Prince Rupert of the Rhine
Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, was an English–German army officer, admiral, scientist, and colonial governor. He first rose to prominence as a Royalist cavalry commander during the English Civil War. Rupert was the third son of the German Prince Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King James VI and I of Scotland and England respectively.
File:Arms of the Palatinate.svg|right|thumb|Prince Rupert's coat of arms as a Prince Palatine of the Rhine, showing the arms of the Palatinate quartered with his dynastical arms of Wittelsbach
Prince Rupert had a varied career. He was a teenage soldier fighting alongside Dutch forces against Habsburg Spain during the Eighty Years' War, and against the Holy Roman Emperor in Germany during the Thirty Years' War. Aged 23, he was appointed commander of the Royalist cavalry during the English Civil War, becoming the archetypal "Cavalier" of the war and ultimately the senior Royalist general. He surrendered after the fall of Bristol and was banished from England. He served under King Louis XIV of France against Spain, and then as a Royalist privateer in the Caribbean Sea. Following the Restoration, Rupert returned to England, becoming a senior English naval commander during the Second Anglo-Dutch War and Third Anglo-Dutch War, and serving as the first governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. He died in England in 1682, aged 62.
Rupert is considered to have been a quick-thinking and energetic cavalry general, but ultimately undermined by his youthful impatience in dealing with his peers during the Civil War. In the Interregnum, Rupert continued the conflict against Parliament by sea from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean, showing considerable persistence in the face of adversity. As the head of the Royal Navy in his later years, he showed greater maturity and made impressive and long-lasting contributions to the Royal Navy's doctrine and development. As colonial governor, Rupert shaped the political geography of modern Canada: the English possession of Rupert's Land was created for him to administer as its first governor and one of the founders of the Hudson's Bay Company. Rupert's varied and numerous scientific and administrative interests, combined with his considerable artistic skills, made him one of the more colourful public figures in England of the Restoration period.
Parents and ancestry
Rupert's father was Frederick V of the Palatinate, of the Palatinate-Simmern branch of the House of Wittelsbach. As Elector Palatine, Frederick was one of the most important princes of the Holy Roman Empire. He was also head of the Protestant Union, a coalition of Protestant German states. The Palatinate was a wealthy state, and Frederick lived in great luxury.Frederick's mother, Countess Louise Juliana of Nassau, was the daughter of William the Silent and half-sister of Maurice, Prince of Orange, who as stadtholders of Holland and other provinces were the leaders of the Dutch Republic.
Rupert's mother was Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James VI of Scotland and I of England. Thus Rupert was nephew of King Charles I of England and Scotland, and first cousin of King Charles II of England and Scotland, who made him Duke of Cumberland and Earl of Holderness. His sister Electress Sophia was the mother of George I of Great Britain.
Rupert was named in honour of Rupert, King of Germany, a famous Wittelsbach ancestor.
Early life and exile
Rupert was born in Prague, Bohemia, in 1619, and was declared a prince by the principality of Lusatia. His father had just been elected king by the largely Protestant estates of Bohemia. This was perceived as an act of rebellion by the Catholic House of Habsburg, who had been kings of Bohemia since 1526, and initiated the Thirty Years' War. Frederick was not supported by the Protestant Union, and in 1620 was defeated by Emperor Ferdinand II in the Battle of White Mountain. Rupert's parents were thus mockingly termed the "Winter King and Queen". Rupert was almost left behind in the court's rush to escape Ferdinand's advance on Prague, until courtier Kryštof z Donína tossed the prince into a carriage at the last moment.Rupert accompanied his parents to The Hague, where he spent his early years at the Hof te Wassenaer. Rupert's mother paid her children little attention even by the standards of the day, apparently preferring her pet monkeys and dogs. Instead, Frederick employed a French couple, Monsieur and Madame de Plessen, as governors to his children. They were raised with a positive attitude towards the Bohemians and the English, and as strict Calvinists. The result was a strict school routine including logic, mathematics, writing, drawing, singing, and playing instruments.
