siege (15–24 July 1643). In June 1644, he was given the
titles earl of Holderness and duke of Cumberland.
Rupert was not defeated until the famed battle of
Marston Moor (2 July 1644), where he and 9,000 men
took on Lord Thomas fairfax and some 13,000 Par-
liamentarian troops. Historian George Bruce notes that
“Prince Rupert’s first charge broke the Parliamentary
left wing, but as usual the pursuit was carried too far,
and before the cavalry returned, [Oliver] cromWell on
the right had turned the scale, and the battle was over.
The Royalist infantry, overwhelmed by superior num-
bers, were almost annihilated, 5,000 prisoners and all
the artillery being captured.” One general wrote to the
marquis of Ormonde on that battle:
In the fire, smoke and confusion of that day,
the runaways on both sides were so many, so
breathless, so speechless, and so full of fears,
that I should not have taken them for men; both
armies being mingled, both horse and foot; no
side keeping their own posts.
In this horrible distraction did I coast the
country; here meeting with a shoal of Scots cry-
ing out ‘Weys us, we are all undone’; and so full
of lamentation and mourning, as if their day of
doom had overtaken, and from which they knew
not whither to fly: and anon I met with a ragged
troop reduced to four and a Cornet; by and
by with a little foot officer without hat, band,
sword, or indeed anything but feet and so much
tongue as would serve to enquire the way to the
next garrisons, which (to say the truth) were well
filled with the stragglers on both sides within a
few hours, though they lay distant from the place
of the fight 20 or 30 miles.
I shall now give your Excellence the short of
the action. The armies faced one another upon
Hessam-Moor, three miles from York, about 12
of the clock, and there continued within the play
of the enemy’s cannon until 5 at night; during all
which time the Prince and the Marquis of neW-
castle were playing the orators to the soldiers
in York, (being in a raging mutiny in the town
for their pay) to draw them forth to join with
the Prince’s foot; which was at last effected, but
with much unwillingness. The enemy perceiving
the advance of that addition to the Prince’s army,
instantly charged our horse, and mingled withvery great execution on both sides. On the left
wing the enemy had the better of us, and on the
right wing, where the Prince charged, we had in-
finitely the better of the enemy; so that in truth
the battle was very doubtful, as in the number of
the slain as well as the success of the day. This,
my Lord, is what can be punctually said of this
encounter; each side being retired with a broken
wing and gone to the bone-setter.
The horse of P. Rupert and Lord Byron
were totally routed; all their cannon taken; the
Marquis of Newcastle fled unto Scarborough,
and some say unto France; P. Rupert’s forces of
foot destroyed; yet he keeps the field with 5000
horse and 2000 foot, but will shortly march to
Chester. The fault is laid wholly upon the Mar-
quis of Newcastle.Despite this defeat, Rupert was named General
of the King’s Army. Although Charles trusted him im-
plicitly, the king’s counsellors did not, and some went
over Charles’s head to support Rupert’s fellow comman-
ders instead. This internal dissent led to shortages in
troops and supplies, and finally to the disastrous battle
at Naseby (14 June 1645), where Charles was defeated.
Rupert was forced to surrender to Lord Fairfax at Bristol
(September 1645). Charles, on the run at the time, was
so angered with Rupert’s surrender that he dismissed him
and his younger brother Maurice from royal service.
After demanding a court-martial (at which he was
acquitted), Rupert was allowed by Parliament to leave
England in 1646. He returned to the European con-
tinent, where he joined French forces in fighting the
new government of Oliver Cromwell. He took up com-
mand of naval forces against the English, and in what
has been called the Second English Civil War, he took
on three important English admirals: Robert blake,
Richard Deane, and Edward Popham. He lost to Blake
off Kinsale, Ireland, on 30 January 1649—coinciden-
tally, the same day that his uncle, Charles I, was put to
death—forcing Rupert to flee to Portugal, where he was
given the protection of the Portuguese king. Blake fol-
lowed him there and waited until Rupert made a dash
to escape, then cornered him at Cartagena, off the coast
of Spain, where Blake annihilated the Royalist fleet (6
November 1650).
Rupert cruised the West Indies for several years, act-
ing more as a pirate than a soldier and taking the booty00 RupeRt, pRince