from Limerick, his mother, of the Singletons of County Clare, Letters from John Singleton, Mrs. Copleys father, are in the Copley-Pelham collection. Richard Copley, described as a tobacconist, is said by biographers to have arrived in Boston in ill health and to have gone, about the time of Johns birth, to the West Indies. William H. Whitmore gives his death as of 1748, the year of Mrs. Copleys remarriage, james Bernard Cullen says, Richard Copley was in poor health on his arrival in America and went to the West Indies to improve his failing strength. No contemporary evidence has been located for either year, except for a family tradition that speaks of his precocity in drawing, nothing is known of Copleys schooling or of the other activities of his boyhood. His letters, the earliest of which is dated September 30,1762, in such a household young Copley may have learned to use the paintbrush and the engravers tools. The family lived next to the occupied by japanner Thomas Johnston and his family. His son, Lord Lyndhurst, wrote that he was entirely self taught, variants of this thesis are found almost everywhere in his earlier letters. They suggest that, while Copley was industrious and an executant, he was physically unadventurous and temperamentally inclined toward brooding. He could have seen at least a few paintings and many good prints in the Boston of his youth. The excellence of his own portraits was not accidental or miraculous and it is a remarkable work to have come from so young a hand. No other engraving has been attributed to Copley, such painting would obviously advertise itself anywhere. Without going after business, for his letters do not indicate that he was ever aggressive or pushy, besides painting portraits in oil, doubtless after a formula learned from Peter Pelham, Copley was a pioneer American pastellist. He wrote, on September 30,1762, to the Swiss painter Jean-Étienne Liotard, the requested pastels were duly received and used by Copley in making many portraits in a medium suited to his talent. By this time he had begun to demonstrate his genius for rendering surface textures and capturing emotional immediacy. Copleys fame was established in England by the exhibition, in 1766, of A Boy with a Squirrel, which depicted his half-brother, Henry Pelham, seated at a table and playing with a pet squirrel
11.
Jacobite rising of 1715
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The Jacobite rising of 1715, was the attempt by James Francis Edward Stuart to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled House of Stuart. The Glorious Revolution of 1688–89 resulted in the Roman Catholic Stuart king, James II of England and VII of Scotland, James daughter and her husband, who was also Jamess nephew, ascended to the British thrones as joint sovereigns William and Mary. In 1690 Presbyterianism was established as the religion of Scotland. The Act of Settlement 1701 settled the succession of the English throne on the Protestant House of Hanover, the Act of Union 1707 applied the Act of Settlement to Scotland. With the death of Queen Anne in 1714, the Elector of Hanover, George I, the accession of George I ushered in the Whig supremacy, with the Tories deprived of all political power. Bolingbroke became the Pretenders Secretary of State and accepted an earldom from him, the Pretender believed the Duke of Marlborough would join him when he landed in Scotland, writing to the Duke of Berwick on 23 August, I think it is now more than ever Now or Never. Despite receiving no commission from James to start the rising, the Earl of Mar sailed from London to Scotland, on 6 September at Braemar Mar raised the standard of James the 8th and 3rd, accompanied by 600 supporters. Some of Mars tenants travelled to Edinburgh to prove their loyalty, in northern Scotland, the Jacobites were successful. They took Inverness, Gordon Castle, Aberdeen and further south, Dundee, in Edinburgh Castle were arms for up to 10,000 men and £100,000 paid to Scotland when she entered the Union with England. Lord Drummond, with 80 Jacobites, tried under the cover of night to take the Castle, by October, Mars forces had taken control of all Scotland above the Firth of Forth, apart from Stirling Castle. However Mar was indecisive and the capture of Perth and the south by 2,000 men were probably decided by subordinates. Mars indecisiveness gave the Hanoverian forces under the command of the Duke of Argyll time to increase their strength, on 22 October Mar received his commission from James appointing him commander of the Jacobite army. The Jacobite army outnumbered Argylls forces by three-to-one and Mar decided to march on Stirling Castle, on 13 November at Sheriffmuir, the two forces joined in battle. The fighting was indecisive but nearing the end of the battle the Jacobites numbered 4,000 men, compared to Argylls 1,000. Mars army began to close in on Argylls forces, who were poorly protected, on the same day as the Battle of Sherrifmuir, Inverness surrendered to Hanoverian forces, and a smaller Jacobite force led by Mackintosh of Borlum was defeated at Preston. Amongst the leaders of a Jacobite conspiracy for a rising in western England were three peers and six MPs, on the night of 2 October the government arrested the leaders and on the following day easily obtained Parliaments permission for these arrests. Included among those arrested was the head of the English Jacobites, the government sent reinforcements to Bristol, Southampton and Plymouth to ensure they did not fall into Jacobite hands. A diversionary rising had been planned in Northumberland to accompany the main rising in the West, the rising in the West was forestalled by prompt Government action, but the rising in Northumberland went ahead on 6 October 1715
12.
Battle of Culloden
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The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745 and part of a religious civil war in Britain. On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart were decisively defeated by loyalist troops commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, queen Anne died in 1714, with no living children, she was the last monarch of the House of Stuart. The conflict was the last pitched battle fought on British soil, Charles Stuarts Jacobite army consisted largely of Catholics and Episcopalians, mainly Scots but with a small detachment of Englishmen from the Manchester Regiment. The Jacobites were supported and supplied by the Kingdom of France from Irish, between 1,500 and 2,000 Jacobites were killed or wounded in the brief battle. Government losses were lighter with 50 dead and 259 wounded although recent geophysical studies on the government burial pit suggest the figure for deaths to be nearer 300. Charles Edward Stuart, known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or the Young Pretender and he successfully raised forces, mainly of Scottish Highland clansmen, and slipped past the Hanoverian stationed in Scotland and defeated a force of militiamen at the Battle of Prestonpans. The British government recalled forces from the war with France in Flanders to deal with the rebellion, after a lengthy wait, Charles persuaded his generals that English Jacobites would stage an uprising in support of his cause. He was convinced that France would launch an invasion of England as well and his army of around 5,000 invaded England on 8 November 1745. They advanced through Carlisle and Manchester to Derby and a position where they appeared to threaten London, the Jacobites met only token resistance. There was, however, little support from English Jacobites, the armies of Field Marshal George Wade and of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, were approaching. In addition to the militia, London was defended by nearly 6,000 infantry,700 horse and 33 artillery pieces, the Jacobite general, Lord George Murray, and the Council of War insisted on returning to join their growing force in Scotland. On 6 December 1745, they withdrew, with Charles Edward Stuart leaving command to Murray, on the long march back to Scotland, the Highland Army wore out its boots and demanded all the boots and shoes of the townspeople of Dumfries as well as money and hospitality. The Jacobites reached Glasgow on 25 December, there they reprovisioned, having threatened to sack the city, and were joined by a few thousand additional men. They then defeated the forces of General Henry Hawley at the Battle of Falkirk Muir, the Duke of Cumberland arrived in Edinburgh on 30 January to take over command of the government army from General Hawley. He then marched north along the coast, with the army being supplied by sea, six weeks were spent at Aberdeen training. The Kings forces continued to pressure Charles and he retired north, losing men and failing to take Stirling Castle or Fort William. But he invested Fort Augustus and Fort George in Inverness-shire in early April, Charles then took command again, and insisted on fighting a defensive action. Hugh Rose of Kilravock entertained Charles Edward Stuart and the Duke of Cumberland respectively on 14 and 15 April 1746, Charles manners and deportment were described by his host as most engaging
13.
Jacobite rising of 1745
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The Jacobite rising of 1745 was the attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for the exiled House of Stuart. The rising occurred during the War of the Austrian Succession when most of the British Army was on the European continent, the march south began with an initial victory at Prestonpans near Edinburgh. The Jacobite army, now in bold spirits, marched onwards to Carlisle, the Battle of Culloden ended with the final defeat of the Jacobite cause, and with Charles Edward Stuart fleeing with a price on his head, before finally sailing to France. The Glorious Revolution of 1688–89 resulted in the Roman Catholic Stuart king, James II of England and VII of Scotland, James daughter and her husband, who was also Jamess nephew, ascended the British throne as joint sovereigns William and Mary. In 1690 Presbyterianism was established as the religion of Scotland. The Act of Settlement 1701 settled the succession of the English throne on the Protestant House of Hanover, the Scottish Act of Security 1704 required that Queen Annes successor be Protestant, and the Act of Union 1707 applied the Act of Settlement to Scotland. With the death of Queen Anne in 1714, the Elector of Hanover, George I, James IIs son, James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, attempted to gain the British throne in 1715 but failed to do so. The accession of George I ushered in the Whig supremacy, with the Tories deprived of all political power, George II succeeded his father in 1727. In February 1742 Sir Robert Walpole resigned as Prime Minister after nearly 21 years, thereafter, the Whig Henry Pelham was Prime Minister until 1754. In 1743 war broke out between Britain and France, as part of the larger War of the Austrian Succession and it was signed by the Duke of Beaufort, Lord Barrymore, Lord Orrery, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Sir John Hynde Cotton and Sir Robert Abdy. Amelot replied that the French government would need proof of English support for Jacobitism before it could act. The Tory leaders had requested 10,000 French soldiers and arms for 10,000 of the officers on half pay and unemployed soldiers. The French were to land in Maldon in Essex, a section of coast not patrolled by the Royal Navy, obviating a crossing of the River Thames and counting on support from Jacobite sentiment there. They advised that Maurice of Saxony should command the French army because he was known to most of them and was a Protestant. A parallel expeditionary force for a Scottish landing under the command of Lord Marischal was requested as well, James Butler, Louis XVs Master of Horse, toured England ostensibly for purchasing bloodstock but in reality to gauge the health of Jacobitism in England. Before he left for England the French king briefed him personally to assure the Tory leaders that all of their demands would be met and he reported back that they showed great zeal for a revolution. John Sample, a spy for Walpole, told the Duke of Newcastle that plans for a French invasion had been orchestrated by Wynn, Butler returned to France in October and had an audience with Louis XV, who said he was satisfied. The next month Amelot told Sempill officially that Louis XV was resolved to restore the House of Stuart, the Declaration of King James was signed by James Francis Edward Stuart on 23 December 1743 and was to be published in the event of a successful French landing
14.
