The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 376

RICHARD II., king of England from 1377 to 1399, son of the Black Prince, born at Bordeaux; succeeded his grandfather, Edward III.; during his minority till 1389 the kingdom was administered by a council; in 1381 the Peasants' Revolt broke out, headed by Wat Tyler, as a result of the discontent occasioned by the Statutes of Labour pa.s.sed in the previous reign, and more immediately by the heavy taxation made necessary by the expense of the Hundred Years' War still going on with France; a corrupt Church called forth the energetic protests of Wycliffe, which started the LOLLARD (q. v.) movement; an invasion of Scotland (1385), resulting in the capture of Edinburgh, was headed by the young king; coming under French influence, and adopting despotic measures in the later years of his reign, Richard estranged all sections of his people; a rising headed by Henry of Lancaster forced his abdication, and by a decree of Parliament he was imprisoned for life in Pontefract Castle, where he died (probably murdered) soon after (1367-1400).

RICHARD III., king of England from 1483 to 1486, youngest brother of Edward IV., and last of the Plantagenets, born at Fotheringhay Castle; in 1461 was created Duke of Gloucester by his brother for a.s.sisting him to win the crown; faithfully supported Edward against Lancastrian attacks; married (1473) Anne, daughter of Warwick, the King-Maker; early in 1483 was appointed Protector of the kingdom and guardian of his young nephew, Edward V.; put to death n.o.bles who stood in the way of his ambitious schemes for the throne; doubts were cast upon the legitimacy of the young king, and Richard's right to the throne was a.s.serted; in July 1483 he a.s.sumed the kingly office; almost certainly instigated the murder of Edward and his little brother in the Tower; ruled firmly and well, but without the confidence of the nation; in 1488 Henry, Earl of Richmond, head of the House of Lancaster, invaded England, and at the battle of Bosworth Richard was defeated and slain (1452-1485).

RICHARD OF CIRENCESTER, an English chronicler, born at Cirencester; flourished in the 14th century; was a monk in the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter, Westminster; wrote a History of England from 447 to 1066; for long the reputed author of a remarkable work on Roman Britain, now proved to be a forgery; _d_. 1401.

RICHARDS, ALFRED BATE, journalist and author; turned from law to literature; author of a number of popular dramas, volumes of poems, essays, &c.; was the first editor of the _Daily Telegraph_, and afterwards of the _Morning Advertiser_; took an active interest in the volunteer movement (1820-1876).

RICHARDSON, SIR BENJAMIN WARD, a distinguished physician and author, born at Somerby, Leicesters.h.i.+re; took the diploma of the Royal College of Physicians in 1850, and graduated in medicine at St. Andrews four years later; founded the _Journal of Public Health_ in 1855, and _The Asclepiad_ in 1861, and the _Social Science Review_ in 1862; won the Fothergilian gold medal and the Astley-Cooper prize of 300 guineas; made many valuable medical inventions, and was an active lecturer on sanitary science, &c.; was knighted in 1893 (1828-1896).

RICHARDSON, CHARLES, lexicographer; was trained for the bar, but took to literature and education; pensioned in 1852; his chief works are "Ill.u.s.trations of English Philology" and the "New Dictionary of the English Language" (1837), according to Trench the best dictionary of his day (1775-1865).

RICHARDSON, SIR JOHN, M.D., naturalist and Arctic explorer, born at Dumfries; graduated at Edinburgh; for some time a navy surgeon; accompanied Franklin on the expeditions in 1819-22 and 1825-27, and later commanded one of the Franklin search expeditions (1848); held government appointments, and was knighted in 1846 (1787-1865).

RICHARDSON, SAMUEL, novelist, born in Derbys.h.i.+re, the son of a joiner; was apprenticed to a printer in London, whose daughter he married; set up in the business for himself, and from his success in it became Master of the Stationers Company in 1754, and King's Printer in 1761; was 50 before he came out as a novelist; published his "Pamela" in 1740, his masterpiece "Clarissa," written in the form of letters, in 1748, and "Sir Charles Grandison" in 1753; they are all three novels of sentiment, are instinct with a spirit of moral purity, and are more praised than read (1689-1761).

