RUPERT, Prince palatine of the Rhine, son of Frederick prince elector palatine of the Rhine, and Elizabeth daughter of James I. of England, was born in 1619. He gave proofs of his bravery at the age of thirteen; and in 1642 came over into England, and offered Iris service to

Charles I. his uncle, who gave him a command in his army. At Edgehill he charged with incredible bravery, and made a very great slaughter of the parliamentarians. In 1643 he seized the town of Cirencester, obliged the governor of Lichfield to surrender, and having joined his brother Prince Maurice, reduced Bristol in three days, and passed to the relief of Newark. In 1644 he marched to relieve York, where he gave the parliamentarians battle, and entirely defeated their right wing; but Cromwell charged the Marquis of Newcastle with such an irresistible force, that Prince Rupert was entirely defeated. After this the prince put himself into Bristol, which surrendered to Fairfax after a gallant resistance. The king was so enraged at the loss of this city, so contrary to his expectation, that he recalled all Prince Rupert’s commissions, and sent him a pass to go out of the kingdom. In 1648 he went to France, where he was highly complimented by that court, and kindly received by Charles

II. who for the time sojourned there. Afterwards he was constituted admiral of the king’s navy; attacked the Dutch ships, many of which he took; and having engaged with De Ruyter, obliged him to fly. He died in 1682, and was interred with great magnificence in Henry VII.’s chapel, Westminster. Mr Grainger observes, that he possessed in a high degree that kind of courage which is better in an attack than a defence, and is less adapted to the land-service than that of the sea, where precipitate valour is in its element. He seldom engaged but he gained the advantage, which, however, he generally lost by pursuing it too far. He was better qualified to storm a citadel, or even to mount a breach, than patiently to sustain a siege, and would have furnished an excellent hand to a general of a cooler head.

This prince is celebrated for the invention of prints in mezzotinto, of which he is said to have taken the hint from a soldier’s scraping his rusty fusil. The first print of this kind ever published was done by his highness, and may be seen in the first edition of Evelyn’s Sculptra. The secret is said to have been soon afterwards discovered by Sherwin, an engraver, who made use of a loaded file for laying the ground. The prince, upon seeing one of his prints, suspected that his servant had lent him his tool, which was a channelled roller; but upon receiving full satisfaction to the contrary, he made him a present of it. The roller was afterwards laid aside; and an instrument with a crenelled edge, shaped like a shoemaker’s cutting knife, was used instead of it. He also invented a metal called by his name, in which guns were cast; and contrived an excellent method of boring them, for which purpose a water-mill was erected at Hackney-marsh, to the great detriment of the undertaker, the secret dying with the inventor.

a sort of glass drops with long and slender tails, which burst to pieces on the breaking off those tails in any part. They are said to have been invented by Prince Rupert, and are therefore called by his name.