Raid on St Malo
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The Raid on St Malo took place in June 1758 when an amphibious British naval expedition landed close to the French port of St Malo in Brittany. While the town itself was not attacked, as had initially planned. The naval forces were under the command of Richard Howe while the army was led by the Duke of Marlborough, as part of an effort to provide a diversion in support of Britains German Allies, William Pitt had conceived the idea of a series of Naval Descents. In 1757 a large expedition was sent to Rochefort where it captured an offshore island, Pitt believed that the failure was due to insufficient vigour by the expeditions commanders, and planned to launch further expeditions against the French coast in the coming year. By early 1758 the British cabinet planned the raid and began to assemble a force on the Isle of Wight. Pitt had learned a number of lessons from the Rochefort expedition, new landing craft were designed, and the process of assembling the force improved to speed up the departure date. On 1 June the expedition sailed from England, reaching Cancale Bay near St Malo on 5 June and that evening the landing craft carrying the soldiers were put ashore. St Malo was situated at the end of a causeway, once ashore the only immediate opposition they faced was a French artillery battery, which was subdued by the guns of the British warships. The troops then marched towards St Malo, but it became apparent they would need to conduct a full-scale siege to take the town - something they did not have the time to do. Instead the British occupied St Servan, a port. Troops were also sent on a reconnaissance eastwards towards Dol and they reported the approach of a sizeable French force - and Marlborough decided that it was the right time to withdraw. On 11 and 12 June the British expedition re-embarked, the force remained off St Malo for more than a week, and then sailed along the coast in an attempt to scout out fresh targets. The possibility of an attack on Le Havre or Caen was considered, the British then began to focus their attention on Cherbourg in Normandy. While the expedition had failed to seize St Malo, it was considered a success. When it was discovered that St Malo was the correct destination, however, as with the Rochefort raid, the sudden descent made the French more concerned about the coast and increasingly large numbers of troops were deployed on coastal defence duties. In September of the year, following a successful descent on Cherbourg a second British force under Thomas Bligh attempted another raid on St Malo. Caught ashore by a force of French troops they were only able to re-embark with considerable difficulty following the Battle of St Cast. This brought an end to the policy of descents as government policy had changed to support a more direct British military presence in Germany and it was announced that the Prince Edward, Duke of York, younger brother of the Prince of Wales, was to join the next expedition
15.
Raid on Cherbourg
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In Autumn 1757 a British expedition to Rochefort had captured an offshore island, but not made an effort to capture the town. In 1758 the Duke of Brunswick asked the British to put policy into action as his Allied force was being pushed back. A large naval and military force was assembled in southern England under the direction of George Anson, in June 1758 the British had launched a Raid on St Malo. Following the perceived success of this, a raid was planned and it was announced that Prince Edward. The British forces were under the command of Lieutenant General Thomas Bligh with the naval contingent commanded by Richard Howe. They cruised along the coast of Normandy threatening a number of ports, the conditions were favourable and they were able to make a successful landing at Urville-Nacqueville beach. Once ashore they brushed aside the small French force defending Cherbourg and they set about destroying the fortifications and port. On 16 August, the British left Cherbourg and re-embarked having stayed exactly a week, news of the expedition boosted morale in Britain. The newspapers observed that it was the first successful landing of any significant size since the Hundred Years War, the scheme had been a favourite project of William Pitt and he was insistent that further raids be launched on the French coast. In September 1758 Bligh tried to capture St Malo, but the weather allowed him to only part of his force. Bligh tried to withdraw to his ships, which he eventually did and this brought an end to the policy of descents, as the British committed more troops to fight in Germany rather than risk another failed raid. Despite this the raids had been a success as they had weakened French morale, in response France planned a major invasion of Britain, designed to knock them out of the war, but it had to be abandoned owing to naval defeats. Crucible of War, The Seven Years War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, Faber and Faber,2001 Middleton, Richard. The Bells of Victory, The Pitt-Newcastle Ministry and the Conduct of the Seven Years War, the Command of the Ocean, A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815. Three Victories and a Defeat, The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire
16.
Seven Years' War
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The Seven Years War was a war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763. It involved every European great power of the time except the Ottoman Empire and spanned five continents, affecting Europe, the Americas, West Africa, India, and the Philippines. The conflict split Europe into two coalitions, led by the Kingdom of Great Britain on one side and the Kingdom of France on the other. Meanwhile, in India, the Mughal Empire, with the support of the French, faced with this sudden turn of events, Britain aligned herself with Prussia, in a series of political manoeuvres known as the Diplomatic Revolution. Conflict between Great Britain and France broke out in 1754–1756 when the British attacked disputed French positions in North America, meanwhile, rising power Prussia was struggling with Austria for dominance within and outside the Holy Roman Empire in central Europe. In 1756, the major powers switched partners, realizing that war was imminent, Prussia preemptively struck Saxony and quickly overran it. The result caused uproar across Europe, because of Austrias alliance with France to recapture Silesia, which had been lost in a previous war, Prussia formed an alliance with Britain. Reluctantly, by following the diet, most of the states of the empire joined Austrias cause. The Anglo-Prussian alliance was joined by smaller German states, Sweden, seeking to re-gain Pomerania joined the coalition, seeing its chance when virtually all of Europe opposed Prussia. Spain, bound by the Pacte de Famille, intervened on behalf of France, the Russian Empire was originally aligned with Austria, fearing Prussias ambition on the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but switched sides upon the succession of Tsar Peter III in 1762. Naples, Sicily, and Savoy, although sided with the Franco-Spanish alliance, like Sweden, Russia concluded a separate peace with Prussia. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris between France, Spain and Great Britain and the Treaty of Hubertusburg between Saxony, Austria and Prussia, in 1763. The Native American tribes were excluded from the settlement, a subsequent conflict, Prussia emerged as a new European great power. Although Austria failed to retrieve the territory of Silesia from Prussia its military prowess was noted by the other powers. The involvement of Portugal, Spain and Sweden did not return them to their status as great powers. France was deprived of many of its colonies and had saddled itself with heavy war debts that its inefficient financial system could barely handle. Spain lost Florida but gained French Louisiana and regained control of its colonies, e. g. Cuba and the Philippines, France and Spain avenged their defeat in 1778 when the American Revolutionary War broke out, with hopes of destroying Britains dominance once and for all. The Seven Years War was perhaps the first true world war, having taken place almost 160 years before World War I and it was characterized in Europe by sieges and the arson of towns as well as open battles with heavy losses
17.
Battle of Villinghausen
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Two French armies, under two Marshals, Duc de Broglie and Prince de Soubise met up in July 1761, intending to force Prince Ferdinand out of Lippstadt, an important town. Allied reinforcements under General Spörcken arrived bringing Ferdinands forces up to 65,000 while the combined French armies numbered around 90,000. The allied Prussian-Hanoverian-British forces lined up along a series of hills, with their left anchored by the Lippe River, the French army advanced on 15 July, and Broglies troops in the north made progress against German troops under Wutginau. However, British troops under Granby just south of Wutginau held their ground, reinforcements for both sides arrived that night and Ferdinand strengthened his left at the expense of his right. The next morning, Broglie continued his attack on the Allied left, however, Soubise only ordered a few small actions against the right, due in part that both French commanders were the same rank and reluctant to take orders from the other. Allied reinforcements under Wolff soon arrived along the Lippe River and attacked the French flank, halting Broglies attack, by about noon, the French were in full retreat and the battle was over. News of the battle provoked euphoria in Britain, and led William Pitt to take a tougher line in the ongoing peace negotiations with France. Despite the defeat the French still had a significant superiority in numbers and continued their offensive, despite further attempts to push an offensive strategy in Germany, the French were pushed back and finished the war in 1762 having lost the strategic post of Cassel. The Treaty of Paris led France to evacuate the remaining German territory it had occupied during the war. J, the Seven Years War in Europe, 1757-1763
18.
