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sects which grudgingly accepted a peace of exhaustion in the 18th century.

See also ENGLISH REFORMATION.

regency

In the event of minority or illness or incapacity of the sovereign, a regent might rule in his/her stead. Henry III (1216) succeeded at nine months of age, RICHARD II was only 10 years old (1377), HENRY VI suffered a mental collapse in 1453, EDWARD V was only 12 when he was presumably murdered by his uncle (and “protector”) RICHARD III, and EDWARD VI was a minor in 1547. GEORGE III suffered a series of illnesses, and his son George became prince regent from 1811. The latter gave his name to the “regency period” (1811–20), which was marked by the contrast between the prince’s elegant world of high fashion and the agonies of the soldiers and sailors fighting France as well as people at home struggling to survive economic distress.

Reith, John Reith, baron (1889–1971) director general of the BBC

Lord Reith was the first manager of the British Broadcasting Company (1922), then director

general of the BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORA-

TION (1927). He oversaw the development of the BBC as a national institution, maintaining its political neutrality and its educational function. After brief service with British Overseas Airways, he held posts in Winston CHURCHILL’s wartime cabinet from 1940 to 1942.

Renaissance

The rebirth of art and literature, beginning in 14th-century Italy and expanding across western Europe, generating a period and movement of heightened intellectual creativity inspired by classical Greece and Rome. GREAT BRITAIN’s Renaissance came rather later on the time scale of the continent, generally in the 16th century. Important pioneers included the earliest patron, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester (1390–1447); the

early linguists William Grocyn and Thomas Linacre; and the model humanists John COLET and Thomas MORE. In drama, poetry, and the arts, the era of Queen ELIZABETH I contained the greatest number of figures, many of them migrants or exiles from the continent.

reparations

At the end of WORLD WAR I, the deep revulsion at the loss of life and the destruction of property created a vengeful demand for compensation. In the Treaty of VERSAILLES in 1919, Germany was forced to accept a clause in which she admitted guilt for beginning the war, and that became the basis for the assessment of reparations. The amounts sought were subject to complex calculation, which in fact was only completed by the Reparations Commission in 1921. The total arrived at was £6.6 billion, but it soon became apparent that the postwar German economy could not pay such an astronomical amount. After reductions in 1924 and 1929, the payments were canceled in 1932. Nevertheless, the whole experience managed to create profound hostility on all sides. Following WORLD WAR II, in 1945 the western powers decided to emphasize reconstruction, whereas the Soviet Union stripped its zone of occupation in Germany of a large quantity of capital equipment.

Restoration

CHARLES II was returned to his thrones in EN-

GLAND, SCOTLAND, and IRELAND in 1660. This set-

tlement was made possible by the breakdown of authority in England after Oliver CROMWELL’s death and the failure of the political groups there to produce a viable government. Thus, when George MONCK led his army from Scotland in 1660, he was able to enter LONDON and collect enough support to summon a meeting of the surviving members of the LONG PARLIAMENT. It dissolved itelf, calling for the election of a CON- VENTION Parliament. That body was assured by the declaration of BREDA that there would be no retribution, and it invited Charles to return. When he arrived in May 1660, there was a very

general acceptance of the monarchy. All institutions, except the courts of STAR CHAMBER and HIGH COMMISSION, were restored, and at the end of the year the king issued WRITS for the election

of a new PARLIAMENT.

Restraint of Appeals, Act in (1533)

HENRY VIII authored this act, which declared that no legal appeals could be taken from ENGLAND to Rome. This terminated papal authority in England, and it allowed the king’s divorce from CATHERINE OF ARAGAON to proceed. This was also part of the foundation for ROYAL SUPREMACY, which would be declared in the following year.

See also CROMWELL, THOMAS.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua (1723–1792) painter

Reynolds was born in Devonshire; his father was a clergyman and a schoolmaster. He was apprenticed to Thomas Hudson, a leading painter, and he later studied in Italy (1748–51). The leading portrait painter of the 18th century, Reynolds became the first president of the ROYAL ACADEMY in 1768. His nearly 2,000 portraits included most of the notable figures of his time. A number of those were members of the Literary Club, a group he had formed in 1764 that included Samuel JOHNSON, Edmund BURKE, Adam SMITH, and Edward GIBBON.