RICHELIEU, ARMAND-JEAN DUPLESSIS, CARDINAL DE, born in Paris, of a n.o.ble family; was minister of Louis XIII., and one of the greatest statesmen France ever had; from his installation as Prime Minister in 1624 he set himself to the achievement of a threefold purpose, and rested not till he accomplished it--the ruin of the Protestants as a political party, the curtailment of the power of the n.o.bles, and the humiliation of the House of Austria in the councils of Europe; his administration was signalised by reforms in finance, in the army, and in legislation; as the historian Thierry has said of him, "He left nothing undone that could be done by statesmans.h.i.+p for the social amelioration of the country; he had a mind of the most comprehensive grasp, and a genius for the minutest details of administration"; he was a patron of letters, and the founder of the French Academy (1585-1642).

RICHMOND, 1, an interesting old borough (4) in Yorks.h.i.+re, on the Swale, 49 m. N.W. of York; has a fine 11th-century castle, now partly utilised as barracks, remains of a Franciscan friary, a racecourse, &c.

2, A town (23) in Surrey, 9 m. W. of London; picturesquely situated on the summit and slope of Richmond Hill, and the right bank of the Thames; has remains of the royal palace of Sheen, a magnificent deer park, a handsome river bridge, &c.; supplies London with fruit and vegetables; has many literary and historical a.s.sociations. 3, Capital (85) of Virginia, U.S.; has a hilly and picturesque site on the James River, 116 m. S. of Was.h.i.+ngton; possesses large docks, and is a busy port, a manufacturing town (tobacco, iron-works, flour and paper mills), and a railway centre; as the Confederate capital it was the scene of a memorable, year-long siege during the Civil War, ultimately falling into the hands of Grant and Sheridan in 1865.

RICHMOND, LEGH, an evangelical clergyman of the Church of England, born in Liverpool, famed for a tract "The Dairyman's Daughter"

(1772-1827).

RICHTER, JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH, usually called Jean Paul simply, the greatest of German humourists, born at Wunsiedel, near Baireuth, in Bavaria, the son of a poor German pastor; had a scanty education, but his fine faculties and unwearied diligence supplied every defect; was an insatiable and universal reader; meant for the Church, took to poetry and philosophy, became an author, putting forth the strangest books with the strangest t.i.tles; considered for a time a strange, crack-brained mixture of enthusiast and buffoon; was recognised at last as a man of infinite humour, sensibility, force, and penetration; his writings procured him friends and fame, and at length a wife and a settled pension; settled in Baireuth, where he lived thenceforth diligent and celebrated in many departments of literature, and where he died, loved as well as admired by all his countrymen, and more by those who had known him most intimately ... his works are numerous, and the chief are novels, "'Hesperus' and 't.i.tan' being the longest and the best, the former of which first (in 1795) introduced him into decisive and universal estimation with his countrymen, and the latter of which he himself, as well as the most judicious of his critics, regarded as his masterpiece" (1763-1825).

RICHTHOFEN, BARON VON, traveller and geographer, born in Carlsruhe, Silesia; accompanied in 1861 the Prussian expedition to Eastern Asia, travelled in 1862-68 in California, and in 1869-72 in China; has since been professor of Geography successively at Bonn, Leipzig, and Berlin; has written a great work on China; _b_. 1833.

RICORD, PHILIPPE, a famous French physician, born at Baltimore, U.S.; came to Paris, was a specialist in a department of surgery, and surgeon-in-chief to the hospital for venereal diseases (1800-1889).

RIDLEY, NICOLAS, martyred bishop, born in Northumberland, Fellow and ultimately Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge; on a three years' visit to the Continent fell in with certain of the Reformers and returned convinced of and confirmed in the Protestant faith; became king's chaplain, bishop of Rochester, and finally of London; favoured the cause of Lady Jane Grey against Mary, who committed him to the Tower, and being condemned as a heretic was at Oxford burnt at the stake along with Latimer (1500-1555).

RIEHM, EDWARD, Protestant theologian, born at Diersburg, Baden, was professor at Halle; wrote many theological works, among them "Handworterbuch des biblischen Alterthums" (1830-1888).

RIENZI, COLA DI, Roman tribune, born at Rome, of humble origin; gave himself to the study of the ancient history of the city, became inspired with a n.o.ble ambition to restore its ancient glory, and being endowed with an eloquent tongue, persuaded, with sanction of Pope Clement VI., who was then at Avignon, his fellow-citizens to rise against the tyranny to which they were subjected at the hands of the n.o.bles, in which he at length was successful; but his own rule became intolerable, and he was a.s.sa.s.sinated in an _emeute_ just seven years after the commencement of his political career (1313-1354).

