Cardigan, James Thomas Brudenell, 7th earl of

Cardigan, James Thomas Brudenell, 7th earl of,

1797–1868, British general. In the Crimean War he led the disastrous cavalry charge at BalaklavaBalaklava
, section of the city of Sevastopol, on the Crimean peninsula. In ancient times it was an important Greek commercial city. In the Middle Ages it belonged to the Genoese until it was taken (1475) by the Turks, who gave it its present name.
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 (1854) that Tennyson immortalized in The Charge of the Light Brigade. The charge was made on a misunderstood order, and the brigade was destroyed. Quarrels with his officers showed him a vain and contentious man. The cardigan sweater was named for him.

Bibliography

See biography by P. Compton (1972).