Battle of Famars
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The Battle of Famars was fought on 23 May 1793 during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition. An Allied Austrian, Hanoverian, and British army under Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld defeated the French Army of the North led by François Joseph Drouot de Lamarche, the action occurred near the village of Famars in northern France, five km south of Valenciennes. In May 1793, following a series of reverses the French Republican army in the Low Countries was in a desperate situation, dispirited after the death of its former commander Augustin-Marie Picot de Dampierre, it was tired and disorganised. In addition it was weakened by detachments taken from each battalion to serve in the war in the Vendée. Although new recruits were being allocated from the levy of 300,000, the new temporary commander Lamarche realised that all that could be done for the moment was to draw back to an entrenched camp at Famars and the fortress of Valenciennes. The allies under Coburg moved to besiege Valenciennes, but first they desired to drive Lamarche from Famars to clear the way and prevent any intervention from the French. Coburgs forces had recently been augmented by the newly arrived Anglo-Hanoverian contingent commanded by the 26-year-old Frederick, Duke of York and this is perhaps surprising, as for many of the British troops it would be their first taste of action against Republican France. The camp at Famars lay on a ridge, three south of Valenciennes, and was bordered on the east by the river Rhonelle. On the other side of the Scheldt Clerfayt was to launch an attack against the entrenched camp at Mont Anzin. The 1st Main Column of 16 battalions and 18 squadrons was led by the Duke of York and included the British Guards brigade under Gerard Lake, which had already seen action at Raismes on 8 May. Macks instructions were for York to cross the Rhonelle by trestle bridges in the neighbourhood of Artres, in other words, no resistance was expected until the attack on the French camp. Austrian Feldzeugmeister Joseph de Ferraris commanded the 2nd Main Column, which included Abercrombys Brigade of the British 14th Foot and it was to attack from the village of Saultain against entrenchments on the East bank of the Rhonelle. Soon after 2,00 am Yorks column moved off from its assembly point two miles behind Artres, but thick fog slowed their progress and the Rhonelle was only reached at 7. 00am. York was accompanied by both Mack and Coburgs Chief-of-Staff Hohenlohe, the appointed by Coburg to ensure the untested York didnt do anything too rash. As the fog lifted a beautiful dawn revealed their intended crossing point bristling with enemy infantry and artillery, Mack was wounded right at the beginning of the action, so the untried Duke of York was left to make up his own mind as to his next course of action. Fording the stream there unopposed, Yorks light cavalry ascended the low ridge to the south of the village to probe the French flank towards Querenaing, the Allied cavalry had some success when they entered the open redoubts via gorges and cut down the defenders. The French cavalry attempted to retake the redoubts but were beaten off, meanwhile, further north Ferrariss column had stormed the long entrenchment on the east bank ridge of the Famars position and driven the French back to the west of the Rhonelle. Earlier in the day several squadrons of French cavalry had been threatening his flank, whereby they were charged by the Hanoverian Life Guards
19.
Siege of Valenciennes (1793)
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The Siege of Valenciennes took place between 13 June and 28 July 1793, during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition. The French garrison under Jean Henri Becays Ferrand was blockaded by part of the army of Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, commanded by the Prince Frederick, Duke of York, Valenciennes fell on 28 July, resulting in an Allied victory. Many of the French who had driven from Famars took refuge in the fortified town of Valenciennes. It took a fortnight before heavy guns could be forward, but on 13 June trenches were finally dug. 25,000 men undertook the siege, protected by an army of 30,000. The siege operations of the Austrians proceeded at a slow pace, fitzgerald wrote He sharply remonstrated with them, and in return was reproved for his excessive zeal. On 26 July, the main hornworks on the Eastern side were stormed by three columns, one of them of British troops, yorks chief of staff Murray wrote, The keeping of the hornwork was entirely owing to us putting the Duke of York at the head. Repeated orders were sent by General Ferraris to evacuate it, following the fall of the hornwork Valenciennes surrendered on 28 July, the garrison being allowed to leave with the honours of war minus their weapons and munitions. The French regulars consisted of two battalions of the 29th Line Infantry Regiment and one each of the 75th and 87th Regiments. The infantry battalions counted between 400 and 600 soldiers each, York was proclaimed as a saviour by the population of the town, which trampled the tricolour underfoot and declared him King of France. Brown, Robert, An impartial Journal of a Detachment from the Brigade of Foot Guards, commencing 25 February,1793, burne, Alfred, The Noble Duke of York, The Military Life of Frederick Duke of York and Albany, London, Staples Press. Fortescue, Sir John, British Campaigns in Flanders 1690-1794, London, French Forces, Siege of Valenciennes, March 1793. United States Army Combined Arms Center, Officer of the Guards, An, An Accurate and Impartial Narrative of the War, by an Officer of the Guards, London. Thiers, M, A History of the French Revolution, London
20.
Siege of Landrecies (1794)
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The fortress capitulated on 30 April 1794. In the amended plan de campagne that the leaders of the Coalition agreed upon in The Hague in early April the capture of the fortress of Landrecies was a key objective. The mobile army of the States Army was charged with obtaining this objective, Landrecies had long been a contested city between France and the Habsburg Netherlands of which it originally was a part. In 1543 the French conquered it and repulsed an attempt by Charles V to retake it, in 1655 the city was taken by the French after a brief siege, and not returned to the Spanish Netherlands at the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659. Vauban then gave it a built according to the latest military insights. This made it impregnable in the Franco-Dutch War, and the War of the Spanish Succession when it withstood an attempt by Prince Eugene in 1712 to capture it. The Coalition armies, under command of the Austrian emperor Francis II were facing the French armies under general Jean-Charles Pichegru. The French started the Spring campaign of 1794 in March, Emperor Francis first reviewed the troops of the combined British-Austrian-Dutch army on 16 April 1794 near Cateau-Cambrésis. The next day,17 April, the Allies attacked on a broad front. The Dutch mobile army reached the glacis of the fortress of Cambrai that evening, the columns of the Prince of Hessen-Darmstadt and major-general Van der Duyn captured Catillon-sur-Sambre, near Landrecies that evening. The Dutch mobile army was reinforced with Austrian infantry and auxiliaries under command of major-general Count Baillet de Latour, on 18 April 1794 this corps left its camp near Cambrai and marched on Landrecies. The 19th was spent on preparations and on 20 April the corps opened an attack on the fortress. The Swiss Guards of the brigade of De Gumoëns and the brigade of Hesse-Darmstadt distinguished themselves in this fight, the middle column overran the redoubts and demi-lunes of the outer fortress. The garrison of the fortress was forced to withdraw within its walls, the Dutch losses were 23 officers and 358 other ranks. The mobile army immediately started to invest the fortress, work was begun on a line of field works that ran in front of the fortress, with its endpoints on the Sambre river, cutting the fortress off from overland access. Two batteries were placed on the approaches to the town. The Hereditary Prince made the chateau of Bousies his headquarters, and those attempts at relief were defeated by the Coalition in the Battles of Villers-en-Cauchies and Beaumont-en-Cambresis. Sorties by the garrison also hindered the preparations, on 26 April the stadtholder, William V, the father of the Hereditary Prince, and Captain-General of the States Army, paid a visit to the camp of the besiegers
21.
Flanders Campaign
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The Flanders Campaign was conducted from 6 November 1792 to 7 June 1795 during the first years of the French Revolutionary Wars. A coalition of states mobilised military forces all the French frontiers, with the intention to invade Revolutionary France. The largest of these forces assembled on the Franco-Flemish border, the Allies enjoyed several early victories, but were unable to advance beyond the French border fortresses and were eventually forced to withdraw by a series of French counter-offensives. The Allies established a new front in the south of the Netherlands and Germany, the Austrians pulled back to the lower Rhine and the British to Hanover from where they were eventually evacuated. Austria and Prussia had been at war with France since 1792, although Britain, only after the execution of the French king Louis XVI on 21 January 1793 and the declaration of war by the Revolutionary Government did they finally mobilize. Allied armies mobilised along all of the French frontiers, the largest and most important in the Flanders Franco-Belgian border region. In the north, the immediate aim was to eject the French from the Dutch Republic. Austria and Prussia broadly supported this aim, but both were short of money, initially, just fifteen hundred troops landed with York in February 1793. The Duke of York was obliged to follow objectives set by Pitts Foreign Minister Henry Dundas, thus Allied military decisions in the campaign were tempered by political objectives from Vienna and London. The defences of the Dutch Republic were in condition, its States Army not having fought in a war for 45 years. Williams main concern therefore was the preservation of the House of Orange, many of the old officer class had emigrated, leaving the cavalry in particular in chaotic condition. Only the artillery arm, less affected by emigration, had survived intact, the problems would become even more acute following the introduction of mass conscription, the Levée en Masse, in 1793. The price of failure or disloyalty was the guillotine, as the Austrians retreated, Dumouriez saw an opportunity with the Patriot exiles to overthrow the weak Dutch Republic by making a bold move north. A second French Division under Francisco de Miranda manoeuvred against the Austrians and Hanoverians in eastern Belgium, on 16 February Dumouriezs republican Armée du Nord advanced from Antwerp and invaded Dutch Brabant. Dutch forces fell back to the line of the Meuse abandoning the fortress of Breda after a siege. Within nine days an initial British guards brigade had assembled and dispatched across the English Channel, landing at Hellevoetsluis under the command of general Lake. Meanwhile, while Dumouriez moved north into Brabant, a army under Francisco de Miranda laid siege to Maastricht on 23 February. However the Austrians had been reinforced to 39,000 and, now commanded by Saxe-Coburg, crossed the Ruhr River on 1 March, the next day the Austrians took Aachen before reaching Maastricht on the Meuse and forcing Miranda to lift the siege
22.
