Prince Rupert. Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, was a German-British army officer, admiral, scientist and colonial governor.
He first came to prominence as a Cavalier cavalry commander during the English Civil War. Rupert was a younger son of the German prince Frederick V of the Palatinate and his wife Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of James VI of Scotland and I of England.
Prince Rupert had a varied career. He was a soldier from a young age, fighting alongside Dutch forces against the Habsburg Spain during the Eighty Years' War, and against the Holy Roman Emperor in Germany during the Thirty Years' War.
Aged 23, he was appointed commander of the Royalist cavalry during the English Civil War, becoming the archetypal Cavalier of the war and ultimately the senior Royalist general. He surrendered after the fall of Bristol and was banished from England.
He served under Louis XIV of France against Spain, and then as a Royalist privateer in the Caribbean Sea. Following the Restoration, Rupert returned to England, becoming a senior English naval commander during the Second Anglo-Dutch War and Third Anglo-Dutch War, and serving as the first governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. He died in England in 1682, aged 62. Rupert is considered to have been a quick-thinking and energetic cavalry general, but ultimately undermined by his youthful impatience in dealing with his peers during the Ci
He first came to prominence as a Cavalier cavalry commander during the English Civil War. Rupert was a younger son of the German prince Frederick V of the Palatinate and his wife Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of James VI of Scotland and I of England.
Prince Rupert had a varied career. He was a soldier from a young age, fighting alongside Dutch forces against the Habsburg Spain during the Eighty Years' War, and against the Holy Roman Emperor in Germany during the Thirty Years' War.
Aged 23, he was appointed commander of the Royalist cavalry during the English Civil War, becoming the archetypal Cavalier of the war and ultimately the senior Royalist general. He surrendered after the fall of Bristol and was banished from England.
He served under Louis XIV of France against Spain, and then as a Royalist privateer in the Caribbean Sea. Following the Restoration, Rupert returned to England, becoming a senior English naval commander during the Second Anglo-Dutch War and Third Anglo-Dutch War, and serving as the first governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. He died in England in 1682, aged 62. Rupert is considered to have been a quick-thinking and energetic cavalry general, but ultimately undermined by his youthful impatience in dealing with his peers during the Ci
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