James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan

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"Tiresome man. Always blathering on about his military adventures."

―Mary Anne Disraeli describing Cardigan, 1868.

James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan (1797 – 1868) was a general in the British Army noted for leading the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava. He was also a member of the British Rite of the Templar Order, serving as a Tory member of the House of Commons and amassing vast fortunes at the expense of the working class.

Biography

Early life

Brudenell grew up in Buckinghamshire in luxury as a member of a wealthy family. His father had earned the inherited the Earldom of Cardigan when the former was only 17. Although he was educated at some of England's most prestigious schools, Brudenell never earned a degree. The circumstances of his joining the Templar Order are unknown, although it is likely that his position in high society brought him into the Order at a young age.

In 1818, Brudenell became a member of the House of Commons for Marlborough, Wiltshire, a pocket borough owned by his cousin, the Earl of Ailesbury. Before taking his seat in Parliament, Brudenell took the traditional Grand Tour of Europe, including Sweden and Russia. After taking his seat on his return, he became an insignificant and unpopular Tory politician and worked to preserve the ancient rights of the nobility while preventing reform.

His questionable entry into the House of Commons meant that he was eventually thrown out. During a campaign for re-election in 1832, he was assaulted and badly beaten at a rally, but was able to regain his seat in Parliament after distributing £20,000, equivalent to £1,660,000 by modern standards, among the electorate.

Early military career

Due to his lack of success in politics, Brudenell turned to the army and formed his own horse troop guard against potential reformist uprisings in Northamptonshire, inspired by his youthful admiration of the Duke of Wellington's cavalry at the Battle of Waterloo. He then joined the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars and through the purchase of commissions, he rose from lieutenant to lieutenant general over the years. During this period, he was court-martialed for "reprehensible conduct", dismissed from the army by King William IV himself and prosecuted for illegal dueling, all of which Cardigan managed to have reversed or dismissed thanks to his family connections.

In 1836, Brudenell was given command of the 11th Hussars and was sent to India to command his forces, although he spent a year and a half traveling there. When he arrived, the Hussars had already been stationed there for several years. After he had spent some time hunting tigers, his regiment was recalled to England. Rather than sailing aboard a warship, Brudenell traveled home separately aboard a private yacht. In the meantime, he had inherited the Earldom of Cardigan.

Battle of Balaclava

After the Crimean War broke out in 1853, Cardigan was sent to Crimea as a cavalry officer alongside his brother-in-law Lord Lucan, whom he hated. During the campaign, he spent much of his time dining aboard his yacht. After British forces under Lord Raglan had taken Balaclava, their Russian opponents captured several of their redoubts and artillery in late October 1854. In response, Raglan ordered Lucan to send the Light Brigade to harass the Russians at the captured redoubts. Due to misinformation from the officer carrying the order, Lucan ordered Cardigan to lead a direct charge against a fortified Russian artillery position at the end of the valley between the Fedyukhin Heights and the Causeway Heights.

Despite initial rumors suggesting that he had left the battle entirely, it seems most likely that Cardigan did indeed follow the order and gallop ahead, leading the cavalry directly at the Russian artillery in a surprising display of bravery. However, the charge proved a disaster, and upon reaching the Russian position, Cardigan had not realized that the Light Brigade had suffered massive casualties. After a brief figh at the artillery position, he rode back through the valley. By the end of the battle, the Light Brigade had 40% casualties.

Return to politics and serving Starrick

"The asylum is shut up, medical care throughout the city is in disarray. He does not, cannot, understand the consequences of his actions. The man is clearly an anarchist!"

―Cardigan on Jacob Frye and the consequences of John Elliotson's death, 1868.

Shortly afterwards, Cardigan returned to England and retired from the army a few years later. After his return to Parliament, he continued campaigning against reform and in favor of his own recognition as a war hero. He also contributed large sums of money to many veterans' charities and campaigned for the Reform Act of 1867. However, since the Act brought the House of Commons under the control of the upper-classes, his support for it was most likely not grounded in a change heart, but rather in an attempt strengthen the Templar grip on London, and by extension, the British Empire.

In 1868, the twin Assassins Jacob and Evie Frye traveled to London to break the Templars' control over the city and eliminate Grand Master Crawford Starrick. After Jacob had assassinated the Templar John Elliotson, medicine shortages spread across Lambeth and the production of the mind-numbing drug Starrick's Soothing Syrup had ceased. Cardigan and his fellow Templar Philip Twopenny met with Starrick at the latter's office, telling the Grand Master about the consequences of Elliotson's death and warning him about Jacob. Starrick dismissed their concerns, mentioning the meticulous process through which he received his tea as an example of how firm and unshakable his control over London was.

Corrupt Practices Bill

"I would supply all of London if I could. Meanwhile, you sit in your club and wax poetic with promises your honor cannot pay. Your family's fortune, however... I wonder what they would offer to keep your record out of the newspapers. About the same as Disraeli would offer for your balls, I'd wager. But let's be generous. Why limit ourselves to one or the other, when we can have it all? What say you, sir, shall I come collect? No more dallying. The halls of Parliament must be free to govern, again!"

―Starrick during a meeting with Cardigan, 1868.

After Jacob assassinated Twopenny, who was the Governor of the Bank of England, public trust in the currency dropped while inflation increased. In the meantime, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli introduced the Corrupt Practices Bill to fight electoral fraud.

While meeting with Starrick, Cardigan expressed frustration at Parliament's lack of action and pledged to have Disraeli eliminated in order to end the Bill and maintain the Templars' influence on politics. However, Starrick scolded Cardigan for idling in the Sinopean Club rather than taking a more active role in defending Templar interests in Parliament. The Grand Master threatened him by putting a knife to his crotch and ordered him to keep the Bill from passing.

Cardigan thus hired a group of thugs to kill Disraeli and also hired a man named Herbert to tail the Prime Minister. In a letter to Starrick, he expressed his belief that Disraeli's death would halt the Corrupt Practices Bill indefinitely and Disraeli's rival and a chief opponent of the Bill, William Ewart Gladstone, would be more easy to manipulate by the Templars.

However, Jacob intercepted the letter and rescued Disraeli and his wife, Mary Anne. Mary Anne identified the man Jacob sought as Cardigan and informed the Assassin that he could be found protesting the Bill at the Palace of Westminster.

Reference

• Assassin's Creed: Syndicate