Battle of Alkmaar (1799)
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For the 16th century siege, see Siege of Alkmaar. Though the battle ended in a draw, the Anglo-Russians were in a position at the end of the battle that favored them slightly in a strategic sense. This prompted Brune to order a strategic withdrawal the next day to a line between Monnickendam in the East and Castricum in the West, there the final battle of the campaign would take place on 6 October. Torrential rains made the roads impassable, the defenders profited from this lull in the campaign by completing their inundations in the low-lying eastern part of the North-Holland peninsula. These soon made their defenses in that part of the country impregnable, as a consequence a repeat of the thrusts by Sir Ralph Abercromby toward Hoorn, and general Pulteney toward Oudkarspel along the Langedijk had become pointless. The Langedijk was now an island in a big lake that could easily be defended by the 1st Batavian Division of General Herman Willem Daendels. The delay had the advantage for the force, however. The Duke of York, aware that French reinforcements from Belgium were on the way, the attack was to be made on 30 September, but it turned out that the roads were still very bad, the soldiers sunk to their knees into the mud. The attack was then advanced to 1 October, but again had to be postponed, Coote and Chatham were to support the Russians in their attack on Bergen and to maintain contact with Abercromby. These dispositions make clear that the main thrust of the attack again was towards the village of Bergen, other than the first battle of Bergen this time the attack would be concentrated on a much narrower front, between Schoorl and the North Sea. As Abercromby was supposed to advance along the beach to a point beyond the left flank of the French, the first stages of the battle went according to the British plan. To allow all columns to advance at the time the start time had to be delayed till low tide to allow general Abercrombys column to make use of the beach. Soon Coote and Chatham drove the French outposts from the villages of Camp and Groet, essens central column then advanced cautiously. Meanwhile, Burrard and Sedmoratzky drove the French and Batavian troops out of the villages of Schoorl, here the Russians halted and limited themselves to shelling Koedijk and Bergen with their artillery for the remainder of the day. Meanwhile, the French left wing had fallen back on the village of Bergen and this was a strong position and York realized they had to be removed from it to secure success. He therefore ordered Chatham to bring up his brigade from the plain and they managed to push the French back and forced them to give up their position in the heights near Bergen. The French noted the Russian hesitation and at this time launched a counterattack from Bergen in two columns under generals Gouvion and Boudet. These attacks were countered by the British Reserve in cooperation with Cootes brigade
23.
Battle of Castricum
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The Battle of Castricum saw a Franco-Dutch force defeat an Anglo-Russian force near Castricum, Netherlands. An Anglo-Russian force of 32,000 men landed in North Holland on August 27,1799, captured the Dutch fleet at Den Helder on August 30 and the city of Alkmaar on October 3. Following a series of battles at Bergen on September 19 and Alkmaar on October 2, the town of Castricum passed from British-Russian to Batavian-French hands several times until the former finally fled, losing 2536 men and 11 guns, the Batavian-French losses stood at 1382. The defeat persuaded the Duke that his position was untenable, after a chaotic retreat, the parties signed the Convention of Alkmaar on October 10. The British and Russians were allowed to withdraw, without paying reparations, as a sign of gratitude for enabling him honourably to emerge from the inglorious Dutch imbroglio, Brune received a number of horses from the Duke. By 19 November all the British and Russian troops had been embarked, in the years following the 1799 invasion, defensive lines were constructed in Holland to protect Amsterdam from future invasions from the north. In the Huis met de Kogel in Castricum, a cannonball that got stuck in the wall during the battle can still be seen, a plaque beneath the cannonball commemorates the battle. Various locality names in Castricum also provide a reminder of the battle, like the Russenbergen dunes, the Russisch Monument in Bergen marks the fighting there. The French victory was commemorated on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris as Alkmaer. Anglo-Russian invasion of North Holland Noord-Holland 1799 De Engels-Russische inval
24.
Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland
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The campaign had two strategic objectives, to neutralize the Batavian fleet and to promote an uprising by followers of the former stadtholder William V against the Batavian government. The invasion was opposed by a combined Franco-Batavian army of equal strength. Tactically, the Anglo-Russian forces were initially, defeating the defenders in the battles of Callantsoog and the Krabbendam. Following a defeat at Castricum, the Duke of York, the British supreme commander, however, the expedition partly succeeded in its first objective, capturing a significant proportion of the Batavian fleet. The Dutch Republic, again ruled by the Orangists, had been a member of the First Coalition that opposed the revolutionary French Republic after 1792, the Dutch Republic was overthrown, the stadtholder fled the country to London, and the Batavian Republic was proclaimed. Despite the conquest of the old Republic in 1795, the war had not ended, the Netherlands had just changed sides and now fully participated in the continuing conflagration, France did not need its army so much as its naval resources, in which France itself was deficient. In 1796, under the new alliance, the Dutch started a programme of naval construction, manning the new ships was a problem, because the officer corps of the old navy was staunchly Orangist. People like the Hero of Doggerbank Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen honourably withheld their services, the new navy was therefore officered by people like Jan Willem de Winter, who were of the correct political hue, but had only limited experience. This directly led to the debacles of the surrender at Saldanha Bay in 1796, at Camperdown the Batavian navy behaved creditably, but this did not lessen the material losses, and the Republic had to start its naval construction programme all over again. This programme soon brought the Batavian navy up to sufficient strength that Great Britain had to worry about its contribution to a threatened French invasion of England or Ireland. The First Coalition broke up in 1797, but Britain soon found a new ally in Emperor Paul I of Russia, the British, especially the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, were eager to maintain this momentum by attacking at other extremes of the French empire. An added incentive was that a campaign against the Dutch had been a condition of the agreement with the Russians of 28 December 1798. In that agreement, Emperor Paul I had placed 45,000 Russian troops at the disposal of the Coalition in return for British subsidies. In return, Britain promised to pay a subsidy of ₤88,000, Great Britain would itself furnish 13,000 troops and supply most of the transport and naval-escort vessels. From the outset, the joint expedition that was now planned should not be a military affair. Pitt assumed that, like the Italian and Swiss populations, the Dutch would enthusiastically support the invasion against the French, the British forces were assembled in the vicinity of Canterbury under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby. They were mostly made up of volunteers from the militia who had recently been permitted to join regular regiments, while a British transport fleet under Admiral Home Riggs Popham sailed to Reval to collect the Russian contingent, the mustering of the British troops progressed smoothly. The question was where this amphibious landing could best take place, several locations on the Dutch coast were considered
25.
Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
26.
Orchard
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An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive purpose. A fruit garden is generally synonymous with an orchard, although it is set on a smaller non-commercial scale, most temperate-zone orchards are laid out in a regular grid, with a grazed or mown grass or bare soil base that makes maintenance and fruit gathering easy. Orchards are sometimes concentrated near bodies of water, where climatic extremes are moderated, an orchards layout is the technique of planting the crops in a proper system. There are different methods of planting and thus different layouts, some of these layout types include, Square method Rectangular method Quincunx method Triangular method Hexagonal method Contour method For different varieties, these systems may vary to some extent. The most extensive orchards in the United States are apple and orange orchards, the most extensive apple orchard area is in eastern Washington state, with a lesser but significant apple orchard area in most of Upstate New York. Extensive orange orchards are found in Florida and southern California, where they are widely known as groves. In eastern North America, many orchards are along the shores of Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, in Canada, apple and other fruit orchards are widespread on the Niagara Peninsula, south of Lake Ontario. This region is known as Canada Fruitbelt and, in addition to large-scale commercial fruit marketing, murcia is a major orchard area in Europe, with citrus crops. New Zealand, China, Argentina and Chile also have extensive apple orchards, tenbury Wells in Worcestershire has been called The Town in the Orchard, since the 19th century, because it was surrounded by extensive orchards. Today, this heritage is celebrated through an annual Applefest, streuobstwiese is a German word that means a meadow with scattered fruit trees or fruit trees that are planted in a field. Streuobstwiese, or a meadow orchard, is a landscape in the temperate. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Streuobstwiesen were a kind of a community orchard that were intended for productive cultivation of stone fruit. In recent years, ecologists have successfully lobbied for state subsidies to valuable habitats, biodiversity and natural landscapes, both conventional and meadow orchards provide a suitable habitat for many animal species that live in a cultured landscape. Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts was the residence of American celebrated writer Louisa May Alcott, fruita, Utah part of Capitol Reef National Park has Mormon pioneer orchards maintained by the United States National Park Service. The Orchard Link organisation provides advice on how to manage and restore the county of Devons orchards, an organisation called Orchards Live carries out similar work in North Devon. Peoples Trust for Endangered Species has mapped every traditional orchard within England, the UK Biodiversity Partnership lists traditional orchards and a priority UK Biodiversity Action Plan habitat
27.
Siege of Badajoz (1812)
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In the Siege of Badajoz, also called the Third Siege of Badajoz, an Anglo-Portuguese Army, under General Arthur Wellesley, besieged Badajoz, Spain and forced the surrender of the French garrison. Enraged at the number of casualties they suffered in seizing the city. Threatening their officers and ignoring their commands to desist, and even killing several and it took three days before the men were brought back into order. Badajoz was garrisoned by some 5,000 French soldiers under General Philippon, the town commander, on 19 March the French made a strong sally with 1,500 men and 40 cavalry which surprised the working parties and caused losses of 150 officers and men before being repulsed. Amongst the wounded was Lt. Col. Fletcher, chief Engineer, by 25 March batteries were firing on the outwork, Fort Picurina, which that night was stormed by 500 men and seized by redcoats from General Thomas Pictons 3rd Division. Casualties were high with 50 killed and 250 wounded, but the fort was captured, the capture of the bastion allowed more extensive siege earthworks to be dug and with the arrival of heavy 18 lb and 24 lb howitzers, breaching batteries were established. On 31 March the allies began a bombardment of the towns defences. Soon a maze of trenches were creeping up to the stone walls as the cannons continued to blast away at the stonework. On 2 April an attempt was made to destroy a barrier that had been erected amongst the arches of the bridge to cause flooding that was hampering the siege, the explosion of 450lbs of powder was only partly successful. By April 5 two breaches had been made in the wall and the soldiers readied themselves to storm Badajoz. The order to attack was delayed for 24 hours to allow another breach to be made in the wall. News began to filter to the allies that Marshal Soult was marching to relieve the town, the French garrison were well aware of what was to come, and mined the large breaches in the walls in preparation for the imminent assault. The first men to assault the breaches were the men of the Forlorn Hope, just as the main Forlorn Hope were beginning their attack, a French sentry was alerted and raised the alarm. Within seconds the ramparts were filled with French soldiers, who poured a hail of musket fire into the troops at the base of the breach. The furious barrage devastated the British soldiers at the wall and the breach soon began to fill with dead and wounded, despite the carnage the redcoats bravely continued to surge forward in great numbers, only to be mown down by endless volleys and shrapnel from grenades and bombs. The French could see they were holding the assault and the British were becoming stupefied and incapable of more exertion. In just under two hours, some 2,000 men had killed or badly wounded at the main breach. He ordered the gates to be blown and then the 3rd Division should support the assaults on the breaches with a flank attack
28.
Battle of Salamanca
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A Spanish division was also present but took no part in the battle. These attacks resulted in a rout of the French left wing, both Marmont and his deputy commander, General Bonet, received shrapnel wounds in the first few minutes of firing. Confusion amongst the French command may have been decisive in creating an opportunity, General Bertrand Clausel, third in seniority, assumed command and ordered a counterattack by the French reserve toward the depleted Allied centre. The move proved successful but with Wellington having sent his reinforcements to the centre. Allied losses numbered 3,129 British and 2,038 Portuguese dead or wounded, the Spanish troops took no part in the battle as they were positioned to block French escape routes and as such suffered just six casualties. The French suffered about 13,000 dead, wounded and captured, as a consequence of Wellingtons victory, his army was able to advance to and liberate Madrid for two months, before retreating to Portugal. The French were forced to abandon Andalusia permanently while the loss of Madrid irreparably damaged King Josephs pro-French government, following Marmont’s retreat to Salamanca Wellington took position behind the Agueda and Coa rivers. In May, acting on Wellington’s orders General Hill took a force of 7,000 men to destroy the bridge at Almaraz, on 13 June Wellington crossed the Agueda and advanced eastward to Salamanca, a town that was a major supply depot for the French army. The French had converted three convents into powerful forts to defend the town and the bridge across the river Tormes. On 19 June the first battery opened fire but it was not until 27 June that, for several weeks Wellington found his movements north of Salamanca blocked by Marmonts army, which was constantly swelled by reinforcements. With the armies often marching close together, separated by the river, moving east, the French crossed to the south bank of the Tormes across another bridge at Huerta and by marching south then west hoped to turn the flank of Wellingtons army. The Duke immediately ordered the part of his army to attack the overextended French left wing. Marshal Marmonts 50, 000-man Army of Portugal contained eight infantry, pierre François Joseph Boyer led 1,500 dragoons and Jean-Baptiste Theodore Curto commanded 1,900 light cavalry. Louis Tirlet directed 3,300 artillerymen and there were also 1,300 engineers, military police, Wellingtons 48, 500-man army included eight infantry divisions, formed mainly by British and Portuguese units, and two independent brigades, five cavalry brigades and 54 cannons. The infantry divisions were Henry Frederick Campbells 1st, Edward Pakenhams 3rd, Lowry Coles 4th, James Leiths 5th, Henry Clintons 6th, John Hopes 7th, carlos de España commanded a 3, 400-man Spanish division, while Denis Pack and Thomas Bradford led the independent Portuguese brigades. Stapleton Cotton supervised the cavalry brigades, hoylet Framingham commanded eight British and one Portuguese six-gun artillery batteries. Marmonts army moved south early on 22 July, its leading elements reaching an area southeast of Salamanca, to the west, the Marshal could see Wellingtons 7th Division deployed on a ridge. Spotting a dust cloud in the distance, Marmont assumed that most of the British army was in retreat and he planned to move his French army south, then west to turn the British right flank
29.
Peninsular War
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The Peninsular War was a military conflict between Napoleons empire and the allied powers of Spain, Britain and Portugal, for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war started when French and Spanish armies invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807, the Peninsular War overlaps with what the Spanish-speaking world calls the Guerra de la Independencia Española, which began with the Dos de Mayo Uprising on 2 May 1808 and ended on 17 April 1814. The French occupation destroyed the Spanish administration, which fragmented into quarrelling provincial juntas, the British Army, under the then Lt. Gen. Arthur Wellesley, guarded Portugal and campaigned against the French in Spain alongside the reformed Portuguese army. The demoralised Portuguese army was reorganised and refitted under the command of Gen, in the following year Wellington scored a decisive victory over King Josephs army at Vitoria. The years of fighting in Spain were a burden on Frances Grande Armée. The Spanish armies were beaten and driven to the peripheries. This drain on French resources led Napoleon, who had provoked a total war. War and revolution against Napoleons occupation led to the Spanish Constitution of 1812, the burden of war destroyed the social and economic fabric of Portugal and Spain, and ushered in an era of social turbulence, political instability and economic stagnation. Devastating civil wars between liberal and absolutist factions, led by officers trained in the Peninsular War, persisted in Iberia until 1850. The cumulative crises and disruptions of invasion, revolution and restoration led to the independence of most of Spains American colonies, the Treaties of Tilsit, negotiated during a meeting in July 1807 between Emperors Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon, concluded the War of the Fourth Coalition. With Prussia shattered, and Russia allied with France, Napoleon expressed irritation that Portugal was open to trade with the United Kingdom, furthermore, Prince John of Braganza, regent for his insane mother Queen Maria I, had declined to join the emperors Continental System against British trade. After a few days, a large force started concentrating at Bayonne, meanwhile the Portuguese governments resolve was stiffening, and shortly afterward Napoleon was once again told that Portugal would not go beyond its original agreements. After he received the Portuguese answer, he ordered Junots corps to cross the frontier into Spain, while all this was going on, the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau had been signed between France and Spain. The document was drawn up by Napoleons marshal of the palace Géraud Duroc and Eugenio Izquierdo, the treaty proposed to carve up Portugal into three entities. Porto and the part was to become the Kingdom of Northern Lusitania. The southern portion, as the Principality of the Algarves, would fall to Godoy, the rump of the country, centered on Lisbon, was to be administered by the French. According to the Treaty of Fontainebleau, Junots invasion force was to be supported by 25,500 men in three Spanish columns, Gen. Taranco and 6,500 troops were ordered to march from Vigo to seize Porto in the north. Capt. Gen. Solano would advance from Badajoz with 9,500 soldiers to capture Elvas, Gen. Caraffa and 9,500 men were instructed to assemble at Salamanca and Ciudad Rodrigo, and cooperate with Junots main force
30.
2nd Cavalry Brigade (United Kingdom)
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The 2nd Cavalry Brigade was a brigade of the British Army. It served in the Napoleonic Wars, the Boer War and in the First World War when it was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division. Prior to World War I the brigade was based at Tidworth Camp in England, from June 1809, Wellington organized his cavalry into one, later two, cavalry divisions for the Peninsular War. These performed a purely administrative, rather than tactical, role, the cavalry brigades were named for the commanding officer, rather than numbered. For the Hundred Days Campaign, he numbered his British cavalry brigades in a single sequence, the brigade was reformed for the Boer War. F. Order of Battle of Divisions Part 1, Horse Gunners, The Royal Horse Artillery,200 Years of Panache and Professionalism. Wellingtons Army in the Peninsula 1809–14, volume 2 of Battle Orders Series. The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book, the 1st Cavalry Division in 1914-1918. 1st Cavalry Division on The Regimental Warpath 1914 -1918 by PB Chappell, archived from the original on 8 January 2008. CS1 maint, BOT, original-url status unknown
31.
