at Vienna. An excursion to Babylon in 1811 bore fruit in the ‘Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon,’ originally contributed to the ‘Mines d'Orient,’ but reprinted at London in 1815 (3rd edit. 1818), and amplified, after a second visit to the site, in the ‘Second Memoir on Babylon’ (London, 1818).
In 1813 ill-health compelled Rich and his wife to go for change of air to Constantinople, where he stayed with Sir Robert Liston [q. v.], the ambassador, and in 1814 he prolonged his journey through the Balkan provinces to Vienna, and thence to Paris, then in the hands of the allies. Upon his return through Asia Minor and Mesopotamia to Baghdad, he resumed his studies and collections, made his second visit to Babylon, and in 1820, being again in bad health, travelled in Kurdistan. This tour is the subject of his most important and notable work, ‘Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan and on the site of Ancient Nineveh, with Journal of a Voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad, and an Account of a Visit to Shirauz and Persepolis’ (London, 2 vols. 1836). The work is still valuable, not merely as the first geographical and archæological account of the region in the present century, but as an interesting and suggestive narrative of travel. It is stated that Rich had been appointed to an important office at Bombay by Mountstuart Elphinstone, when he was attacked by cholera, during a visit to Shirâz, while exerting himself to help the sick and allay the panic among the inhabitants. His promising career was thus cut short at the age of thirty-three, on 5 Oct. 1820. He lies in the Jân Numâ, one of the royal gardens at Shirâz, in which he was living at the time of his death.
His collections were purchased by the trustees of the British Museum, and consisted of ‘about nine hundred volumes of manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, and a great number in Chaldee and Syriac … highly rated by Mr. Colebrooke and Dr. Wilkins’ (Trustees' Original Letters, Brit. Mus. vol. v.); a large collection of coins, Greek and oriental; gems, and antiquities dug up at Babylon and Nineveh, including the first cuneiform inscriptions ever brought to Europe. Rich's portrait, presented by his widow, hangs in the students' room of the manuscript department in the British Museum.
[Authorities cited above.]
RICH, EDMUND (1170?–1240), archbishop of Canterbury. [See Edmund, Saint.]
RICH, HENRY, Earl of Holland (1590–1649), baptised at the church of Stratford-le-Bow, London, on 19 Aug. 1590, was second son of Robert, first earl of Warwick, by his wife, Penelope Rich [q. v.] Robert Rich, second earl of Warwick [q. v.], was his elder brother. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, was knighted on 3 June 1610, and was elected M.P. for Leicester in 1610 and 1614 (Doyle, Official Baronage, ii. 207). In 1610 he served as a gentleman volunteer at the siege of Juliers (Dalton, Life of Sir Edward Cecil, i. 179). Rich was more qualified to succeed as a courtier than as a soldier, and his handsome person and winning manners made his rise rapid. ‘His features and pleasant aspect equalled the most beautiful women’ (Wilson, History of the Reign of James I, p. 162). From the first James regarded him with favour which sometimes found expression in gifts of money, sometimes in unpleasing caresses (ib. p. 76; Secret History of the Court of James I, 1811, i. 276). He was made gentleman of the bedchamber to Charles, prince of Wales, and on 5 Nov. 1617 captain of the yeomen of the guard (Doyle, ii. 207). On 8 March 1623 he was created Baron Kensington, that title being selected because he had married Isabel, daughter and heiress of Sir Walter Cope of Kensington (Clarendon, Rebellion, i. 137–40). In February 1624 he was sent to Paris to sound the French court on the question of a marriage between Prince Charles and the Princess Henrietta Maria. He proved acceptable to the queen-mother and the court, sent home glowing descriptions of the beauty of the princess, and made love as the prince's representative with great spirit and fluency (Cabala, ed. 1691, p. 286). On his own account he also made love to Madame de Chevreuse (Cousin, Madame de Chevreuse, p. 15). But when it came to drawing up a marriage treaty, Kensington showed his incapacity to deal with the political questions raised by the alliance which was to accompany the match. He was ‘careless of any considerations beyond the success of the marriage,’ and willing to comply with the demand of the French for an engagement to tolerate the English catholics, though well aware that the king was pledged against it. His letters contrast most unfavourably with those of Carlisle, his partner in the embassy (Clarendon State Papers, ii. Appendix, ii.–xxi.; Hardwicke State Papers, i. 523–70; Gardiner, History of England, v. 215–63). As a reward for his pliability to Buckingham's wishes, he was raised to the rank of Earl of Holland (15 Sept. 1624). He was again sent to Paris (conjointly with Sir Dudley Carleton) in 1625 to negotiate a peace between Louis XIII and the Huguenots, and in the same year accompanied Buckingham on a mission to the Netherlands (ib. vi. 34, 39; Cabala, pp. 230–3). He was elected K.G. on 13 Dec. 1625.
In October 1627 Holland was placed in
