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atoned for by the military reputation which alone at- illegal. The promise of conduct and capacity which tended it.

he displayed on this emergency was but ill answered in the sequel, and he very early showed a predilection for weak and dissolute company and the vicious indulgences so common to youthful royalty. In his sixteenth year he married Anne, daughter of the emperor Charles IV., and, soon after, was so injudicious as to take the great seal from Scroop for refusing to sanction certain extravagant grants of lands to his courtiers. Wars with France and Scotland, and the ambitious intrigues of the duke of Lancaster, disquieted some succeeding years.

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RICHARD II., king of England.-This unfor- The favourites of Richard were Michael de la tunate monarch, who was a son of Edward the Black Pole, earl of Suffolk and chancellor, and Robert de Prince, and grandson of Edward III., was born in Vere, earl of Oxford, the latter of whom he created 1366. He succeeded the latterin 1377, in his eleventh duke of Ireland, with entire sovereignty in that year, the chief authority of the state being in the island for life. The duke of Lancaster, being then hands of his three uncles, John of Gaunt, duke of absent, prosecuting his claim to the crown of Castile, Lancaster; Edmund, earl of Cambridge, afterwards the king's younger uncle, the duke of Gloucester, a duke of York; and Thomas of Woodstock, subse-prince of popular manners, and unprincipled ambiquently duke of Gloucester. The earlier years of the tion, became the leader of a formidable opposition, king's minority passed in wars with France and Scot- which procured an impeachment of the chancellor, land, the expense of which led to exactions that pro-and influenced the parliament so far that it produced the insurrection headed by Wat Tyler. Its ceeded to strip the king of all authority, and obliged termination in the death of its chief leader in Smith-him to sign a commission appointing a council of field, by the hand of the lord mayor of London, in the regency for a year. Being now in his twenty-first presence of the young king, afforded the latter an op- year, this measure was very galling to Richard, portunity to exhibit a degree of address and presence who, in concert with the duke of Ireland, found of mind which, in a youth of fifteen, was very remark- means to assemble a council of his friends at Notable. Whilst the rioters stood astonished at the fall tingham, where the judges unanimously declared of their leader, the young king calmly rode up to against the legality of the extorted commission. them, and declaring that he would be their leader, Gloucester, at these proceedings, mustered an army drew them off almost involuntarily into the neigh-in the vicinity of London, which being ineffectually bouring fields. In the mean time an armed force was opposed by a body of forces under the duke of Irecollected by the lord mayor and others, at the sight land, several of the king's friends were executed, of which the rioters fell on their knees and demanded and the judges who had given their opinion in his pardon, which was granted them on the condition of favour were all found guilty of high treason, and their immediate dispersion. Similar insurrections sentenced to imprisonment for life in Ireland. A took place in various parts of the kingdom, all of reaction was soon produced by the tyranny of the which were, however, put down, and Richard, now ascendant party; so that, in 1389, Richard was enmaster of an army of 40,000 men, collected by a ge-couraged to enter the council, and, in a resolute neral summons to all the retainers of the crown, found himself strong enough to punish the ringleaders with great severity, and to revoke all the charters and manumissions which he had granted as extorted and

tone, to declare that he was of full age to take the government into his own hands; and no opposition being ventured upon, he proceeded to turn out the duke of Gloucester and all his adherents. This act

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he rendered palatable to the nation by publishing a RICHARD III., king of England. This celegeneral amnesty, and remitting the grants of money brated monarch was born in 1450, and was the inade by the late parliament. Several years of in-youngest son of Richard duke of York. On the ternal tranquillity ensued, which was promoted by accession of his brother, Edward IV., he was created the return of the duke of Lancaster, who formed duke of Gloucester, and, during the early part of a counterbalance to the influence of the duke of Edward's reign, served him with great courage and Gloucester; and Richard prudently kept on the best fidelity. He partook of the ferocity which was ever terms with him. However, by his fondness for low a dark feature in the character of the Plantagenets; company, spending his time in conviviality, and and is said to have personally aided in the murder amusement with jesters and persons of light beha- of Edward prince of Wales, after the battle of Tewkesviour, the king forfeited the respect of his subjects, bury, and to have been the author, if not the pewhile his weak attachment to his favourites placed petrator, of the murder of Henry VI. in the Tower. all things at their disposal, and made a mere cipher This bloody disposition was, however, united in him of himself. with deep policy and dissimulation, which rendered hin still more dangerous. He married, in 1473,

