Chapter XII

THE DUTCH DISCOVER ENGLISH COURAGE TO BE INVINCIBLE.

Some heroes of the olden time played many parts, which are in these later days assigned to distinct and separate performers. The division of labour was not then so well understood and appreciated,--and specialists were more rare. Prince Rupert, like Blake, his great antagonist, with whom he repeatedly came into conflict upon land and at sea, distinguished himself highly as a military as well as a naval commander. He was, in addition, an accomplished chemist and metallurgist, and in general scientific culture and attainments much in advance of his age. Rupert was endowed with a degree of native energy that swept aside temptations to indulge in luxurious idleness, and made effeminacy impossible. He was preternaturally restless, active, and impetuous; so much so, as to have made his name a proverbial adjective, expressive of these qualities. This was illustrated in the case of a distinguished deceased statesman, Earl Derby, who was fitly pronounced “the Rupert of debate.”

Prince Rupert was the third son of Frederick, Elector Palatine, King of Bohemia, and Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King James I., and sister of Charles I., King of England,--to whom he was accordingly nephew. He was born at Prague, 18th December 1619. He was probably educated and trained, as most German princes were then,--and have continued to be since,--with a view to his following the profession of arms. In 1630 he was a student at Leyden, and proved himself an apt scholar, particularly in languages. Military studies, even as a boy, he prosecuted with much zest. In 1633, a lad of fourteen years, he was with the Prince of Orange at the siege of Rheneberg, and served as a volunteer against the Spaniards in the Prince’s Life Guards. In 1635 he was at the English court, and in the following year took the degree--or had it conferred upon him--of M.A. at Oxford. In 1638 he was again at the Hague, and took part in the siege of Breda, at which he exhibited his characteristic reckless bravery. He was taken prisoner by the Austrians, and was confined for three years at Linz. Overtures were pressed upon him, which he steadfastly resisted, to change his religion, and take service under the emperor. In 1642 he was released, and returned to the Hague, proceeding shortly afterwards to England, where he was made Master of the Horse, otherwise commander of the king’s cavalry, when only twenty-three years of age. He joined the king at Leicester in August 1642, and was present at the raising of the royal standard at Nottingham. He was about that time admitted to the dignity of Knight of the Garter. He introduced important improvements in cavalry movements and general military administration. He displayed great activity and bravery, in the actions at Worcester and Edgehill. He was opposed in his march to London, and led valiantly in some desperate fighting. In 1643 took Cirencester for the king, but failed in his attempt to take Gloucester. He had a number of stirring military actions and adventures in different parts of the country, and amongst them a conflict with John Hampden at Chalgrove on the 18th June, in which the patriot was slain. Throughout the war Rupert exhibited unwavering intrepidity. In token of appreciation of his services, the king raised him to the dignity of a peer of England, under the title of Earl of Holderness and Duke of Cumberland, and appointed him Generalissimo of the army. In the course of events, during the contest between the king and the Parliament, Rupert achieved some victories, but sustained also many reverses, which culminated in the defeat of the king’s forces, at the battle of Naseby. Rupert was regarded with envy, jealousy, and dislike by a large party of the courtiers, who intrigued against him, and sought to diminish or destroy his influence. The queen was also against him. From Naseby the king and his shattered army fled to Bristol, which Rupert engaged to hold for four months, but surrendered in three weeks,--not from lack of bravery, but from impatience, and inability to endure an inactive life--he was as a caged lion. A contemporary critic says of him that he was “the boldest _attaquer_ in the world for personal courage, but wanted the patience and seasoned head to consult and advise for defence.” Although impetuous and courageous to a fault, he was not utterly reckless,--and his view of the situation, estimate of forces, and calculation as to probabilities, led him to counsel the king to endeavour to come to terms with the Parliament.