1st The Royal Dragoons
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The Royal Dragoons was a mounted infantry and later a heavy cavalry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was formed in 1661 as the Tangier Horse and it served for three centuries and was in action during the First and the Second World Wars. It was amalgamated with the Royal Horse Guards to form The Blues and they were constituted in 1672 and, after Jones was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673 while serving with the Duke of Monmouth, command passed to the Duke. The regiment was ranked as the 1st Dragoons, the oldest cavalry regiment of the line, the regiment was recalled to England in 1678 with the expectation of fighting in a war against France. In early 1679, it was disbanded and then reformed in June of that year as Gerards Regiment of Horse, with most of the officers and men. The regiment was disbanded in late 1679 and three of its captains, John Coy, Thomas Langston and Charles Nedby, along with their troopers, when they returned in 1683, they joined what became a new permanent regiment of the Royal Dragoons. On their return to England in 1683, the three troops were joined with three newly raised troops and titled The Kings Own Royal Regiment of Dragoons, named for Charles II, in 1690, the regiment was renamed as simply The Royal Regiment of Dragoons. It fought at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690, the regiment also fought at the Battle of Beaumont in April 1794 and the Battle of Willems in May 1794 during the Flanders Campaign. The regiment also took part in the charge of the Union Brigade under the command of Major-General William Ponsonby at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815 during the Hundred Days Campaign. Captain Alexander Kennedy Clark, an officer in the regiment, captured the French Imperial Eagle of the 105th Line Infantry Regiment during the battle, the regiment next took part in the charge of the heavy brigade at the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854 during the Crimean War. Having been re-titled the 1st Dragoons in 1877, the regiment also saw action at the Battle of Abu Klea in January 1885 during the Mahdist War. In January 1900, during the Second Boer War, the regiment was part of a force that set out to discover the western flank of the Boer lines and it was able to ambush a column of about 200 Boers near Acton Homes and successfully trapped about 40 of them. It took part in the First Battle of Ypres in October 1914, the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, the Battle of Loos in September 1915, the regiment retitled as the 1st The Royal Dragoons in 1921. It was deployed to Egypt in 1927, to Secunderabad in India in 1929, the regiment mechanised shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War and was transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps in 1940. It became the Reconnaissance Regiment for the 10th Armoured Division in September 1942, the regiment took part in the advance to the River Elbe and, after taking 10,000 enemy prisoners, liberated Copenhagen in May 1945. The regiment moved to Eutin in Schleswig-Holstein in November 1945 and to Dale Barracks in Chester in November 1950 and it deployed troops to Egypt in February 1951 and then moved to Combermere Barracks in Wesendorf in May 1954 and to Harewood Barracks in Herford in August 1957. It returned to the UK in September 1959 from where it deployed troops to Aden in November 1959, the regiment survived the immediate post-war reduction in forces, and was re-titled as The Royal Dragoons in 1961. It returned home in October 1962 and then deployed troops to Cyprus in February 1964 before transferring to Hobart Barracks in Detmold in January 1965 and it amalgamated with the Royal Horse Guards, to form The Blues and Royals in 1969. M
32.
Royal Scots Greys
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The Royal Scots Greys was a cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1707 until 1971, when they amalgamated with the 3rd Carabiniers to form The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. The regiments history began in 1678, when three independent troops of Scots Dragoons were raised, in 1681, these troops were regimented to form The Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons, numbered the 4th Dragoons in 1694. They were already mounted on horses by this stage and were already being referred to as the Grey Dragoons. In 1707, they were renamed The Royal North British Dragoons and they were also sometimes referred to, during the first Jacobite uprising, as Portmores Dragoons. In 1877, their nickname was made official when they became the 2nd Dragoons. They kept this title until 2 July 1971, when they amalgamated with the 3rd Carabiniers, the Royal Scots Greys originated as three troops of dragoons. The first two were formed on 21 May 1678 under the commands of Captain John Strachan and Captain John Inglis, the third, under the command of Captain Viscount Kingstoun, was formed on 23 September 1678. These were the first mounted troops raised for the British crown in Scotland, in 1681, by Royal Warrant, these three troops were combined, with the addition of three further troops, into what would be named the Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons. Lieutenant-General Thomas Dalziel would be the regiments first colonel, in its original configuration, the Scots Greys were configured as a true dragoon regiment. Although mounted, as regiments were, their armament was closer to that carried by infantry units. Troopers of the Scots Greys were authorised, during the late 17th century, to carry matchlock muskets with bayonets, while their sergeants and corporals carried halberds, only the officers were authorised swords, though the lieutenants were to be armed with a partisan. Interestingly, the original uniform called for the troopers to wear grey coats, between its formation in 1681 and 1685, the Scots Greys were employed primarily in keeping civil order in Scotland. The regiment participated in expeditions against various fractious clans which resisted the monarchs rule, in 1688, the regiment was quartered in London at the start of the Glorious Revolution. Upon the landing of William of Orange, the regiment took the side of William and Mary, ordered back to Scotland, the Scots Greys took part in the Battle of Killiecrankie against the Jacobites. For their service, the title as a Royal regiment was confirmed. Prior to 1693, there is no record that the regiment used grey horses exclusive to others, however, when inspected in London in 1693 by King William III, people took note that the regiment was mounted on all grey horses. Some have offered the theory that the grey horses originated with the Dutch Horse Guards, when they left to return to the Netherlands, the horses were turned over to the Scots Greys. Although there is no reason, some of the men also wore either fur caps or broad-brimmed hats
33.
6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons
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The 6th Dragoons was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1689 as Sir Albert Cunninghams Regiment of Dragoons. One of the regiments most notable battles was the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690 and it became the 6th Regiment of Dragoons in 1751. The British Army reorganised and reduced its cavalry corps by disbanding or amalgamating many of its famous cavalry regiments, the Inniskillings was one of those affected. It saw service for two centuries, including the First World War, before being amalgamated with 5th Dragoon Guards to form 5th/6th Dragoons in 1922. In 1689 James II Stuart, the dethroned King of England, during the Defence of Enniskillen in 1689 the Governor of the town Gustav Hamilton raised three regiments to fight on the side of William of Orange. An oath was taken by each man upon a bible, I, D. H. do hereby testify and declare, and upon the Holy Evangelists swear, so help me God, and the holy contents of this book. One of the regiments raised was a unit of Dragoons. As was the custom of that time the regiment was named Cunninghams Dragoons - after its officer, Sir Albert Cunningham. It would later become known as the Enniskillen Dragoons, after Hamiltons headquarters at Enniskillen Castle, Inniskilling was the original name of the town - anglicised from Irish meaning Island of Kathleen. Since then the name has changed around 20 times before settling on its present spelling of Enniskillen. After the relief of the Siege of Derry in 1689 the regiment continued its pursuance of the Williamite Wars, on 19 June an attempt was made to force contact with Jacobite forces under the command of Brigadier Sutherland. Next day, Wednesday the 19th of June, they marched forward, having taken up their position in the houses overtopping the churchyard, they so galled the garrison with their shot that at the end of two hours it consented to surrender. The conditions were all the prisoners should have their lives. In addition, a quantity of provisions amounting to twenty tons of bread, flour, wheat. The regiment was numbered the 7th Dragoon Regiment in 1690 and fought with distinction at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690, in 1691 it was renamed Echlins Dragoons. The regiment was renamed the 6th Regiment of Dragoons in 1751, the regiment then fought at the Battle of Minden in August 1759 and the Battle of Wetter also in August 1759 during the Seven Years War. The Union Brigade was composed of three regiments of cavalry, one English, one Scottish The Scots Greys and one Irish. The Inniskillings were commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Muter, who was wounded during the battle, the Union Cavalry Brigade was now ordered forward
34.
Battle of Waterloo
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The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday,18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Upon Napoleons return to power in March 1815, many states that had opposed him formed the Seventh Coalition, Wellington and Blüchers armies were cantoned close to the north-eastern border of France. Napoleon chose to attack them in the hope of destroying them before they could join in an invasion of France with other members of the coalition. Despite holding his ground at Quatre Bras, the defeat of the Prussians forced Wellington to withdraw to Waterloo, Napoleon sent a third of his forces to pursue the Prussians, who had withdrawn parallel to Wellington. This resulted in the separate and simultaneous Battle of Wavre with the Prussian rear-guard, upon learning that the Prussian army was able to support him, Wellington decided to offer battle on the Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment, across the Brussels road. Here he withstood repeated attacks by the French throughout the afternoon, in the evening Napoleon committed his last reserves to a desperate final attack, which was narrowly beaten back. With the Prussians breaking through on the French right flank, Wellingtons Anglo-allied army counter-attacked in the centre, Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Waterloo Campaign and Napoleons last. According to Wellington, the battle was the thing you ever saw in your life. Napoleon abdicated four days later, and on 7 July coalition forces entered Paris, the defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleons rule as Emperor of the French, and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile. This ended the First French Empire, and set a chronological milestone between serial European wars and decades of relative peace, the battlefield is located in the municipalities of Braine-lAlleud and Lasne, about 15 kilometres south of Brussels, and about 2 kilometres from the town of Waterloo. The site of the battlefield today is dominated by a large monument, as this mound was constructed from earth taken from the battlefield itself, the contemporary topography of the battlefield near the mound has not been preserved. On 13 March 1815, six days before Napoleon reached Paris, four days later, the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, and Prussia mobilised armies to defeat Napoleon. Crucially, this would have bought him time to recruit and train more men before turning his armies against the Austrians and Russians, an additional consideration for Napoleon was that a French victory might cause French speaking sympathisers in Belgium to launch a friendly revolution. Wellingtons initial dispositions were intended to counter the threat of Napoleon enveloping the Coalition armies by moving through Mons to the south-west of Brussels and this would have pushed Wellington closer to Blücher, but may have cut Wellingtons communications with his base at Ostend. In order to delay Wellingtons deployment, Napoleon spread false intelligence which suggested that Wellingtons supply chain from the ports would be cut. By June, Napoleon had raised a total strength of about 300,000 men. The force at his disposal at Waterloo was less than one third that size, Napoleon divided his army into a left wing commanded by Marshal Ney, a right wing commanded by Marshal Grouchy and a reserve under his command. Crossing the frontier near Charleroi before dawn on 15 June, the French rapidly overran Coalition outposts and he hoped this would prevent them from combining, and he would be able to destroy first the Prussians army, then Wellingtons
35.
