Exemplifying many of the aesthetics from the earlier Jacobean period, the Crown prides itself on its art and architecture. Erecting hugely elaborate monuments and sculptures to rival those of ancient Greece and Rome, the Crown also called upon designs from earlier British and French architecture such as those by Inigo Jones. Despite visually harking to a golden age of prosperity in the Imperial British Crown, life was harsh and austere. Only the upper class, property-owning officers and wealthy merchants enjoyed the fruits of Pax Britannia and it was these who felt the fading of the Crown’s glory towards the end of the eighteenth century, all the more keenly.

Out of this tumultuous period, the line between mercenary and soldier of the Crown became a blurred one. As the Crown’s power and control began to wane, a greater reliance was placed on the services and successes of enterprising military commanders. Nowhere was this more clearly seen than with the dominance of the East India Trading Company (EITC) in the Crown’s foreign affairs.

During the seventeenth century, the focus of the EITC was establishing trade in India. Company interests turned from trade to territory during the 18th century as the EITC and the Crown forces deployed with them fought against their French equivalents, the Compagnie Française des Indes Orientales (CFIO). Battles between the two groups resulted in a victorious EITC in control of Bengal and a major military and political power in India. In the following decades, the Company gradually increased the extent of the territories under its control on behalf of the Crown, bringing the majority of the Indian subcontinent into the Crown Dominion of the Raj via local puppet rulers under the threat of force.