Encouraged by these follies, the duke of Gloucester once more began to exercise his sinister influence, and, the most criminal designs being imputed to him, Richard caused him and his two chief supporters, the earls of Arundel and Warwick, to be arrested. The earl of Arundel was executed, and the earl of Warwick condemned to perpetual banishment. The duke of Gloucester had been sent over to Calais for safe custody, and was there suffocated. A quarrel between the duke of Hereford, son of John of Gaunt, and the duke of Norfolk, was the incidental cause of the revolution which terminated this unsettled reign. The king banished both the dukes-Norfolk for life, and Hereford for ten, afterwards reduced to six years. It was, however, declared that each of them should be duly entitled to any inheritance which might fall to them during their absence; but, on the death of John of Gaunt, in 1399, the unprincipled Richard seized his property as forfeited to the crown. The king having embarked for Ireland, to revenge the death of his cousin, the earl of March, who had been killed in a skirmish with the natives, Henry of Bolingbroke, as the duke of Hereford was now called, made use of this opportunity to land in Yorkshire, with a small body of forces, and, being joined by the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, and other influential leaders, proceeded southward, at the head of 60,000 men, nominally to recover his duchy of Lancaster. When Richard, upon this intelligence, landed at Milford Haven, he found himself so much deserted, that he withdrew to North Wales, with a design to escape to France. He was, however, decoyed to a conference with Henry, seized by an armed force, and led by his successful rival to London. As they entered the capital, Henry was hailed with the loudest acclamations, and the unfortunate Richard treated with neglect and even contumely. His deposition was now resolved upon, to be preceded by a forced resignation of the crown. Thirtyfive articles of accusation were accordingly drawn up against him, of which several were exaggerated, false, and frivolous, but others contained real instances of tyranny and misgovernment; and King Richard was solemnly deposed on the 30th of September, 1399. Henry then claimed the crown, which was awarded to him, and Richard was committed, for safe custody, to the castle of Pomfret. Of the manner of his death no certain account has been given; but a popular notion prevailed that his keeper and guards killed him with halberds. It is more probable that starvation or poison was had recourse to, for his body, when exposed, exhibited no marks of violence. He died in the thirty-fourth year of his age, and twenty-third of his reign.

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Anne, who had been betrothed to the murdered prince of Wales, joint heiress of the earl of Warwick, whose other daughter was united to the duke of Clarence. Quarrels arose between the brothers on the division of the inheritance of their wives; and Richard, who found his elder brother an obstacle to his views of aggrandizement, combined in the accusations against that weak and versatile prince, which brought him to destruction. On the death of Edward in 1483, the duke of Gloucester was appointed protector of the kingdom; and he immediately caused his nephew, the young Edward V., to be declared king, and took an oath of fealty to him. The two ascendant factions, that of the queen's relatives, headed by her brother, Earl Rivers, and that of the more ancient nobility, who were led by the duke of Buckingham and Lord Hastings, courted the favour of the protector, who dissembled with each, while he was secretly pursuing the schemes of his own dark ambition. His first object was to get rid of those who were connected with the young king by blood; and, after spending a convivial evening with Rivers, Grey, and Sir Thomas Vaughan, he had them arrested the next morning, and conveyed to Pomfret, where they were soon after executed without trial. Alarmed at the arrest of her relatives, the queen dowager took refuge in the sanctuary at Westminster, with her younger son, the duke of York, and her daughter. As it was necessary, for the protector's purposes, to get both his nephews

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into his hands, he persuaded two prelates to urge | whom had become the second husband of Margaret, the queen to deliver the duke of York into his hands, upon the most solemn assurances of safety. Lord Hastings, although opposed to the queen's relatives, being the steady friend of her children, was next arrested, while sitting in council, and led to immediate execution.

