Off Flushing.] PRINCE RUPERT. 341 66 The earl was in his forty-seventh year, having His bargemen attended his funeral, and the been born in 1625. Bishop Parker, in his history following epitaph is given in the Appendix to of his own times, writes thus: "The Earl of Sand-"Pepy's Diary: "wich, having shattered seven of the enemy's ships and beaten off three fire-ships, at length overpowered, fell a sacrifice to his country-a gentleman adorned with all the virtues of Alcibiades, and unstained by any of his vices; capable of any business, full of wisdom, a great commander by sea and land, learned, eloquent, affable, liberal, and magnificent." DEPOSITUM PRÆNOB EDVARDI, COMITIO DE SANDWICH, ETC., FRETI BRITANNICI THALLASSIARCHÆ, QUI IN NAVALI ILLO ADVERSUS BATAVOS OCCUBUIT, 28TH DIE MENSIS MAII, CHAPTER LXI. PRINCE RUPERT AND THE DUTCH, 1673. In this year the House of Commons, having resolved that every individual refusing to take the oath of allegiance and receive the sacrament | according to the rites of the Church of England should be incapable of public employment, military or civil, the obnoxious statute known as the "Test Act" was passed, which required not only these oaths to be taken and the sacrament received, but also a declaration against Transubstantiation. The Duke of York refused to take this test, and voluntarily resigned all the offices he held under the Crown, including that of Lord High Admiral of England. By this retirement the command of the combined fleets, amounting to about ninety sail, devolved upon Prince Rupert; and with a force so formidable it was confidently supposed he would sweep the Dutch from the face of the ocean. Six companies of the Coldstream Guards were distributed on board the fleet, besides strong detachments from other regiments. Sir Edward Spragge and the Earl of Ossory commanded under Rupert, whose actions during the Civil War and his ocean wanderings during the Protectorate had won him the sobriquets of "The Invincible Mad Cavalier" and "The Royal Corsair." The earl was on board the St. Michael, from which the duke had to shift his flag in the late action, with the rank of Rear-Admiral of the Blue. The French squadron joined them again, under the Count d'Estrées and Admiral Martel; and an order was issued to all commanders of His Majesty's ships, that in future they were not "to require from the ships of war of His Most Christian Majesty the striking of a flag or topsail, neither were they to give any salute to those of the Christian King." On the 19th of May it was determined in a Council of War, at which the king and Duke of York were present, that if the Dutch fleet could not be provoked to quit their own shores, it should be attacked upon them; and in consequence of this resolution the combined fleets put to sea. Prince Rupert's squadron carried the Red flag, D'Estrées was Admiral of the White, and Spragge Admiral of the Blue. De Ruyter, who had been first at sea, had been informed that the English fleet would not be ready so soon, and on the 2nd of May had been off the mouth of the Thames; but finding a strong force. there, had retired to await the rest of his fleet at Schonwelt, in Zealand, between the Rand and the Stony Bank. There his ships were descried by Prince Rupert, riding in apparent security and in good order, behind the sandbanks, on the 22nd of May. The shoals and shelves so protected the anchorage that Rupert feared to attack him; but having taken advantage of a mist to send in boats to take the soundings about the shore, it was resolved at a Council of War to risk all and fight the enemy. But the wind died away; then came a storm, and nothing could be done till the 28th of the month. The Dutch fleet consisted of nearly a hundred sail of all kinds, commanded by De Ruyter, Cornelius Van Tromp, and Adrian Bankhart. D'Estrées, we have said, was Admiral of the White, but to prevent his ships from acting as they had done at Southwold Bay, they were, whatever their secret orders might be, checkered in line with the English. Having the advantage of the wind, the count began the engagement with Van [Off Flushing. Tromp; it soon became general, and was con- her. By that time the energy of Spragge had tinued with great obstinacy. Schram, vice-admiral | driven the enemy among the shoals, as the prince of Van Tromp's squadron, was killed; then fell RearAdmiral Vlag, of Bankhart's squadron, with several of his captains. Sir Edward Spragge assailed Van Tromp with such weight and ardour, that during a conflict of seven hours he compelled him to shift his flag in succession from the Golden Lion-in which more than 100 men were killed and wounded, and which was nearly fired by Sir William Reeves in a fireship-to the Prince on Horseback, and thence to the Amsterdam and Comet, as each ship became riddled, wrecked, and sinking; and in the end he would certainly have been killed or taken but for the timely intervention of De Ruyter. Sir Edward had also twice to change his ship. In Prince Rupert's letter to the Earl of Arlington, he says, "Sir Edward Spragge did on his side maintain the fight with so much courage and resolution, that their whole body gave way to such a degree, that had it not. been for fear of the shoals, we had driven them into their har bours, and the king would have had a better 1. FOUCHARD. 