RUPERT, PRINCE, (1610-1682), 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 1633 the boy
was present at the siege of Rheinberg in the suite of the Prince
of Orange, and in 1635 he served in this prince's bodyguard. 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 released, and, rejoining his mother in Holland, 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. His battles and
campaigns are described in the article
. 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, 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 relief of Newark and of York. 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, although the parliamentary
party accused him not merely of barbarity but of ingratitude
for the kindnesses which his family had received from English
people in the days of the Palatinate War, 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. When he surrendered
Bristol without fighting to the uttermost, it was because Fairfax
placed the political issue in the foreground, and after the
capitulation the prince rode to Oxford with his enemies, frankly
discussing the prospect of peace. Already he had deliberately
advised Charles to make peace, and had come to be suspected, in consequence, by Charles's optimistic adviser Digby. But to Charles himself the 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 blood and friendship submits himself to so mean an action.” Rupert was deeply wounded by the implied stain on his honour; he forced his way to the king and demanded a court-martial. The verdict of this court smoothed over matters for a 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 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.