A brilliant incident in Rupert’s career, in which the heroism of a noble lady shines resplendent, merits a brief reference. Lathom House, the seat of the Earl of Derby, was left in charge, during the absence of the earl on public affairs, of his countess, Charlotte de la Tremouille. The Parliamentary forces demanded possession, which the countess promptly and uncompromisingly resisted, although confronted with an army ten times the strength of her garrison. The siege commenced on the 24th February 1644. The fortress was bombarded by chain shot, bars of iron, stone balls of thirteen inches diameter, weighing eighty pounds, and all sorts of terrible missiles. The artillery of the assailants slackened for a time, and the beleaguered garrison made a gallant sortie; they slew thirty of the enemy, and took from them “forty guns and a drum.” Although suffering great privations, the answer of the countess to the repeated demands to capitulate was, that they would never be taken alive, but would burn the place and perish in the flames rather than surrender. Prince Rupert and his gallant cavalry arrived on the 27th May, put the besiegers to the rout, and relieved the long-suffering, noble countess and her gallant garrison.

The civil war was virtually ended with the battle of Naseby, June 14, 1645. Rupert applied to Parliament for a pass to go abroad, which they would only grant upon conditions that he could not accept. He was taken prisoner by Sir Thomas Fairfax, the Parliamentary commander. On the demand of the Parliament, Rupert proceeded to France, where he was made a marshal in the French army, and commenced at once active service. He sustained a wound in the head at Armentières in 1647. Part of the English fleet, that had adhered to the king, sailed to Holland, whither Rupert went also, to commence his career as a naval commander. In conjunction with the Prince of Wales, to whom part of the Parliamentary fleet had revolted, he assumed the command of the fleet; the sole command, very soon after, devolved upon Prince Rupert.

He set out upon a piratical expedition, inflicted considerable injury upon English trade, and after relieving Grenville at the Scilly Isles, sailed for the coast of Ireland, with the desire to assist, if possible, the king’s nearly hopeless cause. Rupert took the harbour and fort of Kinsale, but not for use or according to his own pleasure, for his old antagonist Blake was upon him, with a powerful squadron, which the prince must either engage or remain blocked up in Kinsale. With his characteristic dashing bravery, he attempted to force his way out of port, and did so, but at the loss of the _Roebuck_ and the _Black Prince_, two of Rupert’s best ships, which were sunk in the encounter. Rupert sailed for Portugal, and was well received by the king, but Blake followed hard after him, and blockaded him in the Tagus. Again the gallant Rupert broke through, and sailed for the Mediterranean. He refitted at Toulon, and did a good deal of not altogether unprofitable piratical work in a cruise about Madeira, the Canaries, the Azores, Cape de Verd, and the West Indies. Blake, however, followed him whithersoever he went, and attacked him on every opportunity. Rupert was greatly overmatched, and his strength continuously reduced. Having lost most of his ships, with the remainder shattered and unfit for sea, at the close of 1652, he took the remnant and such prizes as he had made, and been able to keep, to Nantes, where he sold them, and with the proceeds paid the wages of his faithful crews, whom he discharged,--and then laid aside his command as an admiral.

Louis XIV. invited Rupert to Paris, and made him Master of the Horse in the French army. The restless energy of the prince prevented his settling,--and he travelled in France for a time, returning to Paris in 1655. About this time he took a turn of work in the laboratory, and completed a series of experiments, in which he succeeded in very greatly increasing the explosive force of gunpowder. He prosecuted his studies and researches in relation to other arts also, including mezzotint engraving, of which he was the reputed inventor.

On the restoration of Charles II. in May 1660, Prince Rupert was sent for by the king, and appears to have been connected with the court for a few years. In 1661 the prince, in company with a number of noblemen and persons of rank and eminence, was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple. In the following year he was sworn as a member of the Privy Council, and was also declared a Fellow of the Royal Society, which was then founded, the king subscribing the statutes as founder and patron.

