Memoirs of Prince Rupert, and the Cavaliers, Including their Private Correspondence

London: Richard Bentley, 1849. Now first published from the original manuscripts. Three 8vo. volumes. Tan polished calf bindings with elaborate gold tooled spines and gold ruled covers. Cover edges also gold tooled. Marbled endpapers and marbled page edges. A little rubbing but overall all three volumes in fine condition. Picture shows worst binding; as you can see there is very little in the way of defects.. With 10 engraved illustrations.. This Collection is derived from Colonel Benett, Prince Rupert's Secretary. It contains upwards of a thousand letters, written by the leading Cavaliers to their young Chief during the war, together with many of a later date. Besides such letters, there are considerable materials, in various stages of preparation, for a formal biography of the Prince; of these some are fragments, each containing an episode of their hero's life, apparently ready for publication and corrected by Rupert himself. His biography was of more importance to this Prince than to most men; no person, perhaps, except his Royal Master, was ever more exposed to calumny, or less defended. He seems to have superintended the preparation of his Memoirs about the year 1657, in order to meet the misconstructions of his actions which he apprehended in England, the country of his adoption. On the Restoration he found that his popularity was already restored, in the same hour with that of his Royal kinsman; and from this time the preparations for his biography appear to have ceased. The extraordinary vicissitudes of his career were then nearly terminated. At all events, from this period I am obliged to seek in other sources for biographical materials.