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Prince Rupert

Prince Rupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke Of Bavaria (1619-1682), was duke of Cumberland and earl of Holderness in the English peerage. Prince Rupert was third son of the elector palatine and "winter king" of Bohemia, Frederick V., and of Elizabeth, daughter of James I. of England, was born at Prague on the 17th of December 1619. A year later his father was defeated at the battle of the Weisser-Berg, near Prague, and driven from Bohemia. After many wanderings the family took refuge in Holland, where Rupert's boyhood was spent.

In 1636 he paid his first visit to England, was entered as an undergraduate, though only nominally, at St John's College, Oxford, and was named as the governor of a proposed English colony in Madagascar. But this scheme did not mature, and Charles sent his nephew back to Holland, having, however, formed a high opinion of his energy, talent and resolution. In 1637 he was again serving in the wars, and in 1638, after displaying conspicuous bravery, he was taken prisoner by the imperialists at the action of Vlotho (17th October) and held in a not very strict captivity for three years.

In 1641 he was summoned to England to the assistance of his uncle, for the Great Rebellion was about to break out. In July 1642 he landed at Tynemouth. Charles at once made him general of the horse and independent of Lord Lindsey, the nominal commander of the whole army. From this point until the close of the first Civil War in 1646 Prince Rupert is the dominant figure of the war. He was distinctively a cavalry leader, and it was not until the battle of Marston Moor in 1644 that the Royalist cavalry was beaten. The prince's strategy was bold as well as skilful.

In November 1644, in spite of the defeat at Marston Moor, he was appointed general of the king's army. But this appointment, though welcome to the army, was obnoxious to the king's counsellors, who resented the prince's independence of their control, to some of the nobility over whose titles to consideration he had ridden roughshod, and to some of the officers whose indiscipline and rapacity were likely to be repressed with a heavy hand. These dissensions culminated, after the prince's surrender of Bristol to Fairfax, in a complete break with Charles, who dismissed him from all his offices and bade Rupert and his younger brother Maurice seek their fortunes beyond the seas.

Rupert's character had been tempered by these years of responsible command. By 1645, Rupert had in fact become a good Englishman. He was convinced, after Marston Moor, that the king's cause was lost, in a military sense, and moreover that the king's cause was bad. Rupert was now too far estranged from the prevailing party at court to be of any assistance, and after further misfortunes and quarrels they separated, Charles to take refuge in the camp of the Scots, Rupert to stay, as a spectator without command, with the Oxford garrison. He received at the capitulation a pass from the parliament to leave England, as did also his faithful comrade Maurice.

Rupert commanded the troops formed of English exiles in the French army, and he obtained command of a Royalist fleet. The Royalists still held the Channel Islands, and Ireland was unsubdued. The Puritan colonies were thoroughly in sympathy with the Commonwealth, but Virginia was Royalist, and Barbadoes, then England's only footing in the West Indies, was held for the king. When the Parliament's fleet retired, it left a remnant of seven vessels in the service of the Prince of Wales. It was natural that he should endeavour to make use of these vessels for the cause. The manner of using them was imposed upon him by circumstances. They could not hope to meet the Commonwealth's naval forces in open conflict, but they could prey upon the commerce of the king's disloyal subjects.

He appointed Prince Rupert as his admiral, and issued commissions authorising him and his captains to. make prize of all the king's English enemies, and all such foreigners as should give them help. A long and unprofitable naval campaign followed, which extended from Kinsale to Lisbon and from Toulon to Cape Verde, certainly the most extraordinary cruise ever undertaken by a Lord High Admiral of England. It lasted for two years, and at the end there remained only one of the four ships with which it began.

By September 1650 the ruin of the Royalist cause had been put beyond doubt. A naval force, which no longer represented a Government in possession of even a part of its territory, was on the high road to fall into sheer piracy. It could live only by plunder, and was compelled to treat all who refused to allow it to sell its booty as enemies. In the Mediterranean, Rupert made haste to prove to all the world that he was not the man to stand upon trifles, or to consider those who were not strong enough to inspire him with respect. The extreme feebleness of the Spanish Government was a temptation to a man of his temperament.

From Toulon he sailed to the coast of Africa, and there began avenging the wrongs of his master and uncle, Charles I, to quiet the clamor of the seamen, who, having entered on a voyage which had much the look of piracy, were minded to enjoy the privileges of the position. Then he took a Spanish galleon, making use of the Parliament flag as a device to throw her off her guard. Rupert wisely roamed out into the Atlantic, and drifted about very much at the mercy of accident, and the pressure exercised on him by the hope of booty, or the constant mutinous conduct of his men. He reached Nantes early in 1653 in safety, with nothing was left of the force with which he had originally sailed, except a few of the adventurers.

