The Prince and the Poodle
The Prince and the Poodle
Before the Civil War
This chapter concentrates on Prince Rupert's early life. It begins by introducing Rupert's parents – Charles I's sister, Elizabeth Stuart, the original ‘Queen of English hearts’, and Frederick V, Elector of the Rhineland Palatinate – and shows that it was Rupert's immediate family who first gave him the nickname of ‘Robert Le Diable’ (or Robert the Devil). The chapter then goes on recount Rupert's early career as a soldier, to explore how the rumours that Rupert was ‘shot free’ (or bullet-proof) originally began to circulate on the Continent, and to consider the precise circumstances in which the prince first acquired his famous white hunting poodle. Along the way, the chapter devotes considerable attention to the contemporary concept of the ‘Hard-man’ – that is to say, the individual who supposedly possessed the power to render himself invulnerable through magical art. The chapter concludes by showing how, in early 1642, Rupert sailed to England to assist his uncle in the forthcoming showdown with his domestic enemies in Parliament. [153 words]
Keywords: Elizabeth of Bohemia, John Taylor, Robert Le Diable*, ‘Shot-free’*, John Aubrey, ‘Hard-men’*, ‘Passau Art’, Thirty Years War*, Poodles*, Water-Dogs
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