Part 4 (1/2)
[36] Collins Sydney Papers, 1746. Vol. II. pp. 560-561. 22 July, 1638.
[37] Collins Sydney Papers. Vol. II. p. 575. 12 Nov. 1638.
[38] Harleian MSS. 6988. fol. 149.
{34}
CHAPTER III
THE SIEGE OF BREDA. THE ATTEMPT ON THE PALATINATE. RUPERT'S CAPTIVITY
Immediately on his return from England in 1637, Rupert joined his brother Maurice in the army of the Stadtholder. Prince Henry was just then engaged in the siege of Breda, a town which was oftener lost and won than any other in the long wars of the Low Countries. Many Englishmen were fighting there, in the Dutch army: Astley, Goring, the Lords Northampton and Grandison, with whom the Palatines were already well acquainted, besides others whom they were to meet hereafter in the English war, either as friends or foes. The two young princes acted with their usual energy and ”let not one day pa.s.s in that siege, without doing some action at which the whole army was surprised.”[1]
Once, by their courage and ready wit, they saved the camp from an unexpected attack. Waking in the night, Rupert fancied that he heard unusual sounds within the city walls. He roused Maurice, and the two crept up so close to the Spanish lines that they could actually hear what the soldiers said on the other side. Thus they discovered that the enemy was preparing to fall upon them at mid-night, and, hastening back to the Stadtholder, they were able to give him timely warning.
Consequently, when the besieged sallied out, the besiegers were ready for them, and forced them to retire with great loss.[2] On another occasion Rupert's love of adventure led him into flat insubordination.
Monk, afterwards Duke of {35} Albemarle, was about to make an attack upon the enemy's words, which was considered so dangerous that the Stadtholder expressly forbade Rupert to take part in it. But Rupert no sooner heard the Stadtholder give the order to advance, than he dashed away, antic.i.p.ating the aide-de-camp, himself delivered the order to Monk, and, slipping into his company as a volunteer, took his share in the exploit. The Prince came off unhurt, but many of his comrades fell, and both Goring and Wilmot were severely wounded. The fight over, Rupert and some other officers threw themselves down on a hillock to rest; they had been there some time, when, to their surprise, a Burgundian, whom they had taken for dead, suddenly started up, crying: ”Messieurs, est-il point de quartier?” The English officers burst out laughing, and immediately dubbed him ”Jack Falstaff”, which name he bore to his dying day.[3] What the Stadtholder thought of Rupert's mutinous conduct is not recorded.
Eventually Breda fell to the Dutch arms, and Maurice was, immediately after, sent to school in Paris, with his younger brothers, Edward and Philip. He must have gone sorely against his will, especially as Charles and Rupert were proceeding to levy forces for their own attempt on the Palatinate. But Elizabeth was inexorable. She was resolved not to blush for the manners of her younger sons, as she declared she did for those of Rupert; and she was, besides, anxious to have Maurice in safety, seeing that the two elder boys were about to risk their lives in so rash a venture.
Since the death of their King Gustavus the Swedes had continued the war in Germany, though without any such brilliant successes as had been theirs before. Still many towns were in their hands, and doubtless the young Elector hoped for their cooperation in his own venture. He had been joined by many English volunteers; and by means of English {36} money he was able to raise troops in Hamburg and Westphalia. As a convenient muster-place, he had purchased Meppen on the Weser, from a Swedish officer, to whom the place had been given by Gustavus. But ere the Elector's levies were completed, the negligence of the Governor suffered the town to fall into the hands of the Imperialists. Charles took this mischance with praiseworthy philosophy: ”A misty morning,”
quoth he, ”often makes a cheerfuller day.”[4] And thanks to the kindness of the Stadtholder, and the connivance of the States, he was enabled to continue his levies, quartering his men about Wesel.
