Prince Rupert of the Rhine

“ A letter from his father to the queen of Bohemia mentions with satisfaction the boy's gift for languages. In 1633 Rupert and his brother were permitted to accompany the prince of Orange during his campaign, and were present at the siege of Rhynberg. But Rupert's military training really began in 1635, when he served as a volunteer in the lifeguards of the prince of Orange during the invasion of Brabant. In 1636 Rupert followed the prince elector to England, and was received with great favour by his uncle. With the king he was entertained by Laud at Oxford, and on 30 Aug. ”

“ Fain would the Emperor have sent him to the Archduke at Brunswick, believing that the influence of the Angel might yet win him. But Rupert preferred to visit Prague, his own birthplace, and the scene of his father's brief kingship. With a kindly caution not to venture into the power of the Duke of Bavaria, the Emperor bade him farewell. From Prague Rupert went to Saxony, where he astonished the reigning Elector not a little by his refusal to drink. A banquet had been arranged in his honour, but the Prince, "always temperate", excused himself from drinking with the rest. ”

“ Indeed, I may say, he is his father, for
he, being without question dead, Rupert is king.
Alardo. Dead without question! You are positive.
How, if I say I know he is alive?
Think you to gain a sire the prince would choose
To lose so mighty and august a throne?
Ivy. Treasonless man! would you dethrone the prince? Ho! lechery and
faith! guard our good prince! His life's in danger.
Rupert. What cry is this?
Ivy. Great prince, it might have been a crying matter; but I, thank
the gods, have been man enough to stifle it.
Rupert. So you have turned approver: renegades I never trust ”

“ D'Estrées retorted with the declaration that Rupert, owing to his aversion to the war, had not pushed the first battle so far as he could have done. [90] But, said a contemporary, "it is as impossible to make any Englishman suspect the Prince's courage, as to persuade him that the French have any, at sea." ”

“ By July the Spanish Ambassador had deigned to visit the Prince, and to reveal the true cause of his long delay—namely, the rumours of Charles II's approaching marriage with the Infanta of Portugal, which was likely to produce a war with Spain. For this same reason, joined with their resentment at Rupert's refusal of the Generalship of the horse, the Austrian Ministers also treated him with coldness, though the personal kindness of the Imperial family was never abated. "In the meantime be pleased to knowe that Rupert is but coldly used by the Ministers here," wrote the Prince ”

“ For the intention of carrying him to that army, (in the West,) he has yet heard nothing of it, and, if he shall, he will without fail oppose it; and I may say truely that if he has a great kindness for any man it is for your Highness." [44] For the moment Rupert triumphed. Richmond, who opposed the plan for the West as strongly as the Prince could have wished, assured him that it was "but a dream," [45] and for a while it fell into abeyance. ”

“ I am comforted that my sons have lost no honour in the action, and that him I love best is safe." [13] "Him I love best" was of course the Elector Charles, and thus, even in the moment of Rupert's peril, his mother confessed her preference for his elder brother.
In January 1639 Elizabeth's fears about Vienna seemed justified, for an English resident wrote thence to Secretary Windebank: "Prince Rupert is daily expected, and will be well treated, being likely to be liberated on parole. Hatzfeldt praises him for his ripeness of judgment, far beyond his years." ”

“ The King's triumph was short-lived. The citizens and the Parliamentary troops rallied to the defence of the capital. An army, twice as large as that of Charles, barred his way on Turnham Green. Essex advancing on Brentford, forced Rupert to retire. This he did in excellent order, entrusting the conduct of the retreat to Sir Jacob Astley. The Prince himself stood his horse in the river beside the bridge that he might watch his men pass over. ”

“ Some did not hesitate to hint at the Prince's over-greatness and possible designs on the Crown itself; and all urged the King to recall him, rather than suffer him to risk his army in a great battle. Trevor thus reported the affair to Ormonde: "Prince Rupert, by letters from Court, understands that the King grows daily more and more jealous of him, and of his army; so that it is the commonest discourse at the openest places, of the Lord Digby, Lord Percy, Sir John Culpepper, and Wilmot, that it is indifferent whether the Parliament or Prince Rupert doth prevail. ”

