Prince Rupert, pin-up of romantic history teachers throughout the land, daring general of the Royalist cause in the Civil War – but he was a far more interesting character than that. His father was King of Bohemia when Rupert was born (he later said that his christening dress was the most costly outfit he’d ever worn) but a revolution only months later deposed him. Rupert and his brothers and sisters grew up in a hand-to-mouth existence in Holland. He spoke a number of languages fluently, was a talented artist, and he enjoyed taking part in family dramatics. He began his military career aged only fourteen; he was captured by the Emperor’s forces aged nineteen, and spent the next three years in prison, much of it in close confinement. After the Civil War he took command of a pirate ship and helped finance the court in exile; on the Restoration, his cousin Charles II gave him a pension; he led the British Navy in the Dutch wars. He was a founder member of the Royal Society and involved in the Hudson’s Bay Company, which opened up Canada. In later life he became Governor of Windsor Castle, and lived there with his mistress, Peg Hughes, one of the first women to act on the English stage, and their daughter, Ruperta.

I’m planning a full-length story, set at the start of the Civil War, but first I wrote eight short stories about Prince Rupert, teasing my way into the person I thought he was.

The Fourth Chronicle was shortlisted for the annual Margery Allingham Prize, and is on the Crime Readers’ Association Website