Poor Prince Rupert of the Rhine. If only he had fallen at the hands of a parliamentary cavalry charge at the Battle of Naseby in 1645, aged just 24, he would have joined the likes of Rupert Brooke, James Dean and Kurt Cobain, who were fortunate enough to die before they got old, lost their looks and made the fatal mistake of fulfilling what turned out to be quite limited potential. In Rupert's case, as Charles Spencer chronicles in his entertaining if superficial romp through the prince's life, his failure to die heroically fighting for English royalism during the civil war led to years sailing around the Caribbean and wandering Europe looking for a good war, before returning to England, suffering the indignity of being trepanned and falling for an actress. It was no way for one of the 17th-century's most romantic military leaders to end up, especially considering his family history.
Rupert was born in Prague in 1619, the third son of Frederick V, Count Palatine, and Elizabeth, the sister of Charles I. The marriage was a love match between Stuart England's favourite daughter and one of Protestant Europe's great white hopes. But when Frederick tried to take the crown of Bohemia, he was routed by Catholic Hapsburg forces in 1620, forcing his family into exile, and leaving the infant Rupert with little option but to pursue a career as a Protestant gun for hire. By the age of 12 he was on the battlefield fighting the Hapsburgs in the thirty years' war; by 1636, he was in England, visiting the court of his uncle, Charles I. Little did he know that six years later he would be at the centre of Charles's military campaign to cow a rebellious parliament and forging a reputation as one of the most feared and respected of all the royal "cavaliers".
Appointed General of Horse in the royal army, Rupert cut an impressive or terrifying figure on the battlefield, depending whose side you were on. At well over 6ft, and with flowing hair and dashing looks, he inspired a torrent of slanderous abuse from the republican press, who knew just how inspirational his presence was for the royalist forces. The speed and brutality of his cavalry charges became infamous, but his lack of discipline and the jealous backbiting among the king's advisers soon took their toll. At key battles in the war at Edgehill, Marston Moor and Naseby, Rupert was let down by inexperience and poor lines of communication with the king, culminating in his ignominious surrender of Bristol in 1645. His departure for the Continent in 1646 left him wandering the globe in search of a righteous cause, fighting first for the French, subsequently returning to England to command the remnants of the royal fleet. Again, despite his heroic endeavours he was defeated, and set off first to West Africa, then the Caribbean, where he saw his brother Maurice perish, before returning after four years with what Spencer ominously calls "a hardness about him".
The Restoration brought Rupert better luck. He returned to England again to lead the Royal Navy in the Anglo-Dutch wars, as well as enthusiastically patronising the Royal Society, the Royal Africa Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. His private life also proved eventful, if somewhat undignified. An affair with the actress Peg Hughes brought notoriety to the increasingly curmudgeonly prince, as well as children. He also experienced a much discussed and deeply painful trepanning for an old war wound. His death in 1682 fulfilled a childhood wish to be buried in his Uncle Charles's land (he was interred in Westminster Abbey), but otherwise his life could be said to be one extended failure.
Spencer would undoubtedly disagree. Although he is quick to point to Rupert's failings ("he was impetuous, dismissive and blunt", and, Spencer argues, too politically immature to have made a successful military leader), he clearly likes his subject - a handsome, bright young man, loyal to his monarch but laid low by the jealous, scheming courtiers around him. However, in trying admirably to offer a rounded life of Rupert that goes beyond the civil war, he becomes distracted by irrelevant detail, and cannot fill yawning gaps when his subject was, frankly, extremely dull. Things suddenly happen to Rupert with little explanation. He is taken prisoner in 1638 and unexpectedly "busied himself with science and art". Later, with equal suddenness, he "invents" the mezzotint (although Spencer is careful to point out this is probably exaggerated). Speculative sections on Rupert's love life are explained because "he was extremely discreet and was a very lazy letter writer". And this touches on Spencer's greatest problem. Although he writes well, he has little primary material with which to bring Rupert's voice to life. There is no sense of what he thought about his victories, his family, his betrayals or his disappointments. In the end, he remains as enigmatic as the contrasting pamphlets published about him by both royalists and republicans in the four years that ultimately defined his life.
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Prince Rupert: The Last Cavalier by Charles Spencer
Weidenfeld £20 pp430
Buy the book here at the offer price of £18 (inc p&p)