After this bold and bloody commencement, he proceeded in an attempt to establish the illegitimacy of Edward's children, on the pretence of a previous marriage with the lady Eleanor Talbot, daughter of the earl of Shrewsbury, and scrupled not to countenance an attack on the character of his own mother, who was affirmed to have given other fathers to Edward and Clarence, and to have been true to her husband only in the birth of Richard. All these pleas were dwelt upon in a sermon preached at St. Paul's cross. The duke of Buckingham afterwards, in a speech before the corporation and citizens of London, enlarged upon the title and virtues of the protector, and then ventured to ask them whether they chose the duke of Gloucester for king. On their silence, he repeated the question, and a few prepared voices exclaimed, "God save King Richard!" This was then accepted as the public voice, and Buckingham, with the lord mayor, repaired to the protector with a tender of the crown. He at first affected alarm and suspicion, and then pretended loyalty to his nephew, and unwillingness to take such a burden upon himself, but finally acceded; and he was proclaimed king on the 27th of June, 1483, the mock election being secured by bodies of armed men, brought to the metropolis by himself and Buckingham. The deposed king and his brother were never more heard of, and, according to general belief, they were smothered in the Tower of London, by order of their uncle. The new reign commenced with rewards to those who had been instrumental to the change, and with endeavours to obtain popularity. Richard, with a splendid retinue, made a progress through several provincial towns, and was crowned a second time at York, on which occasion he created his only son prince of Wales.

But hatred and abhorrence of Richard soon became the general sentiment of the nation, and all men's eyes were turned towards Henry earl of Richmond, maternally descended from the Somerset branch of the house of Lancaster. Buckingham, not thinking himself adequately rewarded, entered into a conspiracy against him, with other malcontents in the south and west of England, but was suddenly deserted by his followers, betrayed into the hands of the king, and executed without trial. About the same time, the earl of Richmond, who had embarked with a fleet from St. Malo, encountered a violent storm, and was obliged to return. The death of his son, the prince of Wales, was a severe stroke to Richard; and such was the odium attached to his character, that the death of his wife, which followed soon after, was, without the least evidence, attributed to poison. He immediately determined to marry his niece Elizabeth, the daughter of his brother Edward, and legitimate heiress of the crown, in order to prevent her union with Richmond. In August 1485, Richmond landed with a small army at Milford Haven. Richard, not knowing in what quarter to expect him, was thrown into much perplexity, which was aggravated by his suspicion of the fidelity of his nobles, and especially the Stanleys, the chief of

the earl of Richmond's mother. When informed of the advance of his rival, he, however, took the field with great expedition, and met him with an army of 15,000 men at Bosworth, in Leicestershire. Richmond had only 6000 men, but relied on the secret assurances of aid from Stanley, who commanded a separate force of 7000. The battle was fought on the 23rd of August, 1485; and, in the midst of it, Stanley, by falling on the flank of the royal army, secured the victory to Richmond. Richard, finding his situation desperate, rushed against his competitor, slew his standard-bearer, and was on the point of encountering Richmond himself, when he sunk under the number of his assailants. The body of Richard was found in the field stripped naked, in which condition it was carried across a horse to Leicester, and interred in the Grey Friars' churchyard. Thus fell Richard in his thirty-fifth year, after possessing the crown, which he had acquired by so many crimes, for two years and two months. Richard possessed courage, capacity, eloquence, and most of the talents which would have adorned a lawful throne. Many of his bad qualities have probably been exaggerated, but undeniable facts prove his cruelty, dissimulation, treachery, and relentless ambition. We subjoin the autograph of this monarch

Picarde & Re

RICHARD, a learned English physician, who lived about 1230. He studied first at Oxford, and then at Paris. He left many valuable MSS., which are in New College library, Oxford.

