Rupert, Prince

Rupert, Prince (1619–82). Prince Rupert had two military careers, as an army officer until 1646 and as a naval commander thereafter. Son of Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, and first cousin to Charles II, he was born in Prague just before his parents were driven out at the start of the Thirty Years War. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he placed himself at the service of his uncle Charles I. For the next four years he was the toast of the royalists, the terror of the roundheads, and the mainstay of the king's war effort. His forte was the cavalry raid, surprising outposts, sweeping down on garrisons, catching the enemy off guard. He took overall command of the royal forces in November 1644 when it was too late and was defeated at Naseby in June 1645. Sent to hold Bristol, he surrendered in September 1645, causing a bitter breach with the king, who reproached him for ‘so mean an action’. Rupert left the country in July 1646.

The next few years were spent commanding small naval squadrons. He took a fleet to Ireland in 1649 but was outgunned by Blake, and from 1650 to 1652 cruised in the Mediterranean and West Indies, preying on parliamentary shipping. His chance to exercise high naval command came after the Restoration, when he returned to England and shared responsibility in the second and third Anglo‐Dutch wars with Monck (Albemarle) and James, duke of York. Confronted by tough and experienced Dutch admirals, his triumphs were less heady than on land, though the action off Lowestoft in 1665 was an important victory.