Rupert, Prince Palatine

by Eva Scott

The Hague was now the head-quarters of the Prince of Wales, and thither flocked all his old Councillors, besides many other Cavaliers. Faction raged amongst them as violently as ever. "It was," says Clarendon, "no hard matter to get anything disliked that was resolved in the Council."[[5]] That the administration of affairs was bad was a point on which every one agreed, but they concurred in nothing else.

Rupert had fallen under the influence of Sir Edward Herbert, the quarrelsome attorney-general, and Hyde and Cottington found themselves eagerly welcomed by these two, who "inveighed bitterly against the whole administration of the fleet." Batten, Rupert held for a coward or a traitor; Long, the secretary of the Prince of Wales, for a mere swindler, and, despite his "changed carriage", he had not renounced his old hatred of Culpepper. Their mutual animosity "infinitely disturbed councils,"[[6]] and was in all respects unfortunate. Their policy was diametrically opposed. Culpepper was for conciliating the English populace, and when the Royalist rising took place in 1648, he was averse to permitting the young Duke of Buckingham to share in it, unless he would declare for the Covenant, "and such-like popular ways." Such views naturally did not find favour with the Prince, who adhered to the young Duke's cause.—"Prince Rupert stuck to itt," wrote Hatton, "and we carried it against him;"[[7]] that is, against Culpepper.

The disputes came to a climax over a question of supply. A cargo of sugar, captured at sea, had to be sold for the payment of the fleet, and Rupert proposed to employ a certain Sir Robert Walsh in the business. Culpepper protested such vehement distrust of the man in question that Rupert took his expressions as reflecting on himself, and haughtily demanded: "What exceptions there were to Sir Robert Walsh, that he might not be fit for it?" Culpepper returned, nothing daunted, that Walsh was "a shark, and a fellow not fit to be trusted." Whereupon, said Rupert: "Sir Robert is my friend, and you must not think to meet him but with your sword in your hand, for he is a gentleman and a soldier." Culpepper, grown reckless of his words, declared fiercely that he would not fight with Walsh, but with the Prince himself, to which Rupert replied, very quietly, "It is well!" The Council rose in confusion; but the Prince of Wales, who was greatly agitated, ultimately succeeded in soothing his cousin. Culpepper proved more implacable, and several days elapsed before he could be induced to offer an apology, which Rupert received graciously.[[8]]

The fleet was at this time formally given over to Rupert's command. For many reasons he accepted the charge reluctantly, and offered to serve nominally under the Duke of York. But of this Prince Charles would not hear, and Rupert was therefore invested "with all the command at sea that he formerly held on shore."[[9]] The facility with which the exiled Cavaliers took to the sea is strange to modern ideas, but in the seventeenth century the line between soldier and sailor was not very finely drawn. In Rupert's own case his education among the amphibious Hollanders probably stood him in good stead. Certainly he seems to have thoroughly understood all nautical matters, and on one occasion we read: "By the ill-conning of the mates the ship was brought to leeward, which caused the Prince to conn her himself."[[10]]

Some of Rupert's friends would fain have dissuaded him from "an undertaking of so desperate an appearance,"[[11]] but he was determined to do his best, and the Prince of Wales frankly acknowledged that, but for his cousin's "industry and address" there would have been no fleet at all.[[12]] And Hyde, who, as we know, had never loved the Prince, wrote to Sir Richard Fanshaw, that the preservation of the fleet must be entirely ascribed to Prince Rupert, "who, seriously, hath expressed greater dexterity and temper in it than you can imagine. I know there is, and will be, much prejudice to the service by his being engaged in that command, but the truth is there is an unavoidable necessity for it." And, after recounting the bad behaviour of Batten and Jordan, who had corrupted the sailors, and refused to put to sea, he adds: "In this distress Prince Rupert took the charge, and with unrivalled pains and toil, put all things in reasonable order.... And really I believe that he will behave himself so well in it that nobody will have cause to regret it."[[13]]

And Rupert did behave himself well. No toil proved too arduous for him, no undertaking too dangerous. Indeed, the labours involved in his task were so great and so many that it seems scarcely credible that they could be performed by one man. He became a merchant; he discussed the prices of sugar, indigo, tobacco, and other commodities, and personally conducted the sale of his prizes. He attended to his own commissariat; dispensing with the cheating commissioners, as "unuseful evils."[[14]] We find him gravely considering the quality of "pickled meat," or lamenting that peas and groats are both too dear to buy.[[15]] "Concerning the pork, he tells me he doth not think there can be so great a quantity provided suddenly," says a correspondent. "He hath not yet provided any shirts nor apparel for the men."[[16]] He was his own recruiting officer, and went from port to port in Ireland, persuading men to join his fleet. The conduct of each man was his personal concern; and, as in the war in England, he was overwhelmed with complaints and correspondence by his officers. One letter may serve as an example of the rest.

