Prince Rupert: The Last Cavalier

by Charles Spencer

  *

  Rupert was effectively in semi-retirement from the end of the Third Anglo-Dutch War. He remained First Lord of the Admiralty until 1679, but his influence in the navy lessened as the years passed. James, Duke of York, recorded in 1677: ‘On the tenth of April, Prince Rupert told the King, that he had opposed a design, in the House of Commons, for his being High Admiral; but hoped he would make him so, in case of a war. The King said, it was time enough yet to consider what was to be done in that case.’[700]

  If further evidence was needed that Rupert’s era was over, it was provided by Samuel Pepys, who was now a Norfolk MP as well as Secretary, of the Admiralty. In December 1677, Pepys advocated the professionalisation of the officer class on sea: nobody could be appointed lieutenant without at least three years’ service, an endorsement from his captain, and a pass in navigation and seamanship exams. Rupert objected that this would excuse good men — amateurs who could switch their expertise from land to sea with ease, thanks to their natural fighting spirit. The prince was ignored and the battle between ‘tarpaulin’ and gentlemen captains, which had divided the fleet since the Restoration, was over. The meritocratic Pepys had won an impressive and far-reaching victory over the aristocratic prince.

  Rupert’s presidency of the Admiralty Board ended in May 1679. He went, as a concession to Parliamentary suspicion that Charles or James might attempt to rule arbitrarily. In another bold footstep towards modernity, the king relieved his cousin of control of the navy and handed it to a body of MPs. At times, Rupert must have seen his final years as a time of bewildering change.

  As he entered late middle age, his contemporaries began to fall away. His old enemy George Digby died in March 1676, ‘neither loved nor regretted by any party’. Lord Orford wrote of him: ‘His life was one contradiction. He wrote against popery, and embraced it; he was a zealous opposer of the Court, and a sacrifice to it; was conscientiously converted in the midst of his prosecution of Lord Strafford, and was most unconscientiously a prosecutor of Lord Clarendon. With great parts, he always hurt himself and his friends; with romantic bravery, he was always an unsuccessful commander. He spoke for the Test Act though a Roman Catholic, and addicted himself to astrology on the birthday of true philosophy.’[701]

  Writing to Charles Louis in January 1678, Princess Sophie congratulated her elder brother on his health and spirit as he entered his sixtieth year. ‘Bodily health is an inheritance from the late queen our mother’, she said, ‘that nobody will be able to dispute with you, and the better that we have had of it, of which Prince Rupert has been very well provided too; without which he would not have been able to resist some terrible accidents, from which he is still escaping. Everyone believed that he ought to die; however he escaped it by an effort of nature.’[702]

  Late middle age gave way to old age and Electress Sophie — ten years Rupert’s junior — wrote to Charles Louis, in June 1679: ‘It seems, when one begins to grow old, that it is necessary always to feel some sickness. If I didn’t have the fever, I would have had something else — perhaps also a bad leg like you, Prince Rupert and the Abbess of Herfort. It is human misery, to see oneself perish and others be born who will outlive us and who are so passionately attached to us, that we would not want to leave them before seeing them well established in life.’[703]

  On 11 February 1680, Princess Elizabeth died after a terrible battle with cancer: Sophie had visited her during her final days and had been shocked to see the skeletal form lying in bed, with three huge growths visible under her skin, the largest swelling ravaging her stomach. ‘She was in such a pitiful state’, Sophie wrote to Charles Louis, ‘that we ought to be very relieved that she has been delivered from it.’[704] The same year, Will Legge died.

  The Palatines had contempt for doctors, Sophie calling them charlatans. Rupert had always had a deep fear of blood-letting and appears to have kept his worsening health secret till near the end. He died from a fever and pleurisy on 29 November 1682, at his house in Spring Gardens, close to where Pall Mall runs into Trafalgar Square. His funeral was a grand affair, made more personal by the procession that surrounded the coffin. The Earl of Craven, a very old man now, was chief mourner. Behind, betraying the varied tastes of the deceased, followed Rupert’s tennis coach, his huntsman, his gunsmith, and his butler. He was buried in Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey, on 6 December.

