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{{Short description|British victory in India}}
{{for|the 1805 siege|Siege of Bharatpur (1805)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2018}}
{{infobox military conflict
| conflict = Siege of Bharatpur
| partof =
| image = THE STORMING OF BHURTPOOR.jpg
| image_size = 300px
| caption = An illustration of the siege
| date = 9 December 1825 – 18 January 1826
| place = [[Bharatpur, Rajasthan]]
| coordinates = {{coord|27.2199|77.4954|scale:5000|display=title,inline}}
| map_type = India Rajasthan#India
| map_relief = Yes
| latitude =
| longitude =
| map_size =
| map_marksize =
| map_caption = Location within [[Rajasthan]]
| map_label = Bharatpur
| territory =
| result = British victory
| combatant1 = {{flag|British Empire}}<br>{{flagicon image|Flag of the British East India Company (1801).svg}} [[East India Company]]
| combatant2 = {{flagicon image|Flag of Bharatpur.png}} [[Bharatpur State]]
| commander1 = {{flagd|British Empire}} [[Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere|Lord Combermere]]<br>{{flagicon image|British East India Company flag.svg}} [[Michael Childers]]
| strength1 = 27,000<ref name=:1>Clodfelter, Warfare and armed conflicts: a statistical encyclopedia of casualty and other figures, 1494-2007, 2008, p. 237.</ref>
| strength2 = 25,000<ref name=:1/>
| casualties1 = 1,050<ref name=:1/>
| casualties2 = 19,000<ref name=:1/>
| commander2 = {{flagicon image|Flag of Bharatpur.png}} [[Balwant Singh of Bharatpur]]
}}
[[File:PLAN OF BHURTPOOR.jpg|thumbnail|right|Plan of Bhurtpore]]
The '''siege of Bharatpur''' was a [[siege]] that took place in the Indian [[princely state]] of [[Bharatpur State|Bharatpur]] (now part of [[Rajasthan]]) between December 1825 and January 1826. British troops under [[Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere|Lord Combermere]] initially surrounded the state's capital until on 18{{nbsp}}January 1826 its fortress was stormed and captured.

==Background==
Since the [[Maratha Empire|Maratha]] sponsored victory at the [[Siege of Bharatpur (1805)|Siege of Bharatpur]] in 1805, Bharatpur had remained beyond British control, a situation that unnerved the Court of Directors of the [[East India Company]] (EIC) in London. They met at the beginning of 1825 and sought the advice of the [[Duke of Wellington]] as to how Bharatpur could be taken. He recommended Lord Combermere for the task but was told that the Court did not consider Combermere a "a man of any great genius". "I don't care a damn about his genius," Wellington replied, "I tell you he's the man to take Bhurtpore."{{sfn|Stapleton Cotton|Stapleton Cotton|Knollys|1866|page=30}} Accordingly, Combermere sailed to [[Calcutta]] aboard the EIC ship ''Thalia'' and after a prolonged voyage arrived on 2{{nbsp}}October 1825.{{sfn|Stapleton Cotton|Stapleton Cotton|Knollys|1866|page=39}}
Meanwhile, the [[Maharaja]] of Bharatpore, [[Baldeo Singh]] died in suspicious circumstances to be succeeded by his son [[Balwant Singh of Bharatpur|Balwant Singh]], who was only five years of age but had been officially recognised by the [[Governor-General of India]], [[William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst|Lord Amherst]].{{sfn|Stapleton Cotton|Stapleton Cotton|Knollys|1866|page=39}} Before his death Baldeo Singh had entrusted his son to the protection of distinguished General Sir [[David Ochterlony]] who, acting on his initiative as Civil Commissioner, advanced on Bharatpore with an army from the British garrison at [[Delhi]]. When Amherst heard of the move, he sent peremptory orders to recall the troops, whereupon Ochterlony resigned.{{sfn|Grant|1885|page=573}} Amherst then appointed Combermere Commander-in-Chief.

