RUPERT OF THE RHINE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 154, 27 March 1937, Page VIII (Supplement)

RUPERT OF THE RHINE

Colourful Figure Who Fought for Charles I

"The Stranger Prince." by Margaret Irwin i London : Chatto ami Hindus i.

Most, people retain from their school days memories of learning of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, dashing cavalry leader who fought, on the side of Charles I in the Civil War. To those who wish to know more about a figure in history whose name,has always carried with it .something of the romantic .Miss Irwin’s latest book may be highly recommended.

Rupert was indeed a colourful figure. One of the numerous family of James I’s daughter, Elizabeth of Bohemia, whose beauty and fascination led many an adventurous European soldier to die in her lost cause after she and her husband bad been driven out of Bohemia, he bad had his baptism of fire at an age at which boys of to-day expect to have a few more years of school ahead of them. Then for three years he lay a prisoner in a castle in Austria, captured when taking part in an expedition to regain his mother’s lost lands.

Not long after his release Rupert, then 22 years old, paid his second visit to England. On bis earlier stay at the court of bis uncle, Charles 1, he had won all hearts and. a member of an exiled family, be looked upon England as home. But trouble was brewing there, and it was not long before Rupert was adding to a fame already known throughout Europe by his deeds at the head of the Cavaliers in their battles with the Roundheads. Fearless and impetuous, but a thorough soldier withal, Rupert might well have changed the course of history had he been allowed to follow up bis early victories as he wanted to. But bis somewhat overbearing manner and the fact that he was a foreigner estranged him from many of the other Royalist leaders, with the result that a situation developed in which when he wanted one thing all the rest usually wanted something else.

Miss Irwin paints a convincing picture of the unhappy Charles, torn between the urgings of bis rival advisers and. wheu all seemed lost, gaining a pitiful meed of comfort from the fact that he knew be could meet whatever fate had in store for him with the dignity befitting a King—and we know he did.

Of Rupert Miss Irwin gives a thoroughly satisfactory study. We see the almost superhuman efforts he made, assisted by his brother Maurice, to retrieve a forlorn hope and how his desires were so fatally thwarted by his enemies on his own side. We see the ironic sight of a man who had never known what it was to love a woman falling in love with the wife of one of his best friends when there were many other distinguished women who would have been glad to win him. We are shown, too, his interest in science and his desire to explore the world —at one time there was a plan for him to lead an English expedition to Madagascar. This book gives the .impression of being faithful to historical fact. Its many characters live, and if is a worthy successor to “Royal Flush'' anil "The Proud Servant."

ROOKS RECEIVED

Books as listed hereunder have been received from tlie following publishers: -

Allen and Unwin: "Tlie Total Abolition of Unemployment,” by Shipley A. Bray.shaw. “Tlie Silver World." by Acgidius Ja Im. "Prince Ito.” by Kengi Hamada. Angus and Robertson: "Tile Valley of tlie Sky." bi* Tarlton Rayinetit. "Old Mau Murrnv." bv Will Lawson. Bell: “Murder mi Manoeuvres," liy S. C. Mason. "Tlie Family Skeleton." by Esther Tyler.

Cape: "English Monks ami tiie Suppression of tiie Monasteries," by Geoffrey Baskerville. "Marriage with a Genius." by Freda Strindberg. "Blague in Bombay." by Nora Stevenson. "The Swiss Twins." "The Norwegian Twins” and "The Spartan Twins,” by Lucy Fitch Perkins. “Juan in China.” by Eric Linklater. Chatto ai'd Windus. “Absalom, Absalom." by William Faulkner. "Good Food from Italy.” by Countess Morphy. Dent: "Poems in Pencil,” by Gerald Bullett. "My Way of Faith, ”‘by M. D. Petre. "George' Conies.” by Dora Mecson Coates. “Straight or Curly,” by Clifford Dyincnt. "The Crpwh of England,” by Ruaraidh Eerskine of Marr. "The Questioning Mind." by Rupert Clendon Lodge. Eyre and Spottiswoede: "Green Margin." by E. P. O’Donnell. “God's Way With a Soul,” by W. E. Lutyens. "Napoleon,” by R. McNair Wilson. "The Communist Atrocities” (second and third reports). Gollancz: “The Gambier,” by Anne Meredith. "The Door Between.” by Ellery Queen. "Men Without Mercy," by Alfred Dublin. Hamilton: "The Destiny of France." by Alexander Werth. 'Not So Deep as a "’ell." by Dorothy Pa rker. "One Life. One Kopeck," by Waiter Duranty. liarrap: "Plaque with Laurel,” by M. Barnard Eldershaw. Jenkins: “Helen Spenser.” by Patrick Maegill. "A Devil in Downing Street,” by Robert Ladline. Longmans: “The May Week Murders," by Douglas C. Browne. • Lovat Dickson: “Buchan's Days,” by E. L. Hawke. Joseph: “Tiie Bruiser," by Jim Tully. MacMillan: "Kipling's Aululiiography." .Methuen: "The l oxes." by It. I.'. Harris. "Blood on Lake Louisa,” by Barnard IJ. Kendrick.