RIESENGEBIRGE (i. e. Giant Mountains), a range dividing Bohemia from Silesia; Schneekoppe (5260 ft.) is the highest peak; is a famous summer resort for Germans.

RIFACIMENTO, a literary work recast to adapt it to a change in the circ.u.mstances of the time.

RIFF, the name given to the N. coast-lands of Morocco from Tangiers to Algeria; is a mountainous and woody region, with a rugged foresh.o.r.e, inhabited by lawless Berbers.

RIGA (182), the third seaport of Russia and capital of Livonia, on the Dwina, 7 m. from its entrance into the Gulf of Riga (a s.p.a.cious inlet on the E. side of the Baltic); has some fine mediaeval buildings; is the seat of an archbishop, and is a busy and growing commercial and manufacturing town, exporting grain, timber, flax, linseed, wool, &c.

RIGDUM FUNNIDOS, Scott's nickname for JOHN BALLANTYNE (q. v.).

RIGHTS, DECLARATION OF, a declaration of the fundamental principles of the const.i.tution drawn up by the Parliament of England and submitted to William and Mary on their being called to the throne, and afterwards enacted in Parliament when they became king and queen. It secures to the people their rights as free-born citizens and to the Commons as their representatives, while it binds the sovereign to respect these rights as sacred.

RIGI, an isolated mountain, 5900 ft. high, in the Swiss canton of Schwyz, with a superb view from the summit, on which hotels have been built for the convenience of the many who visit it; is reached by two toothed railways with a gradient of 1 ft. in 4.

RIGVEDA, the first of the four sections into which the VEDAS (q. v.) are divided, and which includes the body of the hymns or verses of invocation and praises; believed to have issued from a narrow circle of priests, and subsequently recast many of them.

RIMINI (11, with suburbs 20), a walled city of N. Italy, of much historic interest both in ancient and mediaeval times, on the small river Marecchia, spanned by a fine Roman bridge close to its entrance into the Adriatic, 69 m. SE. of Bologna; has a 15th-century Renaissance cathedral, an ancient castle, and other mediaeval buildings, a Roman triumphal arch, &c.; manufactures silks and sail-cloth.

RIMMON, name of a Syrian G.o.d who had a temple at Damascus called the house of Rimmon, a symbol of the sun, or of the fertilising power of nature.

RINALDO, one of Charlemagne's paladins, of a violent, headstrong, and unscrupulous character, who fell into disgrace, but after adventures in the Holy Land was reconciled to the Emperor; Angelica, an infidel princess, fell violently in love with him, but he turned a deaf ear to her addresses, while others would have given kingdoms for her hand.

RINDERPEST or CATTLE PLAGUE, a fever of a malignant and contagious type; the occurrence of it in Britain is due to the importation of infected cattle from the Asiatic steppes.

RING AND THE BOOK, a poem by Browning of 20,000 lines, giving different versions of a story agreeably to and as an exhibition of the personalities of the different narrators.

RIO DE JANEIRO (423), capital and chief seaport of Brazil, charmingly situated on the E. coast of Brazil, on the W. sh.o.r.e of a s.p.a.cious and beautiful bay, 15 m. long, which forms one of the finest natural harbours in the world; stretches some 10 m. along the seaside, and is hemmed in by richly clad hills; streets are narrow and ill kept; possesses a large hospital, public library (180,000 vols.), botanical gardens, a.r.s.enal, school of medicine, electric tramways, &c.; has extensive docks, and transacts half the commerce of Brazil; coffee is the chief export; manufactures cotton, jute, silk, tobacco, &c. Great heat prevails in the summer, and yellow fever is common.

RIO GRANDE (known also as Rio Bravo del Norte), an important river of North America, rises in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado; flows SE., dividing Texas from Mexico, and enters the Gulf of Mexico after a course of 1800 m.; is navigable for steamboats some 500 m.; chief tributary, Rio Pecos; also the name given to the head-stream of the river Parana in Brazil and Argentina.

RIO GRANDE DO NORTE (310), a maritime State in the NE. corner of Brazil, called after the Rio Grande, which flows NE. and enters the Atlantic at Natal, the capital of the State.