  In his Will, Rupert left most of his possessions in trust to ‘Margaret Hewes and ... Ruperta, my natural daughter begotten on the body of the said Margaret Hewes, in equal moieties’. Craven was the executor of the Will: by tidying up the prince’s affairs, he managed to procure £6,000 for each of the beneficiaries. In Rupert’s private, iron box he found 1,694 guineas and £1,000 in silver. The prince’s other possessions were, in the main, sold: his silver raised £2,070; his pack of hounds £120; his books £100; his yacht £46; his best hunter £40; his carriage horses £6 10s. each. Colonel Oglethorpe bought Rupert’s guns and Sir James Hayes his shares in the Hudson’s Bay Company. Craven settled a variety of debts — with the jeweller, the apothecary, the periwig-maker, the Gentleman of the Horse, the secretary, and the undertaker.

  Rupert’s instructions to 9-year-old Ruperta were to be ‘dutiful and obedient to her mother, and not to dispose of herself in marriage without her consent, and the advice of the said Earl of Craven, if they, or either of them, shall be then living’.[705] She eventually married Emanuel Scrope Howe, who became a lieutenant general in William III’s armies. He died in 1709. Ruperta survived until 1740, dying at Somerset House.

  Peg’s was an uncomfortable widowhood. She had lived long and hard at the prince’s expense and was forced to sell much of her jewellery to meet accumulating debts. Elizabeth of Bohemia’s earrings had to go, sold to Sarah, the wife of John Churchill. Nell Gwynn paid £4,250 for a pearl necklace Peg had received from Rupert — the wedding gift of the prince’s father to his mother. Peg also disposed of the grand house that Rupert had given her: it became known as Brandenburg House after its new owner, the Margrave of Brandenburg. Peg eventually died in Eltham, Kent, on 1 October 1719, thirty-seven years after Rupert.

  The prince’s son by Frances Bard, Dudley, was well liked at Eton, where he was, according to Warburton, ‘distinguished for gentleness of temper, as well as for his father’s courage, honesty of character, and love of truth’.[706] His passion was soldiery. Rupert gave him a tutor from the Tower of London, Sir Jonas Moore, who taught Dudley military theory, mathematics, and engineering.

  On his death, Rupert left his son the hunting lodge at Rhenen and his various claims to German lands and money, still not received in full from Charles Louis and the Emperor. ‘Captain Rupert’ served in the Royal army that helped to quash Monmouth’s 1685 rebellion: at a skirmish at Norton St Philip, he commanded the musketeers. The following year, on 13 June 1686, he joined in the final Christian assault against the Turks at Buda. Whereas his father survived many such actions, Dudley was less fortunate: he perished, aged just 19 or 20.

  If Dudley had been legitimate, and had he outlived Queen Anne, his claim to the English throne would theoretically have been superior to that of Rupert’s nephew, George of Hanover. Just before his death, Rupert had offered George’s mother Sophie £1,000, to pay for the boy’s stay in England: Rupert wanted him to learn the English language and the people’s ways. Sadly, the offer was not accepted and George I remained, to his subjects, a disappointingly German monarch.

  *

  Prince Rupert’s life story has always focused on his Civil War years, when he was the most glamorous general on either side. He joined his uncle’s cause when it seemed improbable that the king could raise an army capable of facing Parliament. Rupert’s energy and flair helped to transform this desperate position, giving hope of ultimate victory to the Royalists, and forcing the rebels to paint the prince and his horsemen as demonic Cavaliers. By the end of 1643, after a succession of triumphs, Rupert had helped to give his side a genuine expectation of victory. How
ever, he was hamstrung by his colleagues’ inability to secure sufficient manpower and arms to counter an increasingly numerous and well-trained enemy. The prince’s reliance on the impact of his horsemen’s charge, a tactic that made subsequent control extraordinarily difficult, was probably the only way in which he could seek to defeat an ever more powerful foe.

  Thereafter, Rupert’s suitability for high command was rigorously examined. As Parliament called on stronger reserves, and the assistance of Scottish allies, so the prince’s priority became the propping up of the Royalist cause in the south and north. The rescue of Newark was the high point of his military achievements. His determination to fulfil his uncle’s commands to the letter, against unrealistic odds, led to his nadir almost immediately afterwards: Marston Moor was a humbling and catastrophic defeat.

  By the following summer, Rupert knew that his uncle’s chance of victory had gone. Frequently at odds with Digby and his courtier faction, the prince’s performance at Naseby was personally brave, but tactically naive. Defeat was all but guaranteed, once he decided to lead a cavalry wing, rather than direct the battle. The subsequent loss of Bristol was inevitable, but sounded the death knell for Charles I’s cause.