RICHARD, abbot of St. Victor, an ecclesiastic of the twelfth century, who was a native of Scotland. After such education as his country afforded, in literature and mathematics, which we are told were the objects of his early studies, he went, as was then the custom, to Paris. Here the fame of Hugh, abbot of St. Victor, induced him to retire into that monastery, that he might pursue his theological studies under so great a master. At the regular period he took the habit, was admitted into holy orders, and stood so high in the opinion of his brethren, that in 1164, upon the death of Hugh, they unanimously chose him their prior, in which station he remained until his death, in 1173. During this time he composed many treatises on subjects of practical divinity, and on scripture criticism, particularly on the description of Solomon's temple, Ezekiel's temple, and on the apparent contradictions in the books of Kings and Chronicles, respecting the reigns of the kings of Judah and Israel.

RICHARD OF CIRENCESTER, an early English historian who was named after his birthplace. Little is known of his early history, but in 1350 he entered the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter's, Westminster, and immediately directed his attention to the study of British and Anglo-Saxon antiquities and history, in which he made such progress that he is said to have been honoured with the name of the Historiographer. Pits informs us, that Richard visited dif

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RICHARDSON, SAMUEL.

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watching or sitting up, to perform my duty to him in the day time."

Several years more were spent in the obscure drudgery of the printing-office ere Richardson took out his freedom and set up as a master printer. His talents for literature were soon discovered, and, in addition to his proper business, he used to oblige the booksellers by furnishing them with prefaces, dedications, and such like garnishing of the works submitted to his press. He printed several of the popular periodical papers of the day; and at length, through the interest of Mr. Onslow, the speaker, obtained the lucrative employment of printing the journals of the house of commons, by which he must have reaped considerable advantages. Punctual in his engagements, and careful in the superintendence of his business, fortune and respect, its sure accompaniments, began to flow in upon Richardson. In 1754 he was chosen master of the stationers' company, and in 1760 he purchased a moiety of the patent of printer to the king, which seems to have added considerably to his revenue.

ferent libraries and ecclesiastical establishments in England, in order to collect materials. It is at least certain that he obtained a license to visit Rome, from his abbot, William of Colchester, in 1391, and there can be little doubt that a man of his curiosity would improve his knowledge on such an occasion. He is supposed to have performed this journey in the interval between 1391 and 1397, for he appears to have been confined in the abbey infirmary in 1401, and died in that or the following year. His works are, Historia ab Hengista ad ann. 1348," in two parts. The first contains the period from the coming of the Saxons to the death of Harold, and is preserved in the public library of Cambridge. Whitaker, the historian of Manchester, speaks of this as evincing very little knowledge or judgment; the second part is a MS., with the title of Britonum Anglorum et Saxonum Historia." His theological writings were, "Tractatus super Symbolum Majus et Minus," and "Liber de Officiis Ecclesiasticis," in the Peterborough library. But the treatise to which he owes his celebrity is that on the ancient state of Great Britain, "De Situ Britanniæ," first discovered Mr. Richardson was twice married, first to Allingby Charles Julius Bertram, professor of the English ton Wilde, his master's daughter, and after her death language in the royal marine academy at Copen-in 1731, to the sister of James Leake, bookseller, who hagen, who transmitted to Dr. Stukeley a transcript survived her distinguished husband. He has made a of the whole in letters, together with a copy of the feeling commemoration of the family misfortunes map. In the same year the original itself was pub- which he sustained, in a letter to Lady Bradshaigh. lished by Professor Bertram at Copenhagen, in a "I told you, madam, that I have been married twice, small octavo volume, with the remains of Gildas and both times happily; you will guess so, as to my first, Nennius, under the title "Britannicarum Gentium when I tell you that I cherish the memory of my lost Historia Antiquæ Scriptores Tres, Ricardus Corinen- wife to this hour; and as to the second, when I assis, Gildas Badonicus, Nennius Banchorensis," &c. sure you that I can do so without derogating from This work has long been scarce, and in very few the merits of, or being disallowed by, my present, libraries; but in 1809, a new edition, with an Eng- who speaks of her on all occasions as respectfully and lish translation, &c., was published. affectionately as I do myself. By my first wife I had five sons and one daughter; some of them living to be delightful prattlers, with all the appearance of sound health, lively in their features, and promising as to their minds; and the death of one of them I doubt, accelerating, from grief, that of the otherwise laudably afflicted mother. I have had, by my present wife, five girls and one boy; I have buried of these the promising boy and one girl: four girls I have living, all at present very good; their mother a true and instructing mother to them. Thus have I lost six sons (all my sons), and two daughters; every one of which, to answer your question, I parted with with the utmost regret. Other heavy deprivations of friends, very near and very dear, have I also suffered. I am very susceptible, I will venture to say, of impressions of this nature. A father, an honest worthy father, I lost by the accident of a broken thigh, snapped by a sudden jerk, endeavouring to recover a slip, passing through his own yard. My father, whom I attended through every stage of his last illness, I long mourned for. Two brothers, very dear to me, I lost abroad. A friend, more valuable than most brothers, was taken from me. No less than eleven affecting deaths in two years! My nerves were so affected with these repeated blows, that I have been forced, after trying the whole materia medica, and consulting many physicians, as the only palliative (not a remedy to be expected), to go into a regimen ; and for seven years past have I forborne wine and flesh, and fish; and at this time I and all my family are in mourning for a good sister, with whom neither I would have parted could I have had my choice From these affecting dispensations, will you not allow

