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RUPERT, PRINCE, COUNT PALATINE OF THE...
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See also:RUPERT, See also:PRINCE, See also:COUNT See also:PALATINE OF THE See also:RHINE AND See also:DUKE OF See also:BAVARIA (1619—1682) , third son of the elector palatine and " See also:winter See also: He was distinctively a See also:cavalry See also:leader, and it was not until the battle of See also:Marston See also:Moor in 1644 that the Royalist cavalry was beaten. The prince's See also:strategy was bold as well as skilful, as was shown both in the Royalist movements of 1644 which he proposed, and in the two far-ranging expeditions which he carried out for the See also:relief of See also:Newark and of See also:York. In See also:November 1644, in spite of the defeat at Marston Moor, he was appointed general of the king's army. But this See also:appointment, though welcome to the army, was See also:obnoxious to the king's counsellors, who resented the prince's See also:independence of their See also:control, to some of the See also:nobility over whose titles to See also:consideration he had ridden roughshod, and to some of the See also:officers whose indiscipline and rapacity were likely to be repressed with a heavy See also:hand. These dissensions culminated, after the prince's surrender of See also:Bristol to See also:Fairfax, in a See also:complete break with Charles, who dismissed him from all his offices and bade Rupert and his younger See also:brother See also:Maurice seek their fortunes beyond the seas. Rupert's See also:character had been tempered by these years of responsible command. By 1645, although the See also:parliamentary party accused him not merely of barbarity but of ingratitude for the kindnesses which his family had received from English See also:people in the days of the See also:Palatinate War, Rupert had in fact become a See also: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 See also:bad. When he surrendered Bristol without fighting to the uttermost, it was because See also:Fair-fax placed the See also:political issue in the foreground, and after the See also:capitulation the prince rode to Oxford with his enemies, frankly discussing the prospect of See also:peace. Already he had deliberately advised Charles to make peace, and had come to be suspected, in consequence, by Charles's optimistic adviser See also:Digby. But to Charles himself the See also:news of the fall of Bristol was a thunderbolt. " It is the greatest trial to my constancy that has yet befallen me," he wrote to the prince, " that one that is so near to me in See also:blood and friendship submits himself to so mean an action." Rupert was deeply wounded by the implied stain on his See also:honour; he forced his way to the king and demanded a See also:court-See also:martial. The See also:verdict of this court smoothed over matters for a See also:time, but 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 See also:camp of the Scots, Rupert to stay, as a spectator without command, with the Oxford See also:garrison. He received at the capitulation a pass from the See also:parliament to leave England, as did also his faithful comrade Maurice.
For some time after this Rupert commanded the troops
formed of English exiles in the See also:French army, and received a See also:wound at the siege of La Bassee in 1647. Charles in misfortune had understood something of his nephew's devotion, and wrote to him in the friendliest terms, and though the prince had by no means forgiven Digby, See also:Colepeper and others of the See also:council, he obtained command of a Royalist See also:fleet. The king's enemies were now no longer the Presbyterians and the See also:majority of the English people but the stern Independent community, with whose aims and aspirations he could not have any sympathy whatever. A See also:long and unprofitable See also:naval See also:campaign followed, which extended from See also:Kinsale to See also:Lisbon and from See also:Toulon to Cape Verde. But the prince again quarrelled with the council, and spent six years (1654—60) in See also:Germany, during which See also: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 See also:annuity and becoming a member of the privy council. He never again fought on See also:land; but, turning See also:admiral like See also:Blake and See also: One of the most beautiful and valuable of See also:early mezzotints is his " See also:Head of St John the Baptist." He was also interested in See also:science, experimented with the manufacture of See also:gunpowder, the See also:boring of guns and the casting of shot, and invented a modified See also:brass called " prince's See also:metal."
Prince Rupert was duke of See also:Cumberland and See also:earl of Holderness in the English See also:peerage. He was unmarried, but See also:left two natural See also:children; one a daughter who married General See also:Emmanuel See also:Scrope See also:Howe and died in 1740, and the other a son, whose mother (who claimed that she was married to the prince) was Frances, daughter of See also:Sir See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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