Nile Expedition
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The Nile Expedition, sometimes called the Gordon Relief Expedition, was a British mission to relieve Major-General Charles George Gordon at Khartoum, Sudan. Gordon had been sent to the Sudan to help Egyptians evacuate from Sudan after Britain decided to abandon the country in the face of a rebellion led by self-proclaimed Mahdi, a contingent of Canadians was recruited to help the British navigate their small boats up the Nile River. The Nile Expedition was the first overseas expedition by Canadians in a British imperial conflict, although the Nile Voyageurs were civilians employees, the expedition and its background are vividly described in Winston Churchills book The River War. The British government asked General Gordon, former Governor-General of Sudan, to go to Khartoum and aid in the evacuation of Egyptian soldiers, civilian employees, travelling from London, General Gordon reached Khartoum on 18 February 1884. Britain withdrew its troops from the Sudan until Khartoum was the last outpost remaining under British control, Gordon differed with the British governments decision to abandon the Sudan. He thought that the Islamic revolt had to be crushed for fear that it might eventually overwhelm Egypt and he based this on the Mahdi’s claim of dominion over all Islamic lands. Defying orders from the British government to withdraw, General Gordon, leading a garrison of 6,000 men, on March 18,1884, the Mahdist army laid siege to the city. The rebels stopped river traffic and cut the line to Cairo. Khartoum was cut off from resupply, which led to food shortages, under pressure from the public, in August 1884, the British government decided to reverse its policy and send a relief force to Khartoum. The Expedition was put under the command of General Garnet Wolseley, who had seen service in the Crimean War, Canada, the Expedition was composed of two officers and 43 soldiers from each British Light Cavalry Regiment. Wolseley decided that the best way of reaching Khartoum would be to ascend the Nile River and he requested that they be commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Fred C. Denison, who had served as Wolseley’s aide-de-camp during the Red River expedition, the Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald, did not object once he was assured that the voyageurs were volunteers and would be paid by the British. Denison complied and on 15 September 1884, only 24 days after the request was received,386 voyageurs set sail for Egypt, the Canadians were known at the time as the Nile Voyageurs. As the traditional role of the voyageur was waning, most were formerly employed helping transport log booms down rivers such as the Ottawa, Gatineau, eighty-six of the voyageurs were members of the First Nations, mostly Caughnawaga, an offshoot from the Mohawk and Ojibwa. On 7 October 1884, the Canadians reached Alexandria and headed south by a combination of shallow draft steam launch, on 26 October 1884, the Canadians met Wolseley and his force of 5,400 soldiers at Wadi Halfa. By November they were at the first of six cataracts and began their work of ascending the rapids, the southern progress of the expedition sped up with the experienced voyageurs manning the boats. The boats that Wolseley selected were modified Royal Navy whalers and they were almost ten metres long, two metres wide and three-quarters of a metre deep, and were equipped with twelve oars, two masts and a removable rudder. The boats had the capacity for a dozen men along with cargo to supply them for a hundred days
36.
East Indiaman
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East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India Companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vessels belonging to the Danish, Dutch, English, French, Portuguese. Some of the East Indiamen chartered by the British East India Company were known as tea clippers, English East Indiamen usually ran between England, the Cape of Good Hope and India, where their primary destinations were the ports of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. The Indiamen often continued on to China before returning to England via the Cape of Good Hope, when the company lost its monopoly, the ships of this design were sold off. A smaller, faster ship known as a Blackwall Frigate was built for the trade as the need to carry heavy armaments declined and these include the Danish, Dutch, English, French, Portuguese and Swedish East India companies. East Indiamen carried both passengers and goods, and were armed to defend themselves against pirates, initially, the East Indiamen were built to carry as much cargo as possible, rather than for speed of sailing. The East India company had a monopoly on trade with India and China, East Indiamen were the largest merchant ships regularly built during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, generally measuring between 1100 and 1400 tons burthen. Two of the largest were the Earl of Mansfield and Lascelles being built at Deptford in 1795, the Royal Navy purchased both, converted them to 56-gun fourth rates, and renamed them Weymouth and Madras respectively. They measured 1426 tons on dimensions of approximately 175 feet overall length of hull,144 feet keel,43 feet beam,17 feet draft, in England, Queen Elizabeth I granted an exclusive right to the trade to one company in 1600. The company grew to more than the trade between England and India, but the ships described in this article are the type used in the 17th to the early 19th centuries to carry the trade. The Royal Navy acquired several East Indiamen, turning them into fourth rates, in some cases the East Indiamen successfully fought off attacks by the French. The ships normally had two decks for accommodation within the hull and a raised poop deck. The poop deck and the deck below it were lit with square-windowed galleries at the stern, to support the weight of the galleries, the hull lines towards the stern were full. Later ships built without this feature tended to sail faster, which put the East Indiamen at a disadvantage once the need for heavy armament passed. These ships were used for the China run, until the coming of steamships, these Indian-built ships were relied upon almost exclusively by the British in the eastern seas. None sailed to Europe and they were banned from English ports, many hundreds of Indian-built Indiamen were built for the British, along with other ships, including warships. Notable among them were Surat Castle, a 1, 000-ton ship with a crew of 150, Lowjee Family, of 800 tons and a crew of 125, and Shampinder, of 1,300 tons. Another significant East Indiaman in this period was the 1176-ton Warley that John Perry built at his Blackwall Yard in 1788, and which the Royal Navy bought in 1795 and renamed HMS Calcutta
37.
Kolkata
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Kolkata /koʊlˈkɑːtɑː/ is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. In 2011, the city had a population of 4.5 million, while the population of the city and its suburbs was 14.1 million, making it the third-most populous metropolitan area in India. Recent estimates of Kolkata Metropolitan Areas economy have ranged from $60 to $150 billion making it third most-productive metropolitan area in India, after Mumbai, in the late 17th century, the three villages that predated Calcutta were ruled by the Nawab of Bengal under Mughal suzerainty. After the Nawab granted the East India Company a trading licence in 1690, Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah occupied Calcutta in 1756, and the East India Company retook it the following year. In 1793 the East India company was enough to abolish Nizamat. Calcutta was the centre for the Indian independence movement, it remains a hotbed of contemporary state politics, following Indian independence in 1947, Kolkata, which was once the centre of modern Indian education, science, culture, and politics, suffered several decades of economic stagnation. Many people from Kolkata—among them several Nobel laureates—have contributed to the arts, the sciences, Kolkata culture features idiosyncrasies that include distinctively close-knit neighbourhoods and freestyle intellectual exchanges. Though home to major cricketing venues and franchises, Kolkata differs from other Indian cities by giving importance to association football, there are several explanations about the etymology of this name, The term Kolikata is thought to be a variation of Kalikkhetrô, meaning Field of Kali. Similarly, it can be a variation of Kalikshetra, alternatively, the name may have been derived from the Bengali term kilkila, or flat area. The name may have its origin in the words khal meaning canal, followed by kaṭa, according to another theory, the area specialised in the production of quicklime or koli chun and coir or kata, hence, it was called Kolikata. The discovery and archaeological study of Chandraketugarh,35 kilometres north of Kolkata, Kolkatas recorded history began in 1690 with the arrival of the English East India Company, which was consolidating its trade business in Bengal. The area occupied by the city encompassed three villages, Kalikata, Gobindapur, and Sutanuti. Kalikata was a village, Sutanuti was a riverside weavers village. They were part of an estate belonging to the Mughal emperor and these rights were transferred to the East India Company in 1698. In 1712, the British completed the construction of Fort William, facing frequent skirmishes with French forces, the British began to upgrade their fortifications in 1756. The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, condemned the militarisation and his warning went unheeded, and the Nawab attacked, he captured Fort William which led to the killings of several East India company officials in the Black Hole of Calcutta. A force of Company soldiers and British troops led by Robert Clive recaptured the city the following year, declared a presidency city, Calcutta became the headquarters of the East India Company by 1772. In 1793, ruling power of the Nawabs were abolished and East India company took control of the city
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Albert, Prince Consort
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Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the husband of Queen Victoria. He was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to a family connected to many of Europes ruling monarchs, at the age of 20, he married his first cousin, Queen Victoria, they had nine children. He was heavily involved with the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Queen came to depend more and more on his support and guidance. Albert died at the young age of 42, plunging the Queen into deep mourning for the rest of her life. Upon Queen Victorias death in 1901, their eldest son succeeded as Edward VII, Albert was born at Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg, Germany, the second son of Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his first wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Alberts future wife, Victoria, was earlier in the same year with the assistance of the same midwife. Albert was baptised into the Lutheran Evangelical Church on 19 September 1819 in the Marble Hall at Schloss Rosenau with water taken from the local river, in 1825, Alberts great-uncle, Frederick IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, died. His death led to a realignment of Saxon duchies the following year and Alberts father became the first reigning duke of Saxe-Coburg, Albert and his elder brother, Ernest, spent their youth in a close companionship marred by their parents turbulent marriage and eventual separation and divorce. After their mother was exiled from court in 1824, she married her lover, Alexander von Hanstein, Count of Polzig and she presumably never saw her children again, and died of cancer at the age of 30 in 1831. The brothers were educated privately at home by Christoph Florschütz and later studied in Brussels, like many other German princes, Albert attended the University of Bonn, where he studied law, political economics, philosophy and the history of art. He played music and excelled at sport, especially fencing and riding and his tutors at Bonn included the philosopher Fichte and the poet Schlegel. By 1836, the idea of marriage between Albert and his cousin, Victoria, had arisen in the mind of their ambitious uncle Leopold, at this time, Victoria was the heiress presumptive to the British throne. Her father, Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, the son of King George III, had died when she was a baby. Her mother the Duchess of Kent, was the sister of both Alberts father—the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha—and King Leopold. Leopold arranged for his sister, Victorias mother, to invite the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, William IV, however, disapproved of any match with the Coburgs, and instead favoured the suit of Prince Alexander, second son of the Prince of Orange. Victoria was well aware of the matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes. Alexander, on the hand, she described as very plain. Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopold to thank him for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me and he possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy
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Queen Victoria
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
40.
