Rupert, Prince Palatine

by Eva Scott

On the day following, the Prince added insult to injury by sending his little yacht "Fan-Fan," which had been built the week before, to attack De Ruyter. Rowing under the great ship, the little vessel plied her valiantly with her two small guns. This game continued for an hour, to the intense amusement of the English, and the indignation of the Dutch, who could not bring their guns to bear on the yacht, by reason of her nearness to them. At last they contrived to hit her, and she was forced to retreat to the protection of her own fleet.[[44]] De Ruyter then effected a masterly retreat, his enemies fearing to follow on account of his proximity to his own shores.

The English had won a brilliant victory with very little loss—only one ship and two or three fire-ships at most. Of the Dutch fleet at least twenty ships had perished, and it was quite unable to renew the fight. The coast of Holland was now exposed to a triumphant enemy, and a renegade Dutchman, Laurens van Heemskerk, offered to guide the English to the islands of Vlieland and Ter Schelling, where lay many merchant vessels and all kinds of stores. The enterprise was entrusted to Robert Holmes, with orders to destroy all that he found, and to carry away no booty. In the harbour he discovered 170 merchant-men and two men-of-war, and he did his work so thoroughly that the affair was called in England, "Sir Robert Holmes, his Bonfire.[[45]]

Van Heemskerk afterwards fell into great poverty in England, and was evicted from his house for non-payment of rent; upon which he petitioned the King for some reward for his services, stating that, but for the great goodness of Prince Rupert, his wife and children must inevitably have starved.[[46]]

During August the fleet lingered about Sole Bay, hoping that wrath for the burning of their harbour would bring the Dutch out again. But Rupert laid Albemarle a bet of "five pieces" that they would not come, and won his money.[[47]] The sailors, inspired by their late success, were anxious for further action, and would fain have attacked the East India fleet at Bergen; but want of provisions held the commanders back. Rupert wrote furiously to the King that his men were all sick for want of food; the beer was bad, each barrel was short of the proper quantity, and all his remonstrances only produced from Pepys accounts of things already sent.[[48]] Fearing the weather, he came into the Downs, and there took a French vessel. The French Vice-Admiral on board at once demanded to be taken to Rupert, whom he knew. The Prince treated him "as a gallant person ought to be," and restored to him all his personal possessions.[[49]] On board the same vessel was found the engineer, La Roche, with whom Arthur Trevor had battled in earlier days at Oxford. Rupert had, however, pardoned, or forgotten, his contumacy, and released him in consideration of the services he had formerly rendered in England.[[50]] Finally, on October 2nd, the fleet anchored in the Thames, and immediately afterwards burst the storm which Pepys had long expected.

It is indisputable, even on Pepys' own showing, that peculation, bribery, and corruption were the causes of the neglect from which the fleet had suffered. The Naval Commissioners, in order to make their own profit, cheated and starved the sailors; they falsified the quantities of food that they sent, and what they delivered was bad. Rupert had just cause for his wrath, and he did not hesitate to express it. Five days after the return of the fleet, Pepys and his colleagues were called upon to answer for their conduct. They endeavoured very ingeniously to defend themselves by transferring the blame to the Prince. Thus Pepys describes the interview. "Anon we were called into the green room, where were the King, Duke of York, Prince Rupert, Lord Chancellor, Lord Treasurer, Duke of Albemarle, and Sirs G. Carteret, W. Coventry, Morrice. Nobody beginning, I did, and made, as I thought, a good speech, laying open the ill state of the Navy, by the greatness of the debt, greatness of the work to do against next year, the time and materials it would take, and our own incapacity through a total want of money. I had no sooner done, but Prince Rupert rose up in a great heat, and told the King that, whatever the gentleman said, he had brought home his fleet in as good a condition as ever any fleet was brought home; that twenty boats would be as many as the fleet would want, and that all the anchors and cables left in the storm might be taken up again... I therefore did only answer that I was sorry for His Highness's offence, but what I said was the report I had received. He muttered and repeated what he had said, and, after a long silence, no one, not so much as the Duke of Albemarle, seconding the Prince, we withdrew. I was not a little troubled at this passage, and the more, when speaking with Jack Fenn about it, he told me that the Prince will now be asking who this Pepys is, and will find him to be a creature of My lord Sandwich, and that this was therefore done only to disparage him."[[51]]

