Prince Rupert of the Rhine

Prince Rupert of the Rhine (1619-1682), soldier and inventor, was a younger son of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, nephew of King Charles I of England, Duke of Cumberland, Earl of Holderness and commander of the Royalist cavalry during the English Civil War.

Rupert was born in Prague at the time of the Thirty Years War. Soon after his birth, the family moved from Bohemia to Holland where Rupert spent his childhood. His mother, Elizabeth of Bohemia, sometimes known as the "Winter Queen", was a sister of King Charles I of England, and consequently Rupert gave his allegiance to Charles when the English Civil War broke out, as did his brother, Prince Maurice.

At an early age he took to soldiering and fought at the siege of Rheinberg in 1633 and at Breda in 1638. He was captured at Vlotho during the invasion of Westphalia and imprisoned in Linz, Austria, where he studied military textbooks. He was released on parole in 1641, on the condition that he never bore arms against the Emperor again.

In 1642, King Charles appointed him to lead the Royalist cavalry, and their early successes are largely attributable to Rupert. His dashing reputation earned him the nickname of the "Mad Cavalier". He is reputed to have taken a large dog, "Boye", into battle with him on several occasions. This dog was feared by the soldiers of Parliament throughout the Civil War, who claimed it had supernatural powers. He was appointed General of the Horse, and reputation prospered after routing a Parliamentarian force at Powick Bridge; however he overextended himself at the Battle of Edgehill in 1643 and left the Royalist forces unsupported by cavalry at a critical time which cost them the victory and led almost to defeat. After the battle of Edgehill, Rupert asked Charles for a swift cavalry attack on London before the Earl of Essex's army could return, however the King was urged by senior counsellors to advance slowly on the capital with the whole army. By the time they arrived, the City defences were organised against them and the Royalists had lost their best chance of winning the war. Nevertheless, he continued to impress militarily; in 1643 he captured Bristol and in 1644 led the relief of Newark.

In November 1644 he was appointed General of the Royalist army. This increased already marked tensions between Rupert and a number of the king's counsellors. In May 1645 Rupert captured Leicester but a reversal at the Battle of Naseby a month later was to prove politically damaging.

After Naseby, Rupert concluded that the Royalist cause was lost, and urged Charles to conclude a peace with Parliament. Charles, ever the political ingenu, still believed he could win the war. Rupert surrendered Bristol in September 1645, faced with an impossible situation and Charles dismissed him from his service. After demanding a court-martial, at which he was acquitted, Rupert was to play no further part in the English Civil War. After the fall of Oxford in 1646 both he and his brother were banished from England by Parliament.

By 1648 Rupert was fighting with the French against Oliver Cromwell's England. However, following a naval defeat by Admiral Robert Blake, he took refuge in the West Indies, where he followed the life of a buccaneer, preying on English shipping. Following the Restoration of the monarchy, under Charles II he returned to the service of England. After his retirement from the military in around 1670, he engaged in scientific research, and has sometimes been credited with the invention of the mezzotint, as well as a form of gunpowder and an alloy named "Prince's metal" in his honour.

He directed the Hudson's Bay Company, which traded furs in Canada, and its immense trading monopoly was named Rupert's Land for him. Prince Rupert, British Columbia is likewise named for him.