Battle of Alma
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The Battle of the Alma, which is usually considered the first battle of the Crimean War, took place just south of the River Alma in the Crimea. An Anglo-French force under Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud and FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan defeated General Aleksandr Sergeyevich Menshikovs Russian army, the Anglo-French forces landed on the western coast of the Crimean peninsula some 35 miles north of Sevastopol, on 13 September 1854, at Calamita Bay. Although disorganised and weakened by disease, the lack of opposition these landings met allowed a beachhead of four miles inland to be made, six days later,19 September 1854, the two armies headed south. The march involved crossing five rivers—the River Bulganak, the River Alma, the River Kacha, the River Belbek and the River Chernaya. At the River Alma, Prince Aleksandr Sergeyevich Menshikov, Commander-in Chief of the Russians forces in the Crimea, furthermore, the Russians had more than 100 artillery field guns on the heights which they could employ with devastating effect from the elevated position. The British and French bivouacked on the bank of the Bulganak. Ref>See map on the bottom of page XXVII of Orlando Figes, The Crimean War, to its east lay Kourgane Hill, a natural strongpoint with fields of fire covering most approaches, and the key to the whole position. Two redoubts had been constructed to protect Kourgane Hill from infantry assault, the Lesser Redoubt on the eastern slope, the French, however, had a plan. Positioned on the right, they would assault the cliffs across the river. In theory, such an attempt to turn the Russian flank would so concern the Russians that they would fail to notice a British attack on their centre. Bousquet could not continue the advance without reinforcements, reinforcements that would not arrive quickly, on Bousquets left, French troops under General Canrobert crossed the river but were unable to move their guns up the steep cliffs. To Canroberts left Prince Napoleons division were not even able to cross the river, in the face of heavy fire from Telegraph Hill their advance stalled and the troops took shelter in the vineyards outside the village of Bourliouk. Meanwhile, the British had moved forward, the army was arranged in two lines, the first had the Light Division on the left under Sir George Brown and the 2nd Division under Sir George de Lacy Evans on the right. Behind them on the right of the line, Sir Richard England led his 3rd Division while on his left the Duke of Cambridge commanded the 1st Division. The 4th division under Sir George Cathcart and the cavalry under Lord Lucan were held in reserve, unfortunately, the Light Division had not extended its line far enough to the left and as it advanced it did so at a slight angle. Sir George Brown was extremely shortsighted and he failed to notice that this had occurred, soon the troops on the right of the Light Division and the left of the 2nd Division were merging. The parade ground precision with which the British had set off had been lost, the Russians were now faced, not with a disciplined British formation, but by something with the outward appearance of a mob. Unable to reorganise their men into anything like their original makeup, the men charged, and as they struggled up the slope a densely packed mass of Russian infantry came towards them
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Charge of the Light Brigade
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The Charge of the Light Brigade was a charge of British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854, in the Crimean War. Although the Light Brigade reached the battery under withering fire and scattered some of the gunners. Thus, the assault ended with very high British casualties and no decisive gains, the events are best remembered as the subject of Alfred, Lord Tennysons narrative poem The Charge of the Light Brigade. Published just six weeks after the event, its lines emphasize the valour of the cavalry in bravely carrying out their orders, also present that day was the Heavy Brigade, commanded by Major General James Yorke Scarlett, who was a past Commanding Officer of the 5th Dragoon Guards. The Heavy Brigade was made up of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, the 5th Dragoon Guards, the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, the two brigades were the only British cavalry force at the battle. The Light Brigade, as the name suggests, were the British light cavalry force and it mounted light, fast horses which were unarmoured. The men were armed with lances and sabres, optimized for maximum mobility and speed, they were intended for reconnaissance and skirmishing. They were also ideal for cutting down infantry and artillery units as they attempted to retreat, the Heavy Brigade under James Scarlett was the British heavy cavalry force. The men were equipped with helmets and armed with cavalry swords for close combat. They were intended as the primary British shock force, leading frontal charges in order to break enemy lines, overall command of the British cavalry resided with Lieutenant General George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan. Cardigan and Lucan were brothers-in-law who disliked each other intensely, French cavalry is on your left. Raglan could see what was happening from his vantage point on the west side of the valley. However, the lie of the land around Lucan and the cavalry prevented him seeing the Russians efforts to remove the guns from the redoubts. The order was drafted by Brigadier Richard Airey and carried by Captain Louis Edward Nolan, Nolan carried the further oral instruction that the cavalry was to attack immediately. His reasons for the misdirection are unknown because he was killed in the ensuing battle, in response to the order, Lucan instructed Cardigan to lead his command of about 670 troopers of the Light Brigade straight into the valley between the Fedyukhin Heights and the Causeway Heights. In his poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tennyson famously dubbed this hollow The Valley of Death, the opposing Russian forces were commanded by Pavel Liprandi and included approximately 20 battalions of infantry supported by over 50 artillery pieces. These forces were deployed on both sides and at the end of the valley. Lucan himself was to follow with the Heavy Brigade, the semi-suicidal nature of this charge was surely evident to the troopers of the Light Brigade, but if there were any objection to the orders, it was not recorded
42.
Victoria Cross
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The Victoria Cross is the highest award of the United Kingdom honours system. It is awarded for gallantry in the face of the enemy to members of the British armed forces and it was previously awarded to Commonwealth countries, most of which have established their own honours systems and no longer recommend British honours. It may be awarded to a person of any rank in any service. Since the first awards were presented by Queen Victoria in 1857 and these investitures are usually held at Buckingham Palace. The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War, since then, the medal has been awarded 1,358 times to 1,355 individual recipients. Only 15 medals,11 to members of the British Army, the traditional explanation of the source of the metal from which the medals are struck is that it derives from Russian cannon captured at the Siege of Sevastopol. Some research has suggested a variety of origins for the material, research has established that the metal for most of the medals made since December 1914 came from two Chinese cannons that were captured from the Russians in 1855. Owing to its rarity, the VC is highly prized and the medal has fetched over £400,000 at auction, a number of public and private collections are devoted to the Victoria Cross. The private collection of Lord Ashcroft, amassed since 1986, contains over one-tenth of all VCs awarded, following a 2008 donation to the Imperial War Museum, the Ashcroft collection went on public display alongside the museums Victoria and George Cross collection in November 2010. These are unique awards of honours system, recommended, assessed, gazetted and presented by each country. In 1854, after 39 years of peace, Britain found itself fighting a war against Russia. The Crimean War was one of the first wars with modern reporting, before the Crimean War, there was no official standardised system for recognition of gallantry within the British armed forces. This structure was limited, in practice awards of the Order of the Bath were confined to officers of field rank. Brevet promotions or Mentions in Despatches were largely confined to those who were under the notice of the commanders in the field. Other European countries had awards that did not discriminate against class or rank, France awarded the Légion dhonneur and The Netherlands gave the Order of William. There was a feeling among the public and in the Royal Court that a new award was needed to recognise incidents of gallantry that were unconnected with a mans lengthy or meritorious service. Queen Victoria issued a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual on 29 January 1856 that officially constituted the VC, the order was backdated to 1854 to recognise acts of valour during the Crimean War. Queen Victoria had instructed the War Office to strike a new medal that would not recognise birth or class, the medal was meant to be a simple decoration that would be highly prized and eagerly sought after by those in the military services
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Edward Richard Woodham
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Edward Richard Woodham was one of the survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade on 25 October 1854 during the Crimean War. The senior commander surviving, Lord Lucan, was not present, in the article, there were reproduced the recollections of a number of the survivors including those of Edward Richard Woodham. The Hussars museum has confirmed that Edward Richard Woodham had enlisted in the 11th Hussars in June 1847, the Bristol Town Council archive office has confirmed that Edward Richard Woodham was born on 20 February 1831 and his father was born on 18 November 1798. Both were born in Bristol and were baptised at St. Paul’s Church in Bristol and he died on 12 December 1886 aged 55 and is buried in Highgate Cemetery. Forgotten Heroes, The Charge of the Light Brigade, illustrated London News 30 October 1875 A Walk through Highgate Cemetery Great-grandson Michael Juliens website
United Kingdom (1801–1969)
British Army
