The New Student's Reference Work/Rupert, Prince

Ru′pert, Prince, third son of Frederick V the Elector Palatine, and Elizabeth, daughter of James I of England, was born at Prague, Dec. 18, 1619. He studied at Ley den and served in 1637–8 in the Thirty Years’ War till he was held prisoner for three years. In 1642 he went to England in time to take part in the Civil War. For the next three years the Mad Cavalier was the life and soul of the Royalist cause, winning battles by his resistless charges, only to lose them by too headlong pursuit. In 1645 he surrendered Bristol after a three weeks’ siege. This so angered Charles that he sent him his passport to leave the kingdom. A court-martial, however, cleared him of all blame and he again became general of his uncle’s forces, only to surrender to Fairfax the following June. In 1648 he became admiral of the part of the English fleet that remained true to the king, and acquitted himself with old daring and new caution. In 1651 most of his vessels were burned or sunk in a battle with Admiral Blake. Rupert escaped to the West Indies, where he led a buccaneering life. In 1653 he went back to Europe, and, after the restoration, served with Monk against the Dutch. His last ten years he spent in study. He improved the art of mezzotint, discovered an improved gunpowder, invented the composition known as prince’s metal and, perhaps, the curious glass-bubbles called Prince Rupert’s drops. He was a founder of the Hudson Bay Company and of the Royal Society. He died, Nov. 29, 1682. See Lord Ronald Gower’s Rupert of the Rhine.