This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
306
RICHFIELD SPRINGS—RICHMOND, EARLS AND DUKES OF

There are French translations by Guadet (Paris, 1845, Soc. de l'hist. de France); Poinsignon (Reims, 1855, pub. de l'Academie de Rheims); and a German version by K. Freiherr v. der Osten-Sacken (Berlin 1854). Cf. Molinier, Sources de l'histo'ire de France, i. 284 (ed. 1901).


RICHFIELD SPRINGS, a village of Richfield township, Otsego county, New York, U.S.A., about 22 m. S.S.E. of Utica and 2 m. N. of Schuyler (or Candarago) lake. Pop. (1890) 1623; (1900) 1537; (1905) 1684; (1910) 1503. It is served by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railway, and by the Oneonta' & Mohawk Valley electric line connecting with the New York Central railway at Herkimer. The village is situated in a farming country, about 1700 ft. above sea-level. Knit goods are manufactured, but the importance of the place is due to its sulphur springs, the waters of which are used for the treatment of skin diseases, gout, rheumatism, etc., and to the tonic air and fine scenery. In 1908 a Welsh eisteddfod was held here in Earlington Park. The first hotels were built between 1820 and 1830. A post office was established here in 1829, and the village was incorporated in 1861.


RICH HILL, a city of Bates county, Missouri, U.S.A., situated near the Osage (Marais des Cygnes) river, in the west central part of the state, about 75 m. S. by E. of Kansas City. Pop. (1900) 4053, of whom 255 were foreign-born; (1910) 2755. It is served by the Missouri Pacific and the St. Louis & San Francisco railway systems. The city has two public parks, and is a trading centre for the surrounding fertile farming country. Coal is mined in the vicinity. There are lead and zinc smelters, and a large vitrified brick and tile factory. The municipality owns and operates its Waterworks and gas and electric-lighting plants; the city is supplied with natural gas. The original Rich Hill was platted in 1867 somewhat north-west of the site of the present city, which was platted in 1880 by an association that bought out the old settlement. The new settlement was incorporated as a village in 1880, and chartered as a city in 1881.


RICHMOND, EARLS AND DUKES OF. The title earl of Richmond appears to have been in existence in England a considerable time before it was held in accordance with any strict legal principle. Alan, surnamed “Le Roux,” and his brother Alan (c. 1040-1089), surnamed “Le Noir,” relatives of Geoffrey, count of Brittany, and kinsman of William the Conqueror, took part in the latter's invasion of England; and Le Roux obtained grants of land in various parts of England, including manors formerly held by Earl Edwin in Yorkshire, on one of which he built the castle of Richmond, his possessions there being formed into the honour of Richmond, to which his brother Alan Le Noir, or Alan Niger (c. 1045-1093), succeeded in 1089. The latter was in turn succeeded as lord of the honour of Richmond by Stephen (d. 1137), count of Penthievre, who was either his son or another brother. These Breton counts, being territorial barons of great importance in England, and lords of the honour of Richmond where their castle was situated, are often reckoned as earls of Richmond, though they were not so in the strict and later sense. The same should perhaps be said of Stephen's son Alan Niger II. (c. 1116-1146), though he was styled earl of Richmond by John of Hexham. This Alan married Bertha, daughter and heiress of Conan, reigning count of Brittany; and his son Conan (c. 1138-1171), who married Margaret, sister of Malcolm IV. of Scotland, asserted his right to Brittany, and transferred it in his lifetime to his daughter Constance (c. 1162-1201). As he left no sons the honour of Richmond and his other English possessions passed to the king in 1171, though Constance is also loosely spoken of as countess of Richmond in her own right. Constance was three times married, and each of her husbands in turn assumed the title of earl of Richmond, in conjunction with that of count, or duke of Brittany. They were: Geoffrey Plantagenet (1158-1186), son of Henry II., king of England; Randolph de Blundevill, earl of Chester (c. 1172-1232), the marriage with whom Constance treated as null on the ground of consanguinity; and Guy de Thouars (d. 1213), who survived his wife for twelve years. The only son of the first marriage, Arthur of Brittany (1187-1203), was styled earl of Richmond in his mother's lifetime, and on his murder at the hands of his uncle, King John, the earldom was resumed by the crown.

By her third husband Constance had two daughters, the elder of whom, Alice, was given in marriage by Philip Augustus, king of France, to Peter de Braine in 1213, after which date Peter was styled duke of Brittany and earl of Richmond till about 1235, when he renounced his allegiance to the king of England and thereupon suffered forfeiture of his English earldom.

In 1241 Henry III. granted the honour of Richmond to Peter of Savoy (1203-1268), uncle of Queen Eleanor, who was thereafter described as earl of Richmond by contemporary chroniclers, though how far he was strictly entitled to the designation has been disputed. By his will he left the honour of Richmond to his niece, the queen consort, who transferred it to the crown. In the same year (1268) Henry III. granted the earldom specifically to John, duke of Brittany (1217-86), son of Peter de Braine, in whose family the title continued—though it frequently was forfeited or reverted to the crown and was re-granted to the next heir—till 1342, when it was apparently resumed by Edward III. and granted by that sovereign to his son John of Gaunt, who surrendered it in 1372. It was then given to John de Montfort, duke of Brittany, but on his death without heirs in 1399, or possibly at an earlier date through forfeiture, it reverted to the crown. The earldom now became finally separated from the duchy of Brittany, with which it had been loosely conjoined since the Conquest, although the dukes of Brittany continued to assume the title till a. much later date. From 1414 to 1435 the earldom of Richmond was held by John Plantagenet, duke of Bedford, and in 1453 it was conferred on Edmund Tudor, uterine brother to King Henry VI., whose wife, Margaret Beaufort, was the foundress of St John's College, Cambridge, and of the “Lady Margaret” professorships of divinity at Oxford and Cambridge (see Richmond and Derby, Margaret, Countess of). When Edmund Tudor's son Henry ascended the throne as Henry VII. in 1485, the earldom of Richmond merged in the crown, and for the next forty years there was no further grant of the title; but in 1525 Henry Fitzroy, natural son of Henry VIII. by Elizabeth Blound, was created duke of Richmond and Somerset and earl of Nottingham, all these titles becoming extinct at his death without children in 1536.

Ludovic Stuart, 2nd duke of Lennox (1574-1624), who also held other titles in the peerage of Scotland, was created earl of Richmond in 1613 and duke of Richmond in 1623. These became extinct at his death in 1624, but his Scottish honours devolved on his brother Esmé, who was already earl of March in the peerage of England (see March, Earls of; and Lennox). Esmé's son, James, 4th duke of Lennox (1612-1655), was created duke of Richmond in 1641, the two dukedoms as well as the lesser English and Scottish titles thus becoming again united. In 1672, on the death of his nephew Charles, 3rd duke of Richmond and 6th duke of Lennox, whose wife was the celebrated beauty called “La Belle Stuart” at the court of Charles II. (see Richmond and Lennox, Frances Teresa Stewart, Duchess of), his titles became extinct.

In 1675 Charles II. created his illegitimate son Charles duke of Richmond, earl of March and baron Settrington, and a few weeks later duke of Lennox, earl of Darnley and baