Abstract
A rather obvious question in dealing with the creation of a new thing is ‘why?’ In the case of the Victoria Cross the obvious answer is that it was created in recognition of the sacrifices made by the soldiers and sailors of the Crimean War. This is true insofar as the war served as a catalyst for change, but the change could not have occurred without some necessary preconditions. Hegel’s Zeitgeist was in motion; changes had occurred in society, were reflected in politics, and were brought to a head through a combination of Romanticism, pragmatism, and personal ambition.
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Notes
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Daphne Bennett, King Without a Crown: Albert, Prince Consort of England, 1819–1861 (New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1977), 259. Bennett does not give an exact date for Albert’s inspiration.
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Cecil Woodham-Smith, Queen Victoria: From Her Birth to the Death of the Prince Consort (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972), 150.
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© 2008 Melvin Charles Smith
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Smith, M.C. (2008). The Institutionalization of Heroism in Britain. In: Awarded for Valour. Studies in Military and Strategic History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230583351_3
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