“ But both the Queen mother and Charles were anxious for the French alliance, and the marriage took place notwithstanding Rupert's opposition. When, after ten years of unhappiness, the poor young Duchess died a tragic {295} death, Rupert was in a position to say "I told you so," and he always maintained that her husband had poisoned her. "There are three persons at court say it is true," wrote the French Minister, Colbert: "Prince Rupert, because he has a natural inclination to believe evil; the Duke of Buckingham, because he courts popularity ”

“ We will form a buccaneer kingdom with a dual head, and there will be no limit to our prosperity. Look at the crop there is at hand: wine, women, meat, corn, silks, pearls and gold in all abundance. All the strong men will flock to us and help in the taking. The Spanish power will melt away like sand cliffs before a sea."
Prince Rupert thrust back his chair from the table and smote the arm with his fist. "Have done, Monsieur!" he said. "It is against my honour that I should listen to you more. I came out here as a King's man, and if life remains to me, it will be as his man that I go back." ”

“ For some weeks the Prince hovered about the Channel, waiting for an expected Dutch fleet; but the Dutch {304} out-witted him. By promising to keep within harbour, they persuaded the King to recall Rupert, and, in the meantime, privately ordered their Mediterranean fleet to sail for New Guinea. Thus nothing was done by the English, and the only warfare waged by Rupert was with his chaplain, of whom he wrote bitter complaints to Lord Arlington, the then Secretary of State. ”

“ It was proposed to raise a fleet of privateers under his command to take advantage of the war between England and the Dutch, but Rupert's ships were too unseaworthy to be so utilised (ib. iii. 164, 167, 184) . Still more disappointing to the exiled court was the small amount of prize-money the prince had brought home. The pecuniary results of the voyage had been as small as the political. Moreover, the French authorities obstructed the sale of the prize-goods, and obliged Rupert to sell the guns of the Swallow at a low rate to the French government. ”

“ To such visitors the Prince must infinitely have preferred his solitude. He was a lonely man; the last, in a sense, of his generation. Between him and the Courtiers of Charles a great gulf lay. Will Legge was dead, and most of his other friends had likewise passed before him. Lord Craven was left, and Ormonde absent in Ireland, but they were the last of the old régime. For companionship Rupert fell back on his own "gentlemen," the people of Berkshire, and his dogs. ”

“ I can answer but for one ship, and in that I will do my part, for it is not as in an army where a man can command everything.'" [4]
A royal company had been formed for the promotion of the enterprise, and a capital was raised of £30,000, in which the Duke of York held many shares. [5] Eighty pounds was laid out on "two trumpets, a kettle-drum, and a drummer to attend Prince Rupert to sea;" [6] and, after a farewell supper at Kirke House, Rupert went down the river at three o'clock on an October morning, accompanied by the King, Duke of York, and many Courtiers. ”

“ In a word, it was impossible for a young man, and a noble prince, to do more bravely than His Highness did." [7]
A month later, Edward, inspired probably by Queen Henrietta, wrote to Rupert to suggest that he also should come over to fight for his uncle's cause. "I have a letter from my brother in France who desires my order to come to me; if it be His Majesty's desire I should send word presently," Rupert wrote to Legge in April 1645; and he {209} added a postscript curiously indicative of the haste and want of thought with which he must have written. ”

“ The last sentence alludes to an engagement entered into by Rupert to raise men for the Duke of Modena. In May 1655 he was busy with his levies, and he had offered commands in his force to Craven, Gerard, and the once Puritan Massey. [47] The French Court patronised the Duke of Modena, and Mazarin promised Rupert the command of 2,000 men chosen from the best troops of France, 1,000 Swiss, and three other regiments. The arrears of pay due to the Prince for his services to France in 1648, were less readily conceded. ”