2. PARTISAN. account of them." The Deventer, one of their best ships, was so disabled that she was towed out of the line and scuttled near the Wielings, a number of little islets covered with seaweed, and which form, as Sir William Temple thinks, the fragments of a submerged coast. Captain Legg, of Prince Rupert's squadron, boarded and took a Dutch ship named the Jupiter, but she was recaptured, sword in hand, by the Dutch, who gained possession of her deck while the boarders were below pillaging and searching states, and that circumstance, with the darkness coming on, ended the first engagement, in which he lost four captains-Tempest, of the Sweepstakes, and three others-and had two ships of war entirely disabled, while the Count d'Estrées lost seven ships in all. The Dutch had eight flag officers killed, and lost one ship. Colonel James Hamilton, a British officer, had both his legs shot off, and died. He was the eldest son of Sir George Hamilton, fourth son of the Earl of Abercorn. On the 4th of June the fleets engaged again, when De Ruy ter, having refitted and increased the fleet, stood boldly out to sea, and attacked Prince Rupert off Flushing. The cannonade lasted four hours; but the irregularity and impetuosity with which the Dutch made their attack soon threw them into confusion, and they bore away to the south-east. In this battle, brief though it was, Sir Edward Spragge specially singling out Van Tromp, forced him twice again to change his ship, till he was once more re(ARTILLERY MUSEUM, PARIS.) lieved by De Ruyter; and the risk he ran of being taken so provoked him against his viceadmiral, Sweers, that he reported that officer to the States-General. But he knew not that the sturdy Sir Edward Spragge, when he took leave of Charles II., prior to joining the fleet, had promised "that he would bring him Van Tromp, alive or dead, or lose his own life in the attempt." These admirals seem indeed to have had a particular desire to emulate and overcome each other, for they constantly fought in every battle from the time that Sir Edward Spragge succeeded the Earl of Sandwich, and Van Tromp gained a command in the Dutch fleet in place of Van Ghent. The third and last encounter between Rupert and De Ruyter took place on the 11th of August, off the mouth of the Texel. Rupert had previous to this stood over to the coast of England, where he landed all his wounded, and had the ships entirely refitted for a last grand trial of strength; and 4,000 troops were placed on board, under the eye of King Charles, who came down the river to see the prince's armament. The English now mustered sixty men of war, and the French thirty; but the Dutch were not more than seventy. By what was then deemed a masterpiece of seamanship, De Ruyter, having taken his whole fleet close in shore during the night, was discovered to windward of the allies when day dawned. The French, in consequence of their good behaviour in the late engagement, were again, as at Southwold Bay, formed in one squadron; but they ill requited this confidence on the part of the noble Rupert, for on being attacked by Admiral Bankhart, after a little distant work with their guns, they bore away to the eastward, out of range, and remained idle spectators of the desperate and sanguinary battle, that was now inspired by long years of hate, rancour, and rivalry. One French officer alone bore a share in this action, Rear-Admiral Martel, for which a severe reckoning awaited him in France, when on his return he was thrown into the Bastille for having exceeded his orders. While D'Estrées, with his squadron, was sheering off, the fight between Prince Rupert and De Ruyter was very hot, and Bankhart, perceiving that the French no longer resisted, bore down with his squadron to reinforce his leader; upon which the prince, finding himself overpowered by numbers, made a retreating fight of it, by steering westward. pause, the fight began again, and was continued till the St. George was so battered that Sir Edward was compelled to leave her and endeavour to carry his flag on board the Royal Charles; but before his barge had been rowed ten times its own length from the ship, a well-directed cannon-shot passed through it, after passing through the St. George. Shattered and swamped as the barge was, the crew endeavoured to regain the St. George, but before that could be achieved the gallant old admiral was drowned, "his hands," according to his memoir, "taking so dead a hold of the side of the boat that when it came to float he was found with his head and shoulders above water." The writers of his age are profuse in their praises of the valour of Sir Edward Spragge, and also of that of Van Tromp; "for these men," says Bishop Parker, in his history of his own times, "having mutually agreed to attack each other, not out of hatred, but a thirst of glory, they engaged with all the rage, or, as it were, with all the sport of war. They came so close to one another that, like an army of foot, they fought at once with their guns and swords. Almost at every turn both their ships, though not sunk, were yet bored through with common gun-shot; neither did one ball fall into the sea, but each ship pierced the other as if they had fought with spears." During these events Prince Rupert had been maintaining a retreating combat before the united squadrons of De Ruyter and Bankhart; but the latter, considering Van Tromp in