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RICHARDSON, SAMUEL-But few novelists in this country have attained the same degree of popularity as this amiable and well-intentioned writer. The great business of his life appears to have been the instruction and moral improvement of the female sex; and though the improved tone of writing in the present day has rendered it advisable to prune some of his pages, his works yet rank amongst the best literary productions of the last century. Mr. Richardson was born in 1689, and his father was in very humble circumstances; so much so, indeed, that his education was much neglected. In 1706 he was apprenticed to Mr. Wilde, a printer, and here he paid the greatest attention to the duties of the office; but we cannot do better than take his own words, when speaking of his initiation into the typographical art: "I served," he says, a diligent seven years to it; to a master who grudged every hour to me that tended not to his profit: even of those times of leisure and diversion which the refractoriness of my fellow servants obliged him to allow them, and were usually allowed by other masters to their apprentices. I stole from the hours of rest and relaxation my reading times, for the improvement of my mind; and being engaged in a correspondence with a gentleman greatly my superior in degree, and of ample fortune, who, had he lived, intended high things for me, those were all the opportunities I had in my apprenticeship to carry it on. But this little incident I may mention: I took care that even my candle was of my own purchasing, that I might not, in the most trifling instance, make my master a sufferer (and who used to call me the pillar of his house); and not to disable myself, by

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me, madam, to remind an unthinking world, immersed in pleasures, what a life this is that they are so fond of, and to arm them against the affecting changes of it?"

