The Trooper: The 1854 Cavalry Charge Iron Maiden Turned Into an Anthem

On October 25, 1854, 172 years ago, some 670 British horsemen galloped down a valley in Crimea, straight at the Russian guns. It was a mistake. And almost 130 years later, that mistake became one of the most beloved songs in heavy metal.

A Misunderstood Order

In the middle of the Crimean War, near the port of Balaclava, Russian troops had seized a number of guns belonging to the Turks, Britain’s allies, on some nearby hills. The British commander, Lord Raglan, wanted to keep them from hauling the guns away and sent a written order to the cavalry: advance and prevent the enemy from carrying off the guns.

The order was delivered by Captain Louis Nolan. When Lord Lucan, the cavalry commander, asked him which guns he meant, Nolan pointed toward the far end of the valley, where the Russian batteries stood. Lucan passed the order on to Lord Cardigan, in command of the Light Brigade, and the brigade set off in that direction. Nolan was killed in the first minute of the charge, and no one ever found out why he pointed that way.

The horsemen rode on with cannons firing at them head-on and from both flanks. They made it to the battery and scattered some of the gunners, but had to turn back right away, under the same fire.

A French general, Pierre Bosquet, summed it up in a line that went down in history: “It is magnificent, but it is not war.” Lord Cardigan, who led the charge, survived: he rode back alone through the valley and then went off to a champagne dinner aboard his yacht, anchored in the port of Balaclava.

Britain’s Poet Laureate, Alfred Tennyson, wrote a poem about the charge in a matter of minutes, based on what he had read in The Times. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” was published on December 9, 1854, less than seven weeks after the battle.

From Poem to Heavy Metal

Inspired by that poem, Steve Harris, Iron Maiden’s bassist and founder, wrote “The Trooper.” The song appeared on Piece of Mind, the band’s fourth album, released on May 16, 1983. It was recorded at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, in the Bahamas, with producer Martin Birch, and it was the first album with Nicko McBrain behind the drums.

It came out as a single on June 20, 1983, and reached No. 12 in the UK. AllMusic highlights its “galloping” rhythm and the twin-guitar riff from Dave Murray and Adrian Smith: a sound that fits a cavalry charge perfectly.

The video intercut the band playing with scenes from The Charge of the Light Brigade, the 1936 film starring Errol Flynn. The BBC found it too violent and refused to air it uncut. The band’s manager, Rod Smallwood, fired back with some irony: you’d think they had killed the horses themselves, when all they’d done was use an old movie.

Over the years, the song just kept growing. A 2005 live version reached No. 5 in the UK and No. 1 in Spain, the band launched a beer called Trooper, and a whole new generation recently discovered it: it plays in the final episode of Stranger Things.

There’s a curious twist to this story. Piece of Mind was Nicko McBrain’s first album with Iron Maiden, and the Run For Your Lives tour, which celebrates the band’s 50th anniversary, is the first in more than four decades without him: he retired from touring in December 2024, and Simon Dawson now sits behind the kit. “The Trooper” is still in the setlist, and on Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1, it’ll ring out at the Estadio Nacional, with Nuclear and Mammoth opening. When Bruce Dickinson walks out in that red coat, he’ll be telling a story that began 172 years ago in a valley in Crimea.