“ Throughout the play Prince Rupert had sat quietly at the Governor's right hand, puffing at a long pipe of tobacco, observing with his keen eyes all that happened, and answering courteously enough when spoken to. The men around him were the rudest this world contained; esteeming themselves the equals of any, and the superiors of most. But there was a natural dignity which hedged his Highness in, over which even they did not dare to trespass; and so, by way perhaps of a sly revenge, they contented themselves by gibing now and again at his easily-blushing secretary. ”

“ At the beginning of the war, however, Rupert's energy and activity were of the greatest value to the king's cause. His example inspired his followers: ‘he put that spirit into the king's army that all men seemed resolved’ (Memoirs of Sir Philip Warwick, p. 227) . With a small body of cavalry, which numbered at first only eight hundred horse, he traversed the midland counties, raising men and money for Charles. ‘Prince Rupert,’ writes a parliamentary historian, ‘like a perpetual motion, was in a short time heard of at many places at a great distance’ (May, Long Parliament, ed. 1854, p. 249) . ”

“ Prince Rupert in particular thought that nothing had been done so long as the enemy stood before him unconquered. He held that the King’s letter not only empowered, but instructed him to fight: in conjunction with the troops that were in York he thought himself strong enough to win a victory. The Marquis of Newcastle combated the proposal, but Rupert persisted: the Marquis would not, though he disliked it, appear to be overruled; he said that he had no other ambition than to be a loyal subject, and joined the Prince with his brave white-coats, and every man that could be spared from York. ”

“ But so excited and eager were the horsemen to pursue their flying foes, that they left all the Royalist infantry unprotected, and when Prince Rupert returned with such troops as he could rally from the chase, he found all confusion and uncertainty. Moreover, it was nearly dark, and no one was ready to support Rupert when he entreated that another charge might be made to settle the day. So, after all, it was only half a victory for the king's army, even though he held the road to London, while altogether quite 6000 Englishmen lay dead on the field. ”

“ Than bailing water out of a leaky vessel's bilges there is no labour more detestably menial; but a Prince of birth can be drowned by a ship swamping beneath him as glibly as a common sailor-man; and so as the remaining blacks showed clear signs of exhaustion, Rupert and his humble secretary had to take their turn at this occupation, and ply their utensils too with lusty vigour. It was extraordinary how fluent were the leaks. "They say that witches do sea-travelling in baskets," said Prince Rupert once. ”

“ He only saw the romantic side, a king called upon to defend himself in his own realm against rebels and traitors, and so heart and soul he espoused his uncle's cause. A cavalier of the cavaliers was Prince Rupert, with his handsome face, long flowing hair, clean-shaved cheeks, beplumed hat, and scarlet cloak, to which he added a very gallant bearing and a lordly manner. Directly he saw the cavalry he was to command, less than a thousand badly mounted untrained men, he dashed away like a whirlwind, to scour the country in search of more. ”

“ Neither shall Prince Rupert want abettors in his cursed design; for many of our debauched and low-fortuned young nobility and gentry, suiting so naturally with this new conqueror, will make no bones to shoulder out the old King." [32] Eagerly did Rupert's Royalist foes catch at the libel. We have already seen that, before Marston Moor, Digby, Percy and Wilmot ventured to assert openly that the victory of Prince or Parliament was a matter of indifference. ”

“ Rupert, though in an extremely weak state of health, had shown his usual courage and energy in the action. The official reports did not give satisfaction to his admirers. "Not a word is said of Prince Rupert, though the seamen say that none excelled him in valour and success," they complained. [21] The Prince himself wrote cheerfully to Arlington, though, as his letter confesses, he was again on the sick-list. "My greatest joy is to have ben so happie as to have bin a small instrument in this last encounter, to chastise so high an insolency as that of the Dutch. ”

“ Rupert's greatness had been, in truth, thrust upon him, but having accepted it, he resolved to use it {238} for avenging his uncle to the uttermost. "Prince Rupert," declared a sailor of the Parliament, who had been his prisoner, "is not ashamed openly to profess that, provided he may ruin and destroy the English interest, especially the estates of the merchants and mariners of London, he cares not whether he gets a farthing more while he lives than what will maintain himself, his confederates, and his fleet." ”