Jance seems to have prevented his doing entire justice to the claims of others. He appears to have been rather too prone to believe ill of those authors against whose works exceptions, in point of delicacy, might It has been justly observed, that the predominant justly be taken. He has inserted in his Correspondfailing of Richardson seems certainly to have been ence an account of Swift's earlier life, highly injuvanity-vanity naturally excited by his great and un-rious to the character of that eminent writer; and paralleled popularity at home and abroad, and by the which the industry of Dr. Barret has since shown to continual and concentred admiration of the circle in be a gross misrepresentation. The same tone of feelwhich he lived. Such a weakness finds root in the ing has made him denounce, with the utmost sevemind of every one who has obtained general ap-rity, the indecorum of "Tristram Shandy," without plause; but Richardson fostered and indulged its that tribute of applause which, in every view of the growth, which a man of firmer character would have case, was so justly due to the genius of the author. crushed and restrained. The cup of Circe converted Richardson is well known for his literary correspondmen into beasts; and that of praise, when deeply and ence; and Lady Bradshaigh, to gratify the strong eagerly drained, seldom fails to make wise men in propensity she felt to engage in literary intercourse some degree fools. There seems to have been a want with an author of his distinction, had recourse to the of masculine firmness in Richardson's habits of think-romantic expedient of entering into correspondence ing, which combined with his natural tenderness of with him under an assumed name, and with all the heart in inducing him to prefer the society of women; precautions against discovery which are sometimes and women, from the quickness of their feelings, as resorted to for less honest purposes. Richardson and well as their natural desire to please, are always the his incognita maintained a close exchange of letters, admirers, or rather the idolaters, of genius, and gene- until they seem on both sides to have grown desirous rally its willing flatterers. Richardson was in the of becoming personally known to each other; and the daily habit of seeing, conversing, and corresponding author was induced to walk in the Park at a particuwith many of the fair sex; and the unvaried and, itlar hour, and to send an accurate description of his would seem, the inexhaustible theme, was his own person, that his fair correspondent might be able, herwritings. Hence Johnson, whose loftier pride never self unknown, to distinguish him from the vulgar herd suffered him to cherish the meaner foible of vanity, of passengers. The following portrait exhibits all the has passed upon Richardson, after a just tribute to his graphical accuracy with which the author was accusworth, the severe sentence recorded by Boswell:- tomed to detail the appearance of his imaginary per"I only remember that he expressed a high value for sonages, and is at the same time very valuable, as it his talents and virtues, but that his perpetual study describes a man of genius in whom great powers of was to ward off petty inconveniences, and to procure observing life and manners were combined with bashpetty pleasures; that his love of continual superiority ful and retired habits:-" I go through the Park once was such that he took care always to be surrounded or twice a week to my little retirement; but I will for by women, who listened to him implicitly, and did a week together be in it every day three or four hours, not venture to contradict his opinions; and that his at your command, till you tell me you have seen a desire of distinction was so great that he used to give person who answers to this description; namely, large vails to Speaker Onslow's servants that they short; rather plump than emaciated, notwithstanding might treat him with respect." An anecdote which his complaints; about five feet five inches; fair wig; seems to confirm Johnson's statement, is given by lightish cloth coat, all black besides; one hand geneBoswell, on authority of a lady who was present when rally in his bosom, the other a cane in it, which he the circumstances took place. A gentleman who had leans upon under the skirts of his coat usually, that recently been at Paris, sought, while in a large com- it may imperceptibly serve him as a support when atpany at Richardson's villa of North-End, to gratify tacked by sudden tremors or startings, and dizziness, the landlord by informing him that he had seen his which too frequently attack him, but, thank God, not "Clarissa" lying on the king's brother's table. Rich- so often as formerly; looking directly fore-right, as ardson, observing that a part of the company were passers-by would imagine, but observing all that engaged in conversation apart, affected not to hear stirs on either hand of him without moving his short what had been said, but took advantage of the first neck; hardly ever turning back; of a light brown general pause to address the gentleman with, "Sir, complexion; teeth not yet failing him; smoothishI think you were saying something about-;" and faced and ruddy-cheeked; at some times looking to then stopped, in a flutter of expectation, which his be about sixty-five, at other times much younger; a guest mortified by replying:-"A mere trifle, Sir, regular even pace, stealing away ground rather than not worth repeating." The truth seems to be, that seeming to rid it; a grey eye, too often overclouded Richardson, by nature shy, and of a nervous consti- by mistiness from the head; by chance lively; very tution, limited also by a very narrow education, cared lively it will be if he have hope of seeing a lady whom not to encounter in conversation with those rougher he loves and honours; his eye always on the ladies; spirits of the age, where criticism might have had if they have very large hoops, he looks down and sutoo much severity in it. percilious, and as if he would be thought wise, but perhaps the sillier for that; as he approaches a lady his eye is never fixed upon her face, but upon her feet, and thence he raises it up pretty quickly for a dull eye; and one would think (if we thought him at all worthy of observation), that from her air, and (the last beheld) her face, he sets her down in his mind as so or so, and then passes on to the next object he meets; only then looking back if he greatly likes or

An appetite for praise, and an over-indulgence of that appetite, not only teaches an author to be gratified with the applause of the unworthy, and to prefer it to the censure of the wise; but it leads to the less pardonable error of begrudging to others their due share of public favour. Richardson was too good, too kind a man to let literary envy settle deep in his bosom; yet an overweening sense of his own import

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