  Temperamentally, Rupert in his early twenties would have been better deployed as a commando leader, or a cavalry general, than as overall military supremo. He was too immature to appreciate the importance of politics and diplomacy to high command, and too short-tempered to disguise his contempt for colleagues who opposed his plans.

  Rupert had many faults: he was impetuous, dismissive, and blunt. However, he always tried to adhere to the highest standards, both military and personal: he was a professional fighting man and a devout Calvinist. The sorry record of his ineffectual father — whose ambition and sense of duty had led to disaster for his family, his peoples, and his inheritance — may have left Rupert with an exaggerated desire to prove himself and to restore pride to his line.

  His neglectful, narcissistic mother, feted since girlhood with extraordinary adulation, may also have contributed to Rupert’s unyielding nature. Even in extended, impoverished exile, she never lost the need to be worshipped. She fostered a court that welcomed knight-errants, while banishing her young children to an upbringing away from her view: the emotional needs of others were unwelcome drains on Elizabeth’s love of self. Irresponsible and inappropriate parenting may have accentuated Rupert’s need for praise and applause. Soldiery was the prince’s chosen path to glory: anyone who compromised his dream of battlefield success therefore attracted his withering hostility.

  Contemporaries were used to gruff soldiers, but Rupert’s black and white views of life, and of people, were startling. He was particularly distrustful of the machinations of politicians and courtiers, because they clouded matters that he needed to remain clear. He did not understand how men could morally compromise themselves in order to further their personal agenda. It was easier for Rupert to dismiss such people as underhand and undesirable, than to accept them as an inevitable component of the politics of war. As Sir Philip Warwick, one of the prince’s admirers, remarked with sadness, Rupert’s ‘sharpness of temper of body, and uncommunicableness in society or council, (by seeming with a wish to neglect all another said, and he approved not) made him less grateful, than his friends wished; and this humour soured him towards the Councillors of Civil affairs, who were necessary to intermix with him in Martial Councils’.[707]

  While accepting that Rupert’s achievements on the battlefield fail to gain him a place in the first rank of generals, his huge charisma is undeniable. The rest of his life story shows an unusual range of talents and interests. He was a gifted artist and an intelligent, conscientious, and committed scientist. His championing of the Hudson’s Bay Company showed a clear ability to spot an opportunity and to act decisively on it. The same talent made him a respected adversary at sea, both as admiral and pirate. To have kept the Royalist flag flying in the Caribbean, while it had been trampled underfoot everywhere else, was a feat of heroic endurance that exacted a terrible cost: the loss of his brother Maurice was the greatest body blow of his life and the compromises to his own health were felt throughout his subsequent three decades.

  Parliamentary propagandists liked to portray the prince in the poorest possible light. However, the amount of attention they gave to the Cavalier Prince, and the number of lies they weaved into their portrayal of him, demonstrate their fear of a man that they knew to have exceptional potential, which could be extraordinarily dangerous to their cause. To few historical figures can the cliché more aptly be applied, that you can judge a man by the strength of his enemies.

  Set on a lifetime of wandering adventure by his father’s misfortune and misjudgements, it was only when he came to live in England that he found a home. As a boy, he had shouted out from his galloping hunter that he wanted his bones buried in his uncle’s land. In a life punctuated by painful disappointment, this was one wish that came true.

  Bibliography

  PRIMARY SOURCES (MANUSCRIPT)

  BRITISH LIBRARY

  ADD MS 62.085A: Prince Rupert’s Logbook, aka Pythouse Papers

  ADD MS 18982: Rupert Correspondence, 1645-1658

  ADD MS 63743

  ADD MS 63744

  ADD MS 18738: Autograph Letters, 1433-1817

  ADD MS 16370: Plans of the Fortified Towns of England

  ADD 72895

  ADD MS 38091: Miscellaneous Letters and Papers

  EGERTON 785: Letter Book of Sir S. Luke, 1643-1645

  HARLEY 166: Sir S. D’Ewes’s Journal of the House of Commons

  SLOANE 1519, Plut. XC.G: Original Letters, 1574-1667

  SLOANE 1983.B

  STOWE 203

  BODLEIAN

  CARTE MS 46, 49, 50, 51

  MS Eng. C. 7019: Clarendon to the Duke of York

  MS Eng. C. 5237: Letters of James, Duke of York

  THE ROYAL SOCIETY

  CLP/3i/ii

  RBO/2i/64

  WINDSOR CASTLE

  MS RA GEO/Add 52/1: Windsor Castle Governor’s Book, 1668-1671.

  Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series

  Clarendon State Papers

  The Evelyn Papers, MSS 52

  The Hamilton Papers

  Thurloe Papers

  Anon., A Revelation of Mr Brigtmans Revelation, 1641

  Anon., Exceeding Joyful Newes from the Prince, 1642

  Anon., Some Speciall Passages from Westminster, London, Yorke, and other parts,

  1642

  Anon., True, But Sad and Dolefull Newes from Shrewsbury, 1642

  Anon., A Discourse upon the Questions in debate between the King and Parliament, 1642

  Anon., His Majesty’s Speech Delivered the Twenty second of January 1643, at Oxford, 1643

  Anon., Prince Rupert’s Disguises, 1643

  Anon., A Warning-Piece To all His Majesties subjects of England, 1643

  Anon., A Dogge’s Elegie, or Rupert’s Tears, 1644

  Anon., A true Copy of the Welch Sermon Preached Before the two Princes, Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice at Dover, 1646

  Anon., Verses on the Siege of Gloucester and Colonel Massey, 1647

  Anon., The Declaration of General Massey and Colonel General Poyntz, 1647

  Anon., The Lamentation of the Ruling Lay-Elders, 1647

  Anon., Heads of Chiefe Passages in Parliament, 1648

  Anon., Prince Charles Sailing from Callice, towards the North of England, 1648

  Anon., On the Martyrdom of his late Majesty, 1649

  Anon., Certain Passages of Every dayes Intelligence, 1654

  Anon., Memoirs of the Life and Death of Prince Rupert, 1683

  Ash, Simon, A Continuation of True Intelligence from the English and Scottish Forces, in the North ..., 1644

  Bacon, Francis, Cases of Treason, 1641

  Banks, Thomas, Prince Robert’s Message to my Lord of Essex, 1642

  Beale, John, A Sermon . .. Together with a short narration of the Prince
Elector’s greatness ..., 1613

  Best, Richard, A Declaration of the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England to ... the United Provinces, 1642

  Bishop, G., A nest of Perfidious Vipers, 1644

  Bodemann, Eduard (ed.), Briefivechsel der Herzogin Sophie von Hannover mit ihrem Bruder, dem Kurfuersten Karl Ludwig von der Pfalz (French trans.), 1885

  Bowman, Seymour, Diary of the Proceedings of the House of Commons, 1660

  Bray William (ed.), Memoires of John Evelyn, 1641 to 1705-6, 1819

  Bromley, Sir George (ed.), A Collection of Original Royal Letters, 1787

  Brooke, Nathaniel, A Just Vindication of the Principal Officers of His Majesties Ordnance, 1674

  Brown, John, A Compleat Discourse of Wounds, 1678

  Buckingham, Duke of, A Letter to Sir Thomas Osborn, One of His Majesties Privy Council, Upon the reading of a Book ..., 1672

  Bulkeley, Stephen, The Holy Rebell, 1642

  Bulstrode, Sir Richard, Memoirs and Reflections upon the Reign and Government of Charles I and Charles II, 1721

  Burton, Richard, The Cavaliers Catechism, 1647

  Butter, Nathaniel, and Bourne, Nicholas, The Swedish Intelligencer, 1633

  Butter, Nathaniel, and Bourne, Nicholas, The Devotion and Formes of Prayer, Daily Used in the King of Sweden’s Army, 1632

  Carte, T., A Collection of Original Documents and Papers, 1641-60, 1739

  Clarendon, Earl of, History of the Rebellion, 1731-2

  Coles, Fr., A true Coppy of the Instructions agreed upon by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament and sent to his Excellency the Earl of Essex, 1642

  Cook, John, Monarchy No Creature of God’s Making, 1651

  Corbet, John, A true and impartial History of the Military Government of the City of Gloucester, 1647

  Crown, Mr, The Countrey Wit, 1675

  Cruso, John, Militarie Instructions for the Cavallrie, 1632