In 1664, Prince Rupert was appointed admiral of a fleet, that had been equipped to watch the movements of the Dutch. He hoisted his flag on board the _Henrietta_, and afterwards on the _Royal James_. He took part, as admiral of the white, in the great sea-fight between the English and Dutch fleets, off Lowestoft, in June 1665. The English fleet was commanded by H.R.H. James, Duke of York, afterwards James II., King of England; the Dutch were commanded by Admirals Opdam and Van Tromp. The English got the weather-gage of the Dutch, and about three o’clock on a fine summer morning, commenced the action, awaking the inhabitants of Lowestoft by the thunder of their artillery. The contest was desperate, victory trembling in the balance during many hours. About noon the Earl of Sandwich came up with a reinforcement, and fell upon the Dutch centre, which threw them into the confusion that ended in their defeat. The Duke of York in his flag-ship, the _Royal Charles_, of eighty guns, and the Dutch Admiral Opdam in the _Eendracht_, of eighty-four guns, were engaged closely, ship to ship, yard-arm and yard-arm, when about noon the _Eendracht_ blew up with a tremendous explosion, the disaster attributable, probably, to careless management of the powder magazine, and distribution of the ammunition. Admiral Opdam and five hundred men perished; many of them were volunteers belonging to some of the best families in Holland, with a number of Frenchmen, whose lives were the price they paid for the gratification of their curiosity to witness a sea-fight. Only five of the crew escaped. The explosion was one of a succession of misfortunes that befell the Dutch. A number of their best ships ran foul of each other, and were burnt by the English fire-ships. With a greatly reduced fleet, the gallant Van Tromp doggedly continued the unequal contest, and retreated fighting. The Duke of York was much censured for his failure to pursue his advantage, and terminate, at least for a time, the contest with Holland, as some authorities thought he might have done. This we have already referred to.

The impetuosity that had characterised Rupert in his earlier actions, and had detracted from the value of his services, was now tempered and subdued, and made him what he was not before, a safe commander. In the action with Opdam’s fleet, the prince rendered most important service, that encouraged the belief that he would achieve high distinction as a naval commander. On the 24th June, Prince Rupert again attacked the Dutch, pursued them to their own coast, and blocked them up in their harbours. Again, in the autumn of the same year, having the sole command of the English fleet, Prince Rupert, learning that the Dutch were endeavouring to form a junction with a French squadron of forty sail, followed them so closely into Boulogne Roads as to place them in imminent danger. A violent storm compelled the prince to return to St. Helen’s Bay, and prevented him from following up his advantage. Sir Thomas Allen did so shortly afterwards.

Prince Rupert on his return was warmly welcomed by the king and the nation, with whom he was becoming a popular favourite. He was now associated with the Duke of Albemarle in the command of the English navy.

In the spring of 1666 the duke and Prince Rupert were afloat with a fleet that had been equipped for operations against the Dutch. It was unfortunate that their power should have been divided, by detaching Prince Rupert with a squadron, to look for the French and thwart their naval operations. The duke had a fleet of sixty ships. On the morning of the 1st of June he got sight of the Dutch fleet, under Admirals Evertsen, De Ruyter, and Van Tromp,[4] which was found to consist of ninety-one ships, many of them first-rates, with a number and weight of guns greatly superior to those of the English fleet. Lord Albemarle, without hesitation, gave battle. The fight was carried on with desperate bravery during the whole of that day, and resumed on the day following. The action is described in our notice of the Duke of Albemarle. Prince Rupert could find no trace of any French fleet destined to assist the Dutch, and returned to his home station. On the 3rd June he came up with the Duke of Albemarle, whose greatly overmatched squadrons had been so knocked about and reduced, as to necessitate retreat, which he conducted with great skill and undiminished courage. In joining forces with the duke, a great misfortune happened to Prince Rupert’s squadron. The _Royal Prince_, commanded by Sir George Ayscough, the largest and heaviest ship in the fleet, ran aground on the Galloper Sands; being without hope of relief, it was surrendered, and Ayscough, its commander, taken prisoner.

[4] Cornelius Van Tromp, second son of the great admiral killed
in 1653.