The prince spent six years (1654-60) in Germany, during which period nothing is known of him, except that he vainly attempted (as also before and afterwards) to obtain the apanage to which as a younger son he was entitled from his brother the elector palatine.

At the Restoration he settled in England again, receiving from Charles II an annuity and becoming a member of the privy council. He never again fought on land, but, turning admiral like Blake and Monk, he bore a brilliant part in the Dutch Wars. The Dutch Wars is a convenient general title for a series of European wars between 1652 and 1678, which centerd chiefly upon the political and commercial relations of the Netherlands with England and France. By Englishmen the term "Dutch Wars" is usually applied to the two purely naval wars of 1652-53 and 1663-67 and to the Anglo-Dutch or naval part of the war that began in 1672. Bui the last of these was part of a much wider struggle by land, known to Continental historians as the Dutch War of 1672-78. The earl of Sandwich did nothing becoming a capable commander. Under his command, the fleet made no attempt to blockade the Dutch coast, but was turned from its proper work to engage in a prize-hunting plot with the king of Denmark. Sandwich, who had taken some prizes, unlawfully seized part of their cargoes for the benefit of himself and the other flag officers. A loud outcry was raised in the fleet and the country. Sandwich was displaced, and his command was transferred to Monk, with whom was associated the king's cousin, Prince Rupert. The war had so far been unsuccessful for England.

The year 1666 (called the Annus mirabilis , for it included the plague and the fire of London) was marked by fierce fighting and changes of fortune. By May a Dutch fleet of some eighty sail was at sea, preparing to watch the English, and unite with the French. Monk and Rupert were fitting out a fleet of nearly the same strength in the Thames. Under the influence of their fear of a French naval force King Charles's ministers committed a great blunder. They detached Prince Rupert into the Channel with 20 ships, leaving Monk with only 57 to face the Dutch. The English commander put to sea, and found the enemy anchored on the coast of Flanders, in three divisions. He boldly attacked the van, hoping to cripple it before it could be helped by the center and rear. This daring and well-judged move brought on the Four Days' Battle of the 1st, 2nd, jrd and 4th of June (O.S.). In the evening Prince Rupert returned, and by hug^in^ the coast of Kent to the south of the fleets, was able to rejoin his colleague. Monk and Rupert renewed the battle on the 4lh. It was fought with extreme fury, and terminated in the retreat of the English to the Thames.

Danger stimulated the English government to active exertions, and by the 21st of July Monk and Rupert were enabled by a happy combination of wind and tide to set to sea through the passage nlled the Swin. A storm which scattered both fleets delayed their meeting l£ll the 2510 of July. On that and the two succeeding days the Dutch were again defeated and driven into port. The English fleet then burnt the Dutch East India Company's dockyard at Tenant Iting, inflicting great loss.

In 1673 the allies made an effort to invade Holland from the sea coast. Prince Rupert replaced the duke of York, who as a Roman Catholic was driven from office by the newly passed Test Act. He was supplied with 54 ships and was joined early in the year by d'Estrees with 27. Soldiers were embarked, and in May the allied fleet stood over to the Dutrh coast. The allies were compelled to retreat, and seven days later, on the 4th of June, a second encounter took place, in which the defeat of the allies was undeniable. In this war, which presented no features of a creditable kind, peace was made in the following spring.

Apart from his military renown, Prince Rupert is a distinguished figure in the history of art as one of the earliest mezzotinters. It has often been said that he was the inventor of mezzotint engraving, but this is erroneous, as he obtained the secret from a German officer, Ludwig von Siegen. One of the most beautiful and valuable of early mezzotints is his "Head of St John the Baptist." He was also interested in science, experimented with the manufacture of gunpowder, the boring of guns and the casting of shot, and invented a modified brass called "prince's metal."

A Prince Rupert's Drop is a very intriguing glass curiosity which exhibits a number of unusual properties. The Prince Rupert's Drop is named for Prince Rupert, who has been credited with the development of this glass curiosity. According to legend, Prince Rupert enjoyed using the Prince Rupert's Drop as a practical joke. These glass oddities are also known as Dutch tears, Batavia's tears, Tzar's tears, or Prince Rupert's balls. A Prince Rupert's Drop is made by dropping a small piece of molten glass into cold water. The glass cooles into a tear-drop with a fat head and a long, curving tail. The outside of the glass cools quickly, while the hot glass inside the head takes longer to cool. As it cools, it contracts, and creates a state of tension in the Prince Rupert's Drop. The head of a Prince Rupert's Drop can be hammered, pinched with pliers, and run through a variety of mechanical trials, but the glass will still hold, because the state of tension is so high. But if the tail of the Prince Rupert's Drop is damaged in any way, the entire object will explode, because the tension has been broken.

Prince Rupert died at his house in Spring Gardens, Westminster, on the 29th of November 1682.