Prince Rupert of the Rhine for a speedy success in the north. In November 1644 Rupert was appointed General of the entire Royalist army, which increased already marked tensions between him and a number of the King's councillors. By May 1645, and now desperately short of supplies, Rupert captured Leicester, but suffered a severe reversal at the Battle of Naseby a month later. Although Rupert had counselled the King against accepting battle at Naseby, the opinions of Digby had won the day in council: nonetheless, Rupert's defeat damaged him, rather than Digby, politically. After Naseby, Rupert regarded the Royalist cause as lost, and urged Charles
John Gerard (Royalist) in 1654 Gerard went over to France, where he was presented to Charles II by his cousin, Charles Gerard, Lord Brandon. Soon after his return to England in May 1654 he was arrested, with two others, on a charge of conspiring against the government in what became known as Gerard's conspiracy. It was alleged that in company with a Royalist major, one Henshaw, whom he had met in France, Gerard with 30 other mounted men were to attack the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell as he rode to Hampton Court, and, after overwhelming his body guard and killing him, to besiege