In consequence of this dispute, Batten was sent down to view the fleet. He had been Rupert's enemy of old, and he now made a very unfavourable report, which he intended to present to the Duke of York. To this end he obtained an audience, but great was his dismay when he found Rupert in the company of his cousin. "It was pretty to see," says Pepys, with malicious glee, "how, when he found the Prince there, he did not speak out one word, though the meeting was of his asking, and for nothing else. And when I asked him, he told me that he knew the Prince too well to anger him, and that he was afraid to do it."[[52]]

But the King showed himself apathetic in this matter; it was doubtless true that the Commissioners lacked funds, and the charges against them were not, just then, further pressed. Probably the plague and the great fire of London threw all other affairs temporarily into the shade. The Prince was with the fleet when informed of the great fire, and is said to have merely remarked that, "Now Shipton's prophecy was out,"[[53]]—the burning of London having been one of the events foretold by the reputed prophetess, Mother Shipton. Evidently Rupert had ceased to be surprised, whatever might happen.

In January 1667 he was again very ill. The old wound in his head broke out afresh, and his life was despaired of; but in February he consented to an operation, which gave him some relief and enabled him to sleep. A second operation brought him fairly to convalescence, and after this he "diverted himself in his workhouse," where, amongst other curious things, he made instruments with which the surgeons were able to dress his wound quickly and easily.[[54]] Owing partly to this illness and partly to the King's poverty and home policy, the fleet was neglected throughout the whole year—only two small squadrons were fitted out; and in May, the Dutch took an ample revenge by entering the Medway, and burning the country near Felixstowe.

Rupert had, before this, urged the fortification of Harwich and Sheerness; and the King, now roused from his nonchalance, sent him to superintend the fortification of these and other places, which would secure the Medway from invasion,—and the Prince also had command of all the troops quartered in these places.[[55]] With his usual care for his subordinates, he demanded the deferred pay of his captains, and attended a Council meeting in order to press the matter.[[56]] The empty condition of the treasury occasioned a quarrel with Arlington, and the report ran that Rupert had, in Council, dealt Arlington a box on the ear, which had knocked off his hat and wig.[[57]] This was an exaggeration, but Rupert was always on bad terms with the cabal of which Arlington was a member. The known integrity of the Prince made him very popular with the nation at large, and he was requested by Parliament to draw up a report on the causes of the late naval disasters. Few things could have pleased him better than such an opportunity of airing his grievances. He drew up a long narrative, beginning with the separation of the fleet in June 1666, and going on to the "horrible neglects" of the overseers, workmen, and above all, the victuallers of the navy. "The next miscarriage I shall mention was the intolerable neglect in supplying provisions during the whole summer expedition, notwithstanding the extraordinary and frequent importunity of our letters... I remember also we did then complain that great quantities of wood-bound casks were staved, and much of the provisions proved defective; also that the gauge of the beer barrels was 20 gallons in a butt short of what it ought to be, and the bills of credit came with the pursers of the fleet, instead of provisions. This want of provisions did manifestly tend to the extraordinary prejudice of his Majesty's service in that whole summer, but most especially after the victory obtained in July fight, when we had carried the fleet on the enemy's coast, and lay there, before the Vlie Island, in the way of all their merchant ships. We were enforced, merely for want of provisions, to quit out to Sole Bay."[[58]] The Parliament, upon receipt of this report, appointed a committee to inquire into the neglect mentioned, and voted thanks to Rupert and Albemarle for their conduct of the war.