Rhodes, Cecil John (1853–1902) imperialist

The son of a vicar, Rhodes went to SOUTH AFRICA for health reasons, and he subsequently made a fortune in the diamond fields of Kimberley. After returning to study at OXFORD UNIVERSITY he went back to Africa and founded the De Beers company (1880). He then entered the gold business and began to look beyond to political horizons. His British South Africa Company received a charter for extensive lands (1889) which became RHODESIA. Rhodes was prime minister of the CAPE COLONY in 1890, but he had to resign the post

Cecil John Rhodes (Library of Congress)

after the JAMESON RAID (1895) had raised the possibility that he was fomenting rebellion in the Boer Republics. When he died he endowed a group of 170 scholarships at Oxford for Americans, Germans, and British colonists.

See also BOER WAR.

Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)

Part of southern AFRICA, bordering BECHUANA- LAND, Congo, TANGANYIKA, and Mozambique, Rhodesia was first controlled by the British South Africa Company. The northern part became ZAMBIA (1964), and the remainder— Rhodesia—attempted to maintain all-white rule, departing from the Commonwealth in 1965. The black majority gained control of the new state of Zimbabwe in 1980.

Ricardo, David (1772–1823) economist

The younger son of a Dutch Jew who had been a successful LONDON businessman, Ricardo went

to work in his father’s business at age 14. He prospered and later became a highly important economic theorist. He conceived the law of rent, which explained the relation of capital, labor, and profits in land. His theory of comparative advantage was the essential underpinning of the arguments for FREE TRADE. In his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817), Ricardo explained the labor theory of value, an argument that was to play a central role in the theoretical work of Karl Marx and others.

Richard II (1367–1400) king of England, 1377–1399

Son of Edward, the Black Prince, and grandson of EDWARD III, Richard came to the throne as a boy of 10. He was under the tutelage of his uncle John of Gaunt, and his reign was marked by severe internal and external problems. In 1381 the PEASANTS’ REVOLT was triggered by a POLL TAX, rebels marched on the capital, and the boy king showed great courage in going before them and demanding their loyalty. The rebellion was dispersed, and the leaders were executed. However, Richard did not fare so well with his noblemen. He was overly generous with PATRONAGE to his close advisers, and he was not careful to balance the factions at court. In 1386 his favorites were attacked by PARLIAMENT and outlawed. Richard waited until 1397 to exact vengeance by executions and banishments. The son and heir of Gaunt was Henry of Lancaster (later HENRY IV). Richard confiscated his estates in 1399, forcing Henry to act. He led an invasion while Richard was in IRELAND, captured the king, and forced him to abdicate.

Richard III (1452–1485) king of England, 1483–1485

The younger brother of EDWARD IV, Richard had been a loyal and powerful leader in the north of ENGLAND. When the king died, he left two sons, Edward and Richard. Their uncle made himself protector of the young EDWARD V (age 12), but soon after he had the two princes imprisoned in

the TOWER OF LONDON and seized the throne for himself. The princes were probably later murdered at Richard’s order; certainly he executed leaders of hostile factions and defeated a revolt by the duke of Buckingham, who was also executed. However, Henry Tudor (later HENRY VII) led an army from France and WALES which defeated Richard at the Battle of BOSWORTH. The TUDOR dynasty was established, and it was in their interest to portray Richard as evil personified (as in the works of Thomas MORE, Polydore Vergil, and William SHAKESPEARE). His career made their task fairly easy.

Ridley, Nicholas (1500–1555) bishop

One of the leading Protestant reformers in the reign of EDWARD VI, Ridley had been one of the drafters of the BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER in 1549, and he promoted the more extreme prayer book of 1552. BISHOP of Rochester and then LONDON, he was a supporter of Lady Jane GREY. After MARY I’s accession he was deprived of office. With fellow reformers Thomas CRANMER and Hugh LATIMER, he entered a disputation at OXFORD UNIVERSITY against Catholic churchmen, and after the inevitable defeat he was burned for heresy.

Ridolfi plot (1571)

Roberto Ridolfi was an Italian banker who lived in LONDON. He conspired with English Catholics and with Spain to free MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, and place her on the throne; the heretic queen ELIZ- ABETH I, who had just been excommunicated, would be murdered. Agents of Lord Burghley (William CECIL) uncovered the plot, and one of the plotters, Thomas HOWARD, duke of Norfolk, was executed. Ridolfi escaped and was never punished.

Riot Act (1715)

In fear of JACOBITE resistance, PARLIAMENT enacted this law to strengthen the authorities. The

Riot Act stated that when a JUSTICE OF THE PEACE ordered a crowd to disperse, those who did not do so within an hour were guilty of a felony and thus liable to the death penalty. “Reading the riot act” became a common expression, though in practice it was very difficult to implement. The act also indemnified officials—that is, it promised them immunity from future legal action for their conduct in these circumstances. The repressive potential of the law was seldom realized, as MAG- ISTRATEs, and troops who might be called upon to shoot at rioters, were often reluctant to act. The Riot Act was last used in 1919, and it was repealed in 1967.

