RUPERT (1619-1682, Prince ‘Rupert of the Rhine’, Cavalry Leader under Charles I, Scientist and founder of Hudson Bay Company, Nephew of Charles I)

Superb receipt document with a bold signature acknowledging that he has “received of Tho. Bonnell Esq the sum of fifteene hundred pounds, being in full for my two pencions due to me at xmas last past...”, 1 side 4to., 3rd March

Rupert was an English army officer, admiral, scientist, and colonial governor. He first came to prominence as a Royalist cavalry commander during the English Civil War. Rupert was the third son of the German Prince Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King James VI and I of Scotland and England. He had a varied career. He was a soldier as a child, fighting alongside Dutch forces against Habsburg Spain during the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), and against the Holy Roman Emperor in Germany during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). Aged 23, he was appointed commander of the Royalist cavalry during the English Civil War, becoming the archetypal "Cavalier" of the war and ultimately the senior Royalist general. He surrendered after the fall of Bristol and was banished from England. He served under King Louis XIV of France against Spain, and then as a Royalist privateer in the Caribbean Sea. Following the Restoration, Rupert returned to England, becoming a senior English naval commander during the Second Anglo-Dutch War and Third Anglo-Dutch War, and serving as the first governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. He died in England in 1682, aged 62.

Item Date:  1680

Stock No:  42257      £2250

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