or ROBERT. See ROBERT.

prince palatine of the Rhine, &c. Son of Frederic prince elector palatine of the Rhine and Elizabeth daughter of King James I. of England, was born in 1619. He gave proofs of his bravery at the age of 13; and in 1642 came over into England, and offered his service to King Charles I., his uncle, who gave him a command in his army. At Edgehill he charged with incredible bravery, and made a great slaughter of the parliamentarians. In 1643 he seized the town of Girencester; obliged the governor of Litchfield to surrender; and having joined his brother Prince Maurice, reduced Bristol in three days, and palled 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, was highly complimented by that court, and kindly received by King Charles II., who sojourned there for the time. Afterward 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 King Henry VII.'s chapel, Westminster. Mr Granger observes, that he possessed in a high degree that kind of courage which is better in an attack than a defense; and is least adapted to the land-service than that of the sea, where precipitate valour is its element. He seldom engaged but he gained the advantage, which 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 spade. The first print of this kind ever published was done by his highness, and may be seen in the first edition of Evelyn's Sculptura. The secret is said to have been soon after 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 channeled 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 shoe-maker'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, as the secret died with the illustrious inventor.