Ripon, Frederick John Robinson,

first earl of See GODERICH, FREDERICK JOHN ROBINSON, VISCOUNT.

Rizzio, David (1533–1566) court musician, secretary

Rizzio was an Italian musician who came to SCOTLAND in 1561 as a member of a diplomatic mission. He became a servant to MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, and later her secretary. He was also the object of suspicion for a group of Scots nobles, led by Henry Stewart, Lord DARNLEY, the queen’s husband. In 1566 he was seized by Darnley and others in the presence of the thenpregnant queen, dragged away, and stabbed to death.

roads

The first system of roads in BRITAIN was built by the Romans. They allowed fairly rapid movement from the center in LONDON over a network of about 5,000 miles of roadways. Some of these still survive, and until the 18th century they were the best overland routes available. Little had been done to develop road transport for over a millenium, not only because the skills were lost and the costs were prohibitive, but also because the island made extensive use of coastal shipping and river traffic. However, the rise of

industrial towns and the need to move heavy loads of coal and iron stimulated the rise of TURNPIKE trusts in the 18th century, which provided 15,000 miles of roadways by 1770. The engineering work of Thomas TELFORD and John MACADAM fostered a period of extensive road improvement and the growth of coach travel in the early 19th century. This was overtaken by the RAILWAY boom, but in the early 20th century the motor car inspired yet another burst of activity. Speed limits rose from four mph in 1865 (for steam-driven vehicles) to 14 mph in 1896 to 20 mph in 1903. In the 1920s there was a rapid increase in traffic and further extension of paved roads. The period after 1945 saw the greatest growth yet, and by the 1960s the limited-access motorways triggered a quadrupling of passenger miles traveled between 1950 and 1990.

Roberts of Kandahar, Frederick Sleigh Roberts, first earl (1832–1914)

field marshal

The son of an Anglo-Irish general, Lord Roberts served in INDIA for most of the period 1851–93. He fought in the INDIAN MUTINY and the second AFGHAN WAR and then commanded forces in India, and later in IRELAND (1895). He took the post of commander in chief of the forces in SOUTH AFRICA in 1900, where he captured the Boer capitals of Bloemfontein and Pretoria during th BOER WAR. After turning over his command to Herbert KITCHENER, he returned and assumed the post of commander-in-chief of the British ARMY (1901–04).

Robin Hood

The legendary hero first appears in William Langland’s Piers Plowman (1377), and other English and Scottish sources pick up the story in the early 1400s. Robin allegedly lived during the time of Richard I, in the 1190s, when his brother John was governing, or misgoverning, ENGLAND. There is a record of a fugitive in Yorkshire named Robin Hood in a pipe roll of 1230, but the most common locale of the stories is Sher-

wood Forest in Nottingham. The tales emerge from the period of wide peasant unrest in the later 14th century, and they evoke a sense of rough justice against oppressive aristocrats.

Rochdale Pioneers

Workers who opened a cooperative shop in Toad Lane, Rochdale, in 1844. They distributed profits to themselves in dividend payments. The origin of the idea has been ascribed to Robert OWEN and to the advocates of self-help like Samuel SMILES and George Holyoake, who lectured to workers. This example was adopted in growing numbers of shops and in larger enterprises over the next few decades.

See also COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT.

Rockingham, Charles Wentworth, marquis of (1730–1782)

prime minister, 1765–1766, 1782

A WHIG leader who succeeded George GRENVILLE as PRIME MINISTER, Rockingham opposed the war with the AMERICAN COLONIES. His government repealed the STAMP ACT, but it also authored the DECLARATORY ACT in 1766. Leader of the opposition to Lord NORTH, he again took office at the end of the American war. He had begun peace negotiations, had arranged concessions to Henry

GRATTAN’s PARLIAMENT in IRELAND, and he was

introducing the ECONOMICAL REFORMS proposed by Edmund BURKE and others when he died in office.

Rodney, George (1719–1792) admiral

Born in LONDON, Rodney attended Harrow, but at the age of 14 he joined the NAVY. He became a captain at 23, and during the SEVEN YEARS’ WAR he captured St. Lucia and Grenada (1762). During the American Revolution he led a relief force to GIBRALTAR, and he won the Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1780). He then saved the COLONY of JAMAICA by his victory in the Battle of the Saints (off Dominica), where the British destroyed sev-

eral French ships, caused several thousand casualties, and captured the French admiral François, comte de Grasse.

