Victoria and Albert
Before considering the story of the Baltic war as the Russian war against the British and the Turks became known as, the rulers of the British Empire must be mentioned including a truly remarkable couple must be mentioned. In 1840, Queen Victoria married Albrecht Von Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The Prince consort would be known thereafter as Prince Albert.
It was a marriage made in heaven- Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were the perfect couple, and mutual love was the basis of the relationship. In the end they had 9 children together.
"Albert, wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife?" and
"Victoria, wilt thou have Albert to be thy wedded husband?" and
"Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?"
To this last question the Duke of Sussex replied by taking the queen's hand and saying, "I do." Perhaps some in the assembly may have smiled when the Queen of England promised to obey this younger son of a German Duke, and when he said, "With all my worldly goods I thee endow." The queen tells us, however, that she pronounced the word obey with a deliberate intent to keep her vow, and that she kept it.
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/bl_eminent_victoria_l.htm
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were patrons of the arts. Under their benevolent reign, Britain became foremost in realist literature and music, and many more arts besides. Cities such as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Scunthorpe, Sheffield and Grimsby bloomed as cultural centers of Europe. Sadly, owing to the prevalence of crime by aristocratic gangs, London and Edinborough fared less well. Britain eclipsed France and Austria as the leading cultural nations of Europe.
The Prince Consort however, was never permitted to become King. Albert remained resolutely German- indeed, he introduced many German traditions, such as the Christmas tree to Britain. Victoria and Albert sponsored many missionary societies, and indeed this period saw an increased role of the church in daily life (Clericalism). Parliament was never prepared to give Albert the crown which Victoria so desperately wanted him to have, and he remained forever the Prince Consort.
State and Government
Under Victoria and Albert, the relationship between the Monarchy, State and Government became essentially fixed for the remainder of the period. Parliament and Monarchy were seen as the overarching authorities within the British Empire. The monarchy symbolized Order and Tradition. Parliament symbolized the freedom and representation offered to citizens of the Empire.
An expansion of the bureaucracy took place. Existing offices such as the Colonial and War Offices were expanded, whilst new offices such as the Indian Office, Home Office, and Board of Trade were also founded. By far the most powerful offices was the triumvirate of the Treasury, Home Office and Foreign Office. Some up and coming sheep farmers criticized the methods of recruitment for the Civil Services.
Despite laws restricting nepotism, a career in the civil service was generally granted upon the basis of character, upbringing and birth, rather than merit. An enormous proportion of civil service recruits came from the “Scunby” universities of Scunthorpe Polytechnic and Grimsby Agricultural College. Recruits from other universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge which often contained aristocratic and capitalist elements generally found their prospects of advancement limited even if recruited.
War With Russia
The Baltic war, as the war with Russia became known as, began quite badly for the British forces. British military planners decided that the quickest way to end the war was a direct assault on the Russian Capital of St Petersburg. British Military planners rejected another plan calling for the occupation of the worthless Crimean Peninsula. Before studying the course of the war, a few words here must be said regarding the composition of the British army.
Owing to the lower wages and upkeep required by native troops, most of Britain armies was composed of Bengalis, from the Andaman islands and Bengal itself. The Bengalis excelled as both infantry and cavalry. Infantry divisions were normally trained as regular infantry, and were generally trained a cut above the infantry used by other nations. Infantry corps were normally composed of 5 12,000 man divisions of regular infantry- occasionally however, another division of mounted infantry (dragoons) and horse drawn artillery was added. Thus, infantry corps were either 60,000 or 72,000 men each. The cavalry, of which there were slightly fewer numbers, was composed of 5 divisions of 12,000 men, all mounted, trained for both for speed and firepower as hussars. In terms of training, the British army generally followed the advice of Karl von Clausewitz, emphasizing training and discipline in conducting military operations. The military had however, suffered from little innovation in preceding decades, and their tactics and equipment were often little changed from the Napoleonic wars. To add to this standing army there was also a large number of reservists. Although never used, Great Britain’s enemies understood that in the event of war, Britain would have access to a large territorial army available for defense of the Empire.
The Russian troops were normally organized into slightly less well trained divisions of 10,000 men each, occasionally supplemented by artillery, with their cavalry often wasted as supporting units. The size of corps generally varied tremendously, in response to local threats. Russian training emphasized the importance of duty to the Rodina, spirit and Morale, in accordance with the direction of Baron de Jomini, the Italian officer responsible for organizing the Tsar’s armies following the Napoleonic wars. Overall, the Russian army was quite large, and was a formidable opponent. The Russian navy was far inferior to the British, and had not been rebuilt following the previous Russo-British war more than a decade earlier.
Despite its large size however, Russia faced enormous difficulties in its quest to occupy the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman, British and French diplomacy, fearing Russian expansion organized a large coalition against the Russians. The Serbs and Moldavians reluctantly followed the Sultan into war with Russia, and later the French, Swedes, Mexicans, Sardinians, Swedes and Americans joined the war to prevent Russian expansion, although most of these nations contributed little. Later in 1854, the Germans, after initially promising neutrality would lead their own invasion for their own gain.
In June 1854, some months after the Russian declaration of war, British forces began amphibious landings upon the Baltic Coast with the objective of capturing St Petersburg and forcing the Russian government to sue for peace. However, although the initial landings proved successful, the Russians were quickly able to organize an effective defense. In July 1855, the commander of the III Bengali Hussar Corp (otherwise known as the Light Brigade), Raglan, was ordered to assault a Russian artillery position near Talinn. However, after showing considerable courage taking the position, Raglan then fell under a powerful counterattack by Russian cavalry and infantry and was forced to retreat, taking heavy casualties. The heroism shown by the Light Brigade was immortalized forever in a poem by Tennyson.
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
Of course, Tennyson’s account contains some inaccuracies, as the light Brigade was roughly 60,000 strong, rather than 600, but it remains a masterpiece of the poetic arts.
With the failure of the charge of the Light Brigade, Britain brought in more troops, until the Baltic forces numbered almost 300,000. In a brilliant amphibious landing, on October 20th, St. Petersburg was captured. The Hussars were able to maneuver successfully around a Russian army in Novgorod, and after capturing Moscow on November 4th, the Hussars attacked the rear of the Russian army whilst Regular infantry attacked from St Petersburg. Eventually, the Russian commander, Volubioff, surrendered on November 20th.
The Tsar was captured and forced to sign peace, paying Britain substantial war indemnities and surrendering several Caucasian territories to the Ottomans. By january 1855 The St Petersburg war was over.