"According to the service and duty I owe unto your Highness," writes Thomas Price, "I am enforced to certify your Highness of the dangerous and unbeseeming carriage of Robert Pett, gunner of His Majesty's ship the Revenge, who, upon Saturday night last, being the tenth of January, about nine o'clock at night, being very much in drink, would have taken tobacco over a barrell of powder, (being in his cabin, which is in the gun room and a great quantity of loose powder lying round about), had he not been prevented by Captain Payton Cartwright, who was called by some of the gun room for that purpose. The gunner, being something unruly, he was forced to go up to His Highness Prince Maurice to acquaint him with it. Upon which he was committed to the guard, for fear of further danger."[[17]]

Mutiny was unhappily only too frequent; but the Prince's presence usually sufficed to quell it. While the fleet was at Helvoetsluys, there arose some discontent in the "Antelope," beginning with "a complaint upon victuals." Rupert went on board, and promptly told the men that they were free to leave the service. To this they made no answer, but they were unappeased, and when, two days later, Rupert sent for twenty of them to help to rig up his own ship, they refused to come. The Prince then went again to the "Antelope," and "walked the deck, to see his commands obeyed." The sailors crowded about him, and one gathered courage to shout defiance. His example would have disastrously inspired the rest, had not Rupert acted with extraordinary promptitude. Seizing the mutineer in his arms, he held him as though about to drop him over the ship's side, which remarkable action "wrought such a terror upon the rest, that they forthwith returned to their duty."[[18]] Clarendon exaggerates this incident much as Pepys does the affair at Newark. The Prince, he says, "with notable vigour and success, suppressed two or three mutinies, in one of which he was compelled to throw two or three of the seamen overboard, by the strength of his own arms."[[19]] Since there was frequently no money to pay the sailors, mutiny was of course to be expected. Nominally the men were paid 25s a month, but, unless prizes were taken, they did not get the money. Usually they acquiesced in the condition of affairs with admirable resignation. In 1648, a deputation of five sailors came from Helvoetsluys to Prince Charles at the Hague, with a request to be told whether he had or had not any money. Being truthfully answered that he had none, they expressed themselves satisfied with a promise of shares in the next prizes, and returned to the fleet, having, as Hyde informed Rupert, "behaved themselves very civilly."[[20]] And not only for money to pay his sailors, but for every other necessary Prince Charles was dependent on the prizes taken by Rupert. "Being totally destitute of means, we intend to provide for the satisfaction of our debts out of the proceeds of the goods in the ship lately taken," he wrote in 1650.[[21]] In short the fleet represented all the funds which the poverty-stricken Royalists could gather together, and for the next three years the exiled Court was supported by the exertions of Rupert.

While the fleet lay inactive in 1648 the Prince of Wales was engaged in negotiations with the Scots. In Scotland the Royalist reaction was stronger than it was in England; the Scottish Presbyterians were wholly dissatisfied with Cromwell and the English Puritans, and they now sought to make terms with their Sovereign. But one of their first conditions was that neither Rupert nor Maurice should set foot in Scotland, and this was exceedingly displeasing to the Prince of Wales. The Earl of Lauderdale, who had been sent to the Hague to negotiate the affair, reported that Rupert's power over the Prince was absolute, and that if he chose to come to Scotland come he would, in spite of the negative vote of the whole Council. Rupert himself proposed to accompany Prince Charles in a private capacity, taking no share in the affairs of State;[[22]] but the Scots, who knew his influence over his cousin, refused to entertain the suggestion. Prince Charles then, with his own hand, struck out the clause of the treaty which disabled Rupert from bearing him company; an arbitrary action which seriously annoyed Lauderdale.[[23]] Rupert, however, smoothed the matter over, saying that, provided his absence were not made a formal condition, he would remain in Holland. Altogether he "carried himself so handsomely"[[24]] as to win over Lauderdale, who finally declared that Rupert's coming to Scotland would be, after all, "of great advantage."[[25]]