danger, altered their course and bore up to his assistance, while the prince did the same to succour the Blue squadron. This made the engagement once again general. The prince sent two fire-ships, under the steering of Captain Legg, among the enemy, and the appearance of these perilous craft put them in such confusion that had the Count D'Estrées once again come from the windward, where he lay idle, the Dutch must have been defeated; the battle continued, however, till nightfall, when amid the darkness and the smoke it ceased, and Prince Rupert bore away for the mouth of Thames, as the Dutch did for their own coast. Van Tromp and Sir Edward Spragge had in the meantime been, as usual, hotly engaged from nine in the morning. The latter had promised to abide by Prince Rupert, but as he could not resist attacking Van Tromp, he laid his fore-topsail aback to stay for him, and having attacked his squadron, continued fighting for several hours, apart from all the In this undecided battle the English lost the fleet. Sir Edward was at first on board the Royal Henrietta, yacht, which was sunk ; Captains Richard Prince, and Van Tromp in the Golden Lion, but New, of the Edgar, and John Rice, of the Mariafter three hours of an artillery fight, in which the gold, fire-ship, and Captain Merryweather, an infantry Dutch admiral avoided coming to close quarters, officer, were killed, together with a very great Sir Edward was forced by sheer dint of cannon- number of men, in consequence of the ships being shot to leave his disabled ship for the St. George, filled with troops, while the Dutch had two viceas Van Tromp at the same time had to do for the admirals, Sweers and De Liefde, three captains, and Comet. about 1,000 men of all ranks slain. They admitted Then, with a fury all the greater for the brief having lost four fire-ships; but Lord Ossory asserted DURING these operations by sea, a combined force of 6,000 English and Scottish troops had been dispatched to join the French army in Flanders, then nominally under Louis XIV., but in reality conducted by the greatest soldiers of the age, Marshal Turenne and the Prince of Condé. The command of this expedition was entrusted by Charles II. to his own son, James Fitzroy, whom he had created Duke of Monmouth, giving him at the same time in marriage Anne, Countess of Buccleuch, the richest heiress in Scotland. He was made a Knight of the Garter, and was captain of the English Life Guards in 1665. To form one regiment for this expedition, ten men were drawn out of each of the twelve companies of the Coldstream Guards as its nucleus, in February, 1672: and by April the whole of the troops were embarked, and had sailed for Flanders. It is in this year, 1672, in a Royal Warrant, dated the 2nd of April, that we first find mention of "the bayonet, or great knife," as a portion of the necessary equipment of the British soldier. The Scottish regiment of Lord Douglas (now 1st Royals), consisting of two strong battalions, was already with the French army under Turenne. Several fortified towns had been captured; and in June this corps, when encamped in the vicinity of Nimeguen, was detached with other troops, under the Comte de Chamilly, to besiege Grave, on the left bank of the Maese, in North Brabant. The attack on the town commenced towards the end of June, and in July the governor surrendered. A number of British subjects, chiefly Scots, being found in Grave, they were permitted to take service under Louis XIV., and were given as recruits to Lord Douglas. The land war was conducted by France with the greatest vigour and address; 100,000 Frenchmen, led in every movement by Turenne and Condé, stormed in rapid succession the fortresses of Orsai, Burick, Wesel, and the Rhinberg. Near Schenck they passed the river in the face of the enemy's cannon; compelled Arnheim, Naerden, Utrecht, Deventer, Zutphen, and Nimeguen to surrender; and overcoming three of the United Provinces, in a few months had advanced their outposts to the vicinity of Amsterdam. Throughout all these operations the little "handful" of British forces bore an active part, and many officers distinguished themselves; but few so much as Churchill, the future Duke of Marlborough, who was known in the army by the sobriquet of "The Handsome Englishman," and at the siege of Nimeguen he drew special attention to himself, when only a captain. Having repeatedly volunteered to execute services requiring more than ordinary coolness and decision, he was at length selected by Marshal Turenne to recover a post from which a French lieutenantcolonel had been driven. "I will wager a supper and a dozen of claret," said the marshal, "that my handsome Englishman' will, with half the number of men, retake the ground which has been lost." The wager was accepted; Churchill advanced to the attack with a detachment of English troops, and not only regained, but kept possession of the post, amid the plaudits of the whole army ("Gleig's Memoirs"). As the war progressed, to check the terrible progress of the French, the Dutch, acting under the orders of the stern William of Orange, broke down their dykes, which cost such enormous sums to maintain, and had an officer in every district, called the dykgrave, to watch them. Then the foaming waters rushed over the level land, and in many places the French soldiers had to flee for their lives, |