In the midst of their labours, both he and Rupert found time to attend a tournament at the Hague. Dressed as Moors, and mounted on white horses, they, as usual, outshone all others. Indeed so pleased were they with their own prowess, that they issued a printed challenge for a renewal of the courses. b.a.l.l.s also were in vogue, and the Hague was unusually gay; yet Elizabeth retired, early in the season, to her country house at Rhenen. Feeling between mother and sons was still somewhat strained. The Queen found the boys far less submissive to her will than they had been before their year of liberty in England, and Lord Craven, who acted as mediator, found the post no sinecure.
But to Lord Craven no task came amiss in the service of the Palatines.
The history of his life-long devotion to the exiled Queen is well known, and it is doubtful whether his unparalleled generosity, or the boundless wealth which made such generosity possible, be the most astonis.h.i.+ng. His father, a son of the people, had made in trade, the enormous fortune which he bequeathed to his children. The eldest son, fired by military ambition, had entered the service of the Palatine Frederick, and, at the siege of Kreuznach, had attracted the notice and approbation of the great Gustavus. His wealth and his military fame {37} won him an English peerage, but, after Frederick's death, Lord Craven continued to reside at the Hague, filling every imaginable office in the impoverished Palatine household, and lavis.h.i.+ng extravagant sums on the whole family. ”He was a very valuable friend, for he possessed a purse better furnished than my own!”[5] confessed Sophie. In later years, when the good Prince of Orange was dead, and Charles I no longer in a position to aid his sister, Elizabeth was almost entirely dependent on this loyal friend; but the English Parliament at last confiscated his estates, and so deprived him of the power to a.s.sist her. The young Palatines were doubtless attached to him, but it must be admitted that they showed themselves less grateful than might have been desired. His follies and his eccentricities impressed them more than did his virtues, and ”the little mad my lord”
afforded them much matter for mirth. Possibly he was, as Sophie said, lamentably lacking in common-sense,[6] but the family would have fared far worse without him. On the present occasion he had contributed 10,000 to the support of the Elector's army, and, at Elizabeth's request, undertook the special care of the rash young Rupert, whose senior he was by ten years.
By October 1638 Charles Louis' little army was ready for action.
Rupert had the command of a regiment of Horse, and Lord Craven led the Guards; the other princ.i.p.al officers were the Counts Ferentz and Konigsmark. Anything more wild and futile than this expedition it is hard to conceive. There seems to have been no cooperation with the Protestant princes of the Empire, nor with the Swedish army. On the contrary, at the very moment of the Elector's attack, there was a cessation of hostilities elsewhere. Banier, the chief of the Swedish commanders, lay with his forces in Munster, and he made no movement to join with his {38} young ally; all that he did was to send his second in command, a Scot, named King, to direct the Elector's operations. To the advice of King, Rupert, at least, attributed the disasters that followed; but it would have been a miracle indeed had the two boys, with their four thousand men, dashed themselves thus wildly against the numberless veteran troops of the Emperor with any better result. To the Lower Palatinate, which was always loyal at heart, Charles Louis turned his eyes. Accordingly he marched from Wesel, eastward, through the Bishopric of Munster. On the march, Rupert, with his usual eagerness to fight, succeeded in drawing out upon his van an Imperial garrison. But the vigorous charge with which he received it drove it back into the town, whither Rupert nearly succeeded in following it.[7]
On this occasion a soldier fired at him from within ten yards, but, as so often happened when the Prince was threatened, the gun missed fire.
After this adventure the army proceeded steadily towards the river Weser, resolving to lay siege to Lemgo, which lies south of Minden in Westphalia. But hardly had the Elector sat down before the town, when he heard that the Imperial forces, led by General Hatzfeldt, were advancing to cut off his retreat. To await Hatzfeldt's onslaught was madness, and instant retreat to Minden, then held by the Swedes, was the only course for the Palatines. Two routes lay open to them, that by Vlotho on the west, or by Rinteln on the east. Following, the advice of General King, they chose the way of Vlotho and thus fell ”into the very mouth of Hatzfeldt.”[8] They were still between Lemgo and Vlotho when they encountered eight regiments of Imperialist Cuira.s.siers, a regiment of Irish Dragoons, and a force of eighteen thousand foot. General King at once sent away his baggage, ”an act {39} which received a very ill construction,”[9] and then counselled the Elector to draw up his troops on the top of a neighbouring hill.