Roebuck, John Arthur (1801–1879) radical

Born in Madras and educated in CANADA, Roebuck became a BARRISTER, and he served as agent in ENGLAND for the house of assembly of Lower Canada. He regarded himself an independent member, which was appropriate as his causes did not fit into neat categories. One of the followers of Jeremy BENTHAM, he proposed state schools, endorsed the new POOR LAW, and was a party to the drafting of the People’s Charter (see

CHARTIST MOVEMENT). He was a supporter of CIVIL SERVICE reform and a foe of the FACTORY ACTS and TRADE UNIONs. A critic of the CRIMEAN WAR,

he promoted colonization and became a supporter of Benjamin DISRAELI’s imperialism. He became a privy councillor in 1878.

romanticism

Artistic and intellectual movement from around 1770 to 1830. In reaction to the neoclassical period of the 18th century, romanticism explored the world of nature, emotion, and imagination. Some of its sources were medieval romance literature and the supernatural, as well as the aspirations of revolutions in America and France and national movements in Europe. Early figures of the romantic movement in Britain were William WORDSWORTH, Samuel Taylor COLERIDGE, William BLAKE, and Robert BURNS. Later, Lord BYRON, Percy Bysshe SHELLEY, and John KEATS seemed to live out careers reflecting the passion of the movement.

Romilly, Sir Samuel (1757–1818) law reformer

Romilly was born into a Huguenot family; his father was a jeweler. Thanks to an inheritance from a relative, Romilly was able to study LAW. Called to the bar in 1783, he was a champion of

enlightened ideas on the law, and he wrote tracts promoting CRIMINAL LAW reform in the 1780s. As his early support for the French revolution faded, he became solicitor general in 1806 and entered PARLIAMENT. He continued to advocate criminal law reform and supported slavery

abolition and CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. He was

able to get statutes passed to remove the death penalty from some offenses. He wrote Observations on the Criminal Law of England as it relates to Capital Punishment (1810). When his wife died in 1818, he committed suicide.

Rosebery, Archibald Primrose, earl of (1847–1929)

prime minister, 1894–1895

A wealthy peer from SCOTLAND, Lord Rosebery rose to the leadership of the LIBERAL PARTY under William GLADSTONE, whom he served at the HOME OFFICE. He helped with the creation of the Scottish office and later was foreign secretary. When he replaced Gladstone as party leader and PRIME MINISTER in 1894, he encountered serious divisions within the party and was unable to overcome them. He resigned after a defeat in the

HOUSE OF COMMONS in 1895.

Roses, Wars of the (1455–1485)

The struggles between aristocratic factions—the house of YORK (white) and the house of LANCAS- TER (red)—for the succession to the English throne in the later 15th century. The name was given by Sir Walter SCOTT in the 19th century. There was in fact a series of skirmishes: first a struggle over the failing rule (and mental capacity) of HENRY VI (1455–61), which ended in his deposition and the installation of

(York). Then in 1469–71, that king was ousted by his former allies and the late queen (MAR- GARET OF ANJOU), but he returned and destroyed his enemies at the Battle of TEWKESBURY. A third phase might be seen between the coup of RICHARD III (1483) and the establishment of HENRY VII (1487). In this period of three decades

there was probably less than a year and a half of fighting, involving modest casualties and limited loss of property in the aggregate. But the deaths of many aristocrats and the absence of law and order boosted support for the TUDOR king, HENRY VII, a Lancastrian who married the daughter of EDWARD IV, thus uniting the two lines and resolving this cause of civil warfare.

Rothermere, Harold Harmsworth, viscount (1868–1940)

newspaperman

The brother of Lord NORTHCLIFFE, Lord Rothermere was the financial manager of the Amalgamated Press. He produced LONDON’s first illustrated Sunday paper, the Sunday Pictorial (1915). In WORLD WAR I he was the head of the Ministry for Air in 1917. When his brother died in 1922, he assumed control of the Associated Newspapers. He freely expressed his fascist sympathies in writing for the Daily Mail.

Rothschild, Lionel Nathan, baron de (1808–1879)

banker

The first Jew to be elected to PARLIAMENT (1847), Rothschild was not allowed to take his seat as he would not take the parliamentary oath “on the true faith of a Christian.” He was reelected five times and finally seated in 1858, when the law changed. Nathan, baron Rothschild (1840–1915), was his son, and he became the first Jewish member of the HOUSE OF LORDS (1885).

rotten borough

The term applied to those parliamentary BOR- OUGHs which over time had either been depopulated or had become the sole property of a landowner, who thus had the nomination of the borough in his pocket. They were thus also called “nomination,” or “pocket” boroughs. William PITT the elder had called them “the rotten part of the constitution.”