==Siege==
[[File:The Storming of Bhurtpore, 1826 - NY PWO TEMP2.jpg|thumb|The Storming of Bhurtpore, 1826]]
Combermere's army was made up of two divisions of infantry, one division of regular cavalry, a brigade of irregular horse, a large train of battering ordnance, several brigades of field artillery (horse and foot), along with a corps of engineers, sappers and other requisite troops.{{sfn|Blackwoods|1828|page=446}} The fortress at Bharatpur had been erected by the [[Jat]] rulers of Bharatpur and enhanced over the years. By the time Combermere arrived it was {{convert|8|mi}} in circumference and surrounded by 35 clay and horse dung semi-circular bastions, which had been baked rock-hard by the sun. The fortress was considered impervious to artillery while its defences were enhanced by a {{convert|150|ft|adj=on}} wide and {{convert|59|ft|adj=on}} deep dry moat, which could be filled by diverting water from a nearby lake.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Siege of Bhurtpore 1825|url=http://horsepowermuseum.co.uk/?p=227|publisher=The Museum of the King's Royal Hussars|date=7 January 2015|access-date=4 December 2015}}</ref> Combermere arrived in [[Agra]] on 1{{nbsp}}December 1825 and reached Bharatpore on the 10th. On arrival, troops were despatched to capture the reservoir to the north west of the fort to prevent the enemy flooding the area as they had done during the 1805 siege. By the middle of December the fort was surrounded by British forces with skirmishes occurring on a daily basis. The siege continued until the night of 18{{nbsp}}January when two breaches were made and mines exploded so that within two hours the fort had been stormed and taken.{{sfn|Creighton|1830|page=10-100}}

==Aftermath==
Following his success at Bharatpur, Lord Combermere was raised in the peerage as Viscount Combermere on 8{{nbsp}}February 1827.{{sfn|Burke|1869|page=254}} When the [[prize money]] was divided following the siege, the officers present gave the sum of £1,000 to the widows of each of the four European officers killed, and £1,000 to be divided amongst the widows and orphans of the European soldiers killed.{{sfn|Grant|1885|page=575}}

For many years the 17.75-ton Bhurtpore gun,<ref name=DT>{{Cite news|title=Viscount Combermere|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1374349/Viscount-Combermere.html|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=16 November 2000|access-date=1 December 2015}}</ref> captured during the siege stood outside the [[Royal Artillery Barracks]] in Woolwich, London.{{sfn|Murray|1878|page=486}} It is now in the care of the Royal Artillery Museum at Larkhill, Wiltshire.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

;Bibliography
* {{cite book|author=Blackwoods|title=Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AfMAAAAAYAAJ|year=1828|publisher=William Blackwood & Sons.}}
* {{cite book|title=A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire|last1=Burke|first1=Bernard|author1-link=Bernard Burke|url=https://archive.org/details/genealogicalhera00inburk|year=1869|publisher=Harrison|location=London}}
* {{cite book|first=James Norman|last=Creighton|title=Narrative of the siege and capture of Bhurtpore, in the province of Agra, upper Hindoostan, by the forces under the command of Lord Combermere, in the latter end of 1825, and beginning of 1826|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$c16216;view=1up;seq=37;size=175|year=1830|location=London}}
* {{cite book|first1=Mary Woolley|last1=Stapleton Cotton|first2=Stapleton|last2=Stapleton Cotton|author2-link=Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere|first3=William Wallingford|last3=Knollys|title=Memoirs and Correspondence of Field-marshal Viscount Combermere, from his family papers, by Mary Viscountess Combermere and W.W. Knollys|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KTwBAAAAQAAJ|year=1866}}
* {{cite book|first1=James|last1=Grant|title=British battles on land and sea|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924091765663|year=1885}}
* {{cite book|first=John|last=Murray|title=Handbook for England and Wales: Alphabetically Arranged for the Use of Travellers ...|url=https://archive.org/details/handbookforengl00firgoog|year=1878|publisher=J. Murray}}
{{Authority control}}

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline|Siege of Bharatpur, 1825-26}}

[[Category:History of Bharatpur, Rajasthan]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1825|Bharatpur]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1826|Bharatpur]]
[[Category:1825 in India]]
[[Category:1826 in India]]
[[Category:Battles involving the British East India Company|Bharatpur]]
[[Category:December 1825]]
[[Category:January 1826]]
[[Category:Battles involving the Jats]]

Siege of Bharatpur (1825–1826) - Revision history

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