Field-marshal Ferentz complied with the suggestion; but Konigsmark who commanded the hired Swedes, so much disliked the position, that Rupert offered to follow him wherever he pleased. Thereupon Konigsmark drew the horse down again, into an enclosed piece of land, courteously giving the van to the Elector. King, in the meantime, went to bring up the foot and cannon.
The Imperialists fell first upon the Elector and Ferentz, who were both beaten back. Rupert withstood the third shock, and beat back the enemy from their ground. Lord Craven then brought his Guards to Rupert's a.s.sistance, and a second time they beat back the Imperialists with loss. They were, however, far outnumbered. Calling up another regiment, under Colonel Lippe, and sending eight hundred Horse to attack Rupert's rear, the enemy charged him a third time, with complete success. The young Elector, who had hitherto fought bravely, now took to flight, with General King, and both narrowly escaped drowning in the flooded Weser. Rupert might also have escaped; cut off from his own troops by the very impetuosity of his charge, he rode alone into the midst of the enemy, but, by a curious chance, he wore in his hat a white favour, which was also the badge of the Austrians, and thus, for a time, escaped notice. While he looked out for some chance of escape, he perceived his brother's cornet struggling against a number of Imperial troopers. Rupert flew to the rescue, and thus betrayed himself. The Austrians closed round him; he tried to clear the enclosure, but his tired horse refused the jump. Colonel Lippe caught at his bridle, but Rupert, struggling fiercely, made him let go his hold. Lord Craven and Count Ferentz rushed to the rescue of their Prince, but all three were {40} speedily overpowered. Then Lippe struck up Rupert's visor, and demanded to know who he was. ”A Colonel!” said the boy obstinately. ”Sacrement! It is a young one!”
cried the Austrian. A soldier, coming up, recognised the boy and identified him as ”the Pfalzgraf”, and Lippe, in great joy, confided him to the care of a trooper. Rupert immediately tried to bribe the man to let him escape, giving him all the money he had, ”five pieces”, and promising more. But the arrival of Hatzfeldt frustrated the design, and the Prince was carried off, under a strict guard, to Warrendorf. On the way thither a woman, won by the boy's youth and misfortunes, would have helped him to escape, but no opportunity offered itself. At Warrendorf, Rupert was allowed to remain some weeks, until Lord Craven, who, with Ferentz, was also a prisoner, had somewhat recovered from his wounds. The Prince was also permitted to despatch Sir Richard Crane to England, with a note to Charles I, written in pencil on a page of his pocketbook, for pen and ink were denied him.[10]
News of the disaster had been received with dismay in England, where it was reported with much exaggeration. ”Prince Rupert,” it was said, ”is taken prisoner, and since dead of his many wounds; he having fought very bravely, and, as the gazette says, like a lion.”[11] His fate remained doubtful for some days, and it was even rumoured that he had been seen at Minden, two days after the battle. But his mother gave little credence to such flattering reports; in her opinion the boy's death would have been preferable to his capture. ”If he be a prisoner I confess it will be no small grief to me,” she wrote to her faithful Roe, ”for I wish him rather dead than in his enemies' hands.”[12] And when her worst fears had been realised, she wrote again: ”I confess that in my pa.s.sion I did {41} rather wish him killed. I pray G.o.d I have not more cause to wish it before he be gotten out. All my fear is their going to Vienna; if it were possible to be hindered!... Mr.
Crane, one that follows My Lord Craven, is come from Rupert, who desired him to a.s.sure me that neither good usage nor ill should ever make him change his religion or his party. I know his disposition is good, and that he will never disobey me at any time, though to others he was stubborn and wilful. I hope he will continue so, yet I am born to so much affliction that I dare not be confident of it. I am comforted that my sons have lost no honour in the action, and that him I love best is safe.”[13] ”Him I love best” was of course the Elector Charles, and thus, even in the moment of Rupert's peril, his mother confessed her preference for his elder brother.
