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 named Groseilliers, and its commander Zachariah Guillam, a native of Boston. Its result was the grant of a charter (2 May 1670) incorporating Rupert and others as the Hudson Bay Company, giving them the sole right to trade to that region and the government of the adjacent territory, which was to be called Rupert's Land (, Narrative and Critical History of America, iv. 172, viii. 5; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1667–8 p. 220, 1668–9 p. 139; Le Fleming MSS. p. 56). In August 1670 Rupert was made one of the new council for trade and plantations.

In March 1672 the third Dutch war broke out, and on 15 Aug. 1672 Rupert was appointed vice-admiral of England. On the resignation of the Duke of York, after the passing of the Test Act, the prince became successively general at sea and land (26 April 1673) and admiral of the fleet (16 June 1673; cf. Letters to Sir Joseph Williamson, Camd. Soc. i. 52, 90). He joined the French fleet under D'Estrées in the Channel on 16 May, and engaged the Dutch under Tromp and De Ruyter off Schoneveldt on 28 May, and again on 4 June 1673. Both actions were indecisive, and he returned to harbour to refit. At the end of July he put to sea, and fought a third battle with the Dutch off the Texel on 11 Aug. The losses of the two sides were about equal, but the fruits of victory fell to the Dutch, who frustrated the plan for an English landing in Holland, and freed their ports from blockade (, Influence of Sea-power, pp. 151–5; Life of Tromp, 1697, pp. 457–489; Report on the Manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth, i. 20–3; Life of Rupert, 1683, p. 55). Rupert attributed the ill-success of the last engagement partly to the disobedience of Sir Edward Spragge, who was killed in the battle, and partly to the lukewarmness of his French allies. A contemporary apologist complained of the difficulties caused Rupert by the Duke of York's partisans both in England and in the fleet itself. ‘The captains,’ writes Burnet, ‘were the duke's creatures, so they crossed him in all they could, and complained of all he did’ (Own Time, ii. 15; An Exact Relation of all the several Engagements and Actions of his Majestie's Fleet. … Written by a person in command in the Fleet, 1673, 4to; cf. Dartmouth MSS. i. 24). On the other hand, it was said freely that ‘if the duke had been there things had gone better’ (Letters to Williamson, i. 39). But Rupert's complaints against the conduct of the French admiral met with ready acceptance in England, and his hostility to the French alliance gained him popularity (ib. i. 143, 170, 174, 185, 194).

Rupert's traditional connection with the ‘country party’ belongs to this period. His intimacy with Shaftesbury began to attract remarks in 1673. ‘They are looked upon,’ wrote one of Sir Joseph Williamson's correspondents, ‘to be the great parliament men, and for the interest of old England’ (ib. ii. 21). When Shaftesbury was dismissed by Charles II, Rupert ostentatiously visited the ex-chancellor (, Examen, p. 50). The supposed friendship of the prince for Andrew Marvell, which is first mentioned in Cooke's ‘Life of Marvell’ in 1726, if there is any truth in the story at all, must be referred to the same period of Rupert's career (, Works, ed. 1772, i. 10). In any case, his connection with the opposition was brief and unimportant.

Rupert was first lord of the admiralty from 9 July 1673 to 14 May 1679, and was also during the same years one of the commissioners for the government of Tangier. On 21 April 1679 he was appointed a member of the new privy council established on Sir William Temple's plan. Apart from a few references in the correspondence of his sister, the electress Sophia of Hanover, little is known of the last years of his life (, Briefwechsel der Herzoginn Sophie von Hannover mit ihrem Bruder dem Kurfürsten Karl Ludwig von der Pfalz, 1885). His latest letter is addressed to her (Catalogue of Mr. Alfred Morrison's Manuscripts, v. 325).

Rupert's death, which was caused by a fever, took place on 29 Nov. 1682 at his house in Spring Gardens. He was buried in Henry VII's chapel in Westminster Abbey on 6 Dec. (, Westminster Registers, p. 206). His will, dated 27 Nov., is printed in ‘Wills from Doctors' Commons’ (Camd. Soc. p. 142).

Rupert was never married, but left two natural children. By Margaret Hughes [q. v.], the actress, he had a daughter named Ruperta, born in 1673. In his will he left his household goods and other property in England to the Earl of Craven in trust for Ruperta and her mother. A full-length portrait of Ruperta by Kneller is in the possession of the Earl of Sandwich at Hinchinbrook House, Huntingdonshire. An engraving of the head is contained in Bromley's ‘Royal Letters.’ She married General Emmanuel Scrope Howe, and died in 1740 (, iii. 489;, Original Royal Letters, 1787, pref.) By Frances, or Francesca, daughter of Sir Henry Bard, viscount Bellamont in the peerage of Ireland,