Prince Rupert: The Last Cavalier

The next time a producer is ready to spend vast sums of money making a film of some already overly familiar subject, they would do well to consider Prince Rupert of the Rhine. His story...and even his name...are unknown to most of us, and yet here is a person who packs more adventure and accomplishment into a single lifetime than many of those figures with which we are already well aquainted. I cannot help but be awed by someone who undertakes such a wide variety of physical and mental challenges, and with such energy and determination that he continually impresses with each endeavor, regardless of the outcome. Indeed, how very few can claim to be so well-rounded. Rupert's successes and failures are presented here in a superb telling by Charles Spencer, whose knowledge of this period makes him an absorbing and eloquent guide. He adds a richness of understanding to the prince's life and times through many enjoyable insights from the eyes of others of that age, and does so with such smoothness and grace that they delightfully aid in the telling without once breaking his stride.

This is historical writing at its best. Charles Spencer sure knows how to make the most out of his sources and subject. It helps, of course, when that subject is Prince Rupert (robert) of the Rhine. His life is bursting with the peaks and valleys that make life interesting. His father took up a crown against the Holy Roman Emperor, only to be abandoned by those that pressured him to do so.
This struggle gave him a special sympathy and insight for his uncle, charles I, when Parliament rebelled(rupert mother was James I daughter).
Rupert lead the Cavaliers on daring rushes which provided him with an enormous amount of respect yet he seemed to be repeatedly failed by his fellow royalists. Despite his reputation, he seems to be one of the first to pressure Charles to peace, and his rep suffered for it after heavy losses at Marston moor and naseby.
This was only rupert second act, for there is still an admiralty ahead, canada, and so much more.
this book is recommended for all those interested in the English civil war, the stuarts, the thirty years war, and the palantinate.
Of the highest recommendation.

Extremely well researched and solidly written history of a little known relative of Charles I of England. Prince Rupert would have been a fitting subject for an early 20th century swashbuckler. The man was a dynamic leader, a pirate, and artist and an adventurer who survived imprisonment and repeated wounds in battle. The book reads almost like a novel.

Dull and boring.