In January 1639 Elizabeth's fears about Vienna seemed justified, for an English resident wrote thence to Secretary Windebank: ”Prince Rupert is daily expected, and will be well treated, being likely to be liberated on parole. Hatzfeldt praises him for his ripeness of judgment, far beyond his years.”[14] And to Rupert himself Hatzfeldt gave the a.s.surance that he should see the Emperor--”Then the Emperor shall see me also!”[15] exclaimed the boy, in angry scorn. But the interview did not take place. In February Rupert was lodged, not at Vienna, but at Linz on the Danube, under the care of a certain Graf Kuffstein. Craven and Ferentz soon ransomed themselves. They had not been permitted to accompany the Prince further than Bamberg, though Lord Craven, who paid 20,000 for his own liberty, offered to pay more still for permission to share Rupert's captivity. But the Emperor was resolved to isolate the boy from all his friends, as a first step towards gaining him over to the Imperial politics, and the Roman faith. {42} The Elector therefore attempted in vain to send some companion to his brother. ”I must tell Your Majesty,” he wrote to his mother, ”that it will be in vain to send any gentleman to my brother, since he cannot go without Hatzfeldt's pa.s.s, for which I wrote long ago. But I have received from him an answer to all points in my letter, except to that, which is as much as a modest denial. Ess.e.x[16] should have gone, because there was no one else would, neither could I force any to it, since there is no small danger in it; for any obstinacy of my brother Rupert, or venture to escape, would put him in danger of hanging. The Administrator of Magdeburg was suffered to have but a serving-boy with him. Therefore one may easily imagine that they will much less permit him (_i.e._ Rupert) to have anybody with him that may persuade him to anything against their ends.”[17]
As Charles surmised, Rupert's confinement was, at first, very vigorous.
All the liberty that he enjoyed was an occasional walk in the castle garden; all his entertainment an occasional dinner with the Governor.
Graf Kuffstein, himself a convert from Lutheranism, was commissioned by the Emperor to urge his desires on the young prisoner. ”And very busy he was to get the prince to change his religion.” At first he urged him to visit some Jesuits, but this Rupert refused to do unless he might also go elsewhere. Then Graf Kuffstein offered to bring the Jesuits to the Prince, but Rupert would only receive their visits on condition that other people might visit him also.[18] To the promise of liberal rewards if he would but serve in the Imperial army, the boy proved equally impervious; and though deprived of all society he found interests and occupations for himself. His artistic talents stood him in good stead, and he devoted himself much to drawing and etching. At {43} this period also he perfected an instrument for drawing in perspective, which had been conceived, but never rendered practical, by Albert Durer. This instrument was in use in England after the Restoration of 1660. Military exercises Rupert also used, as far as his condition would permit. He was allowed to practise with ”a screwed gun,” and, after some time, he obtained leave ”to ride the great horse,” and to play at tennis. Naturally, constant efforts were made to procure his release. In July 1640 Lord Craven wrote to Secretary Windebank on the subject: ”Mr. Webb has informed me that His Majesty has imposed upon you the putting him in mind of pressing on the Spanish Amba.s.sador the delivery of Prince Rupert. I know you will, of yourself, be willing enough to perform that charitable action, however, the relation I have to that generous prince is such that I should fail of my duty if I did not entreat your vigilance in it.”[19] King Charles sent Amba.s.sadors extraordinary, not only to the Emperor, but also to Spain, whose intercession he entreated. The Cardinal Infant promised to plead, at least, for Rupert's better treatment, and King Charles next turned to France. France, then at war with the Empire, held prisoner Prince Casimir of Poland who, it seemed to Charles, might be a fit exchange for his nephew. Through Leicester he urged Prince Casimir's detention until Rupert's liberty were promised. But the scheme failed; Rupert, it was answered, was ”esteemed an active prince,”[20] and would not be released, so long as danger threatened the Empire. So early had he acquired a warlike reputation.