As a child, Rupert was at times badly behaved, "fiery, mischievous, and passionate" and earned himself the nickname Robert le Diable, or "Rupert The Devil". Nonetheless, Rupert proved to be an able student. By the age of three, he could speak some English, Czech, and French, and mastered German while still young; however, he had little interest in Latin and Greek. He excelled in art, being taught by Gerard van Honthorst, and found mathematics and science easy. By the time he was 18 he stood about 6 ft 4 in tall.
Rupert's family continued their attempts to regain the Palatinate during their time in The Hague. Money was short, with the family relying upon a relatively small pension from The Hague, the proceeds from family investments in Dutch raids on Spanish shipping, and revenue from pawned family jewellery. Frederick set about convincing an alliance of nations—including England, France and Sweden — to support his attempts to regain the Palatinate and Bohemia. By the early 1630s, Frederick had built a close relationship with King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, the dominant Protestant leader in Germany during it's intervention in the Thirty Years War. In 1632, however, the two men disagreed over Gustavus Adolphus' insistence that Frederick provide equal rights to his Lutheran and Calvinist subjects after regaining his lands; Frederick refused and set off to return to The Hague. He died of a fever along the way and was buried in an unmarked grave.
Rupert had lost his father at the age of 13, and Gustavus Adolphus' death at the Battle of Lützen in the same month deprived the family of a critical Protestant ally. With Frederick gone, King Charles proposed that the family move to England; Rupert's mother declined, but asked that Charles extend his protection to her remaining children instead.
Teenage years
Rupert spent the beginning of his teenage years between the courts of The Hague and that of his uncle, King Charles I, before being captured and imprisoned in Linz during the middle stages of the Thirty Years' War. Rupert had become a soldier early; at the age of 14 he attended the Dutch pas d'armes with the Protestant Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. Later that year he fought alongside him and the Duke of Brunswick at the Anglo-German siege of Rheinberg, and by 1635 he was acting as a military lifeguard to Prince Frederick. Rupert went on to fight against imperial Spain in the successful campaign around Breda in 1637 during the Eighty Years' War in the Netherlands. By the end of this period, Rupert had acquired a reputation for fearlessness in battle, high spirits and considerable industry.In between these campaigns, Rupert had visited his uncle's court in England. The Palatinate cause was a popular Protestant issue in England, and in 1637 a general public subscription helped fund an expedition under Charles Louis to try to regain the electorate as part of a joint French campaign. Rupert was placed in command of a Palatinate cavalry regiment, and his later friend Lord Craven, an admirer of Rupert's mother, assisted in raising funds and accompanied the army on the campaign. The campaign ended badly at the Battle of Vlotho during the invasion of Westphalia; Rupert escaped death, but was captured by the forces of the Imperial General Melchior von Hatzfeldt towards the end of the battle.
After a failed attempt to bribe his way free of his guards, Rupert was imprisoned in Linz. Lord Craven, also taken in the battle, attempted to persuade his captors to allow him to remain with Rupert, but was refused. Rupert's imprisonment was surrounded by religious overtones. His mother was deeply concerned that he might be converted from Calvinism to Catholicism; his captors, encouraged by Emperor Ferdinand III, deployed Jesuit priests in an attempt to convert him. The emperor went further, proffering the option of freedom, a position as an Imperial general and a small principality if Rupert would convert. Rupert refused.
Rupert's imprisonment became more relaxed on the advice of the Archduke Leopold, Ferdinand's younger brother, who met and grew to like Rupert. Rupert practised etching, played tennis, practised shooting, read military textbooks and was taken on accompanied hunting trips. He also entered into a romantic affair with Susan Kuffstein, the daughter of Count von Kuffstein, his gaoler. He received a present of a rare white poodle that Rupert called Boy or sometimes Pudel, and which remained with him into the English Civil War. Despite attempts by a Swedish army to seize Linz and free Rupert, his release was ultimately negotiated through Leopold and the Empress Maria Anna; in exchange for a commitment never again to take up arms against the emperor, Rupert would be released. Rupert formally kissed the emperor's hand at the end of 1641, turned down a final offer of an imperial command and left Germany for England.