On the morning of the 4th June, the combined squadrons of Albemarle and Rupert, although still greatly inferior in power to the Dutch, started after them in pursuit,--the Dutch being almost out of sight. About eight in the morning they again commenced their onslaught upon each other. Five times the English fleet charged through the Dutch line, firing into it, right and left. Rupert’s ship became disabled, and that of Albemarle terribly shattered, and the injuries on both sides were most disastrous. About seven in the evening the hostile fleets drew off from each other,--their commanders appearing to agree, tacitly, in thinking that they had enough of it, for the present.

This, which may be pronounced a drawn battle, has been regarded as the most terrible action fought in this, or perhaps in any other war. So the Dutch admirals also considered it. De Witt says of it: “If the English were beat, their defeat did them more honour than all their former victories; all that the Dutch had discovered was, that Englishmen might be killed, and English ships might be burned, but English courage was invincible.” It is not easy to say who were victors on the whole, and what the losses were of the victors and the vanquished respectively. Dutch historians compute our loss at sixteen men-of-war, of which ten were sunk and six taken. Our writers put the Dutch loss at fifteen men-of-war, twenty-one captains, and five thousand men. The Dutch themselves admit that they lost nine ships, and had a prodigious number of men slain. Discounting even the lowest estimates, it seems impossible to realise the scenes that produced such ghastly results.

Only a short breathing-time was taken by the combatants, and a brief space for a hurried repair of damages. Before the end of June the Dutch fleet was again at sea, and was met by an English fleet of eighty men-of-war of different sizes, and nineteen fire-ships, divided into three squadrons. The command was again with the Duke of Albemarle and Prince Rupert. The Dutch fleet of eighty-eight men-of-war, and twenty fire-ships, was also in three squadrons, commanded by Admirals De Ruyter, John Evertsen, brother to the admiral who was killed in a former engagement, and Cornelius Van Tromp.

About noon the hostile fleets came into contact off the North Foreland. Rupert and the duke, who were in the same ship, made a desperate attack upon De Ruyter’s ship, which was in the centre of the Dutch fleet. After fighting for about three hours, their ship had sustained such serious injuries as to force them to betake themselves to another. The most dogged bravery was displayed on both sides, but the English had the best of the battle. The Dutch retreated. All that night Prince Rupert and the duke followed in pursuit of De Ruyter. When the gallant Dutchman found himself so hard pressed, and his fleet in such imminent danger, he is said to have cried in despair, “My God, what a wretch am I! Is there not one of these thousands of bullets to put me out of pain?” He reached, however, the shallow coast of Holland, where the English could not follow him. Prince Rupert sent a small shallop, with two small guns on board, close up to De Ruyter’s ship,--the men rowing it into position,--and opened fire upon the admiral. A return shot proved convincing to the assailants that this was too dangerous, and the shallop was rowed back.

This, it is stated, was the most decided and unquestioned victory gained during the war. The Dutch were completely defeated, and the two great admirals, De Ruyter and Van Tromp, could only attempt their defence by angry recriminations. The Dutch lost twenty ships in the action; four of their admirals, and a great many captains, and about four thousand men were killed, with as many wounded. The English lost one ship burnt, had three captains and about three hundred men killed.

From 1666 till 1672 there was an interval of peace, during which Prince Rupert applied himself to scientific pursuits. On the death of the Earl of Sandwich in 1672, Rupert was appointed to succeed him as Vice-Admiral of England, and when the Duke of York shortly after retired from command of the fleet, Prince Rupert was appointed Lord High Admiral of England.

