page_title: Prince Rupert of the Rhine
section_title: Career following the Restoration
hierarchical_section_title: Prince Rupert of the Rhine / Career following the Restoration
caption_attribution_description: Frances Bard (c 1646-1708)
context_page_description: Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, KG, PC, FRS was a German-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 James VI of Scotland and I of England.
  Prince Rupert had a varied career. He was a soldier as a child, fighting alongside Dutch forces against Habsburg Spain during the Eighty Years' War, and against the Holy Roman Emperor in Germany during the Thirty Years' War. 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 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.
context_section_description: Following the Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in 1660, Rupert returned to England, where Charles had already largely completed the process of balancing the different factions across the country in a new administration. Since most of the better government posts were already taken, Rupert's employment was limited, although Charles rewarded him with the second highest pension he had granted, £4,000 a year. Rupert's close family ties to King Charles were critical to his warm reception; following the deaths of the Duke of Gloucester and Princess Mary, Rupert was the King's closest adult relation in England after his brother, the Duke of York, and so a key member of the new regime. Rupert, as the Duke of Cumberland, resumed his seat in the House of Lords. For the first time in his life, Rupert's financial position was relatively secure, and he had matured. Near-contemporaries described how "his temper was less explosive than formerly and his judgement sounder". Rupert continued to serve as an admiral in the Royal Navy throughout the period, ultimately rising to the rank of "General at Sea and Land".
caption: Frances Bard, Rupert's mistress, by Peter Lely
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