Prince Rupert commenced his active duties with the new dignity in April 1673. He effected an important change in naval spirit and method. The Dutch had hitherto come to us, Rupert went to them. The Hollanders were rather surprised to find an English fleet at their doors in the middle of May 1673. De Ruyter was riding within the sands at Schonebeck, and occupied a very advantageous position, from which it was desirable he should be drawn. About nine in the morning of the 28th a squadron, consisting of thirty-five frigates and thirteen fire-ships, were accordingly detached to lure the enemy from his anchorage. The ruse was successful, and the action commenced at noon. The advanced detachment engaged Van Tromp, and the prince attacked De Ruyter. The contest was obstinate, and the contending ships inflicted tremendous punishment upon each other. Van Tromp shifted his flag four times,--and his English antagonists, Spragge and the Earl of Ossory, had to do the like. Rupert, on his part, did all that could be expected from a wise and valiant commander. Towards the close of the battle, which lasted till night, Rupert’s ship had taken in such quantities of water as to throw out of use the lower tier of guns. The Dutch retreated behind their sands, which averted what would have been their defeat. In reporting on the action to the Earl of Arlington, Prince Rupert writes: “Had it not been for the shoals, we had driven them into their harbours, and the king would have had a better account of them.”

ADRIAN DE RUYTER.]

With the advantage of recruiting immediately, being at home,--the Dutch were again at sea at the beginning of June. Suspicious that the enemy meant to take us by surprise, Prince Rupert went on board the _Royal Sovereign_ on the evening of 3rd June, and watched during the whole of the night. On the morning of the 4th the Dutch were seen bearing down upon our fleet. Rupert, more than willing to meet them, ordered his cables to be cut. The action lasted from about four in the afternoon till dark, but no great damage was done, and there was no fighting at close quarters. Between ten and eleven at night the Dutch bore away to the east.

Considerably strengthened, the hostile fleets came together again in August, when Prince Rupert encountered De Ruyter for the third time. The French were in this action our allies, but Rear-Admiral De Martel was the only commander in the French contingent that was, in honesty and earnestness, a combatant. Rupert had to trust to himself, and to Sir Edward Spragge, for such help as he might be able to get from him. Against Prince Rupert and his squadron that occupied the centre of the English line of battle, the attack was concentrated. The English fleet consisted of about sixty men-of-war, and the French of thirty. The Dutch fleet had about seventy ships, but the numerical superiority of Rupert’s force was illusory. With the exception of De Martel, none of the French commanders rendered any assistance,--they were mere spectators. They deserted their own countryman,--the brave Martel,--and looked on with craven stare as he bore unaided the combined attack of five Dutch ships,--one of which he disabled, and made the others sheer off. The contest was furious and protracted, but indecisive. The conduct of Prince Rupert throughout the action was resolute, courageous, judicious, and worthy of the highest admiration. The pusillanimity of the French, and the disobedience or misconception of orders, on the part of his subordinate admirals and commanders, prevented the action from being a signal victory.

Soon after this action Prince Rupert retired from public life, although he did not resign his Admiralty commission till 1679. The years of his retirement were passed chiefly at Windsor Castle, his time being much given to literary and scientific studies and pursuits. He was an active member of the Board of Trade, and a governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Reference has already been made to his skill as an engraver, and to his improvement in the composition of gunpowder. He was the inventor of a method of treating plumbago,--converting it into a tractable fluid. Amongst his other inventions were the amalgam, named after him prince’s metal, for sheathing ships; a screw applied to a quadrant at sea, which prevented shifting, either from the unsteadiness of the observer’s hands or from the ship’s motion; a rapid discharging gun; an engine for raising water; an improved method of blasting in mines; a quick and accurate method of drawing in perspective.

Prince Rupert died in his house in Spring Gardens, London, on the 29th November 1682, in the sixty-third year of his age. He was interred in the Chapel of Henry VII., in Westminster Abbey, with the honour and respect due to his rank and character.

Throughout life he was eminently brave. He had natural and acquired powers, that lifted him high above the run of common men. He was thoroughly straightforward, detested cabals and intrigues, and kept entirely aloof from them, although he suffered from them,--especially as a naval commander. He never meddled with affairs of State or Cabinet or matters that were not his business. In religion he was a steady Protestant; to the State a zealous and faithful servant; to his king a loyal and devoted subject. It is not too much to say of him that he was an honest, wise, and brave man.

SIR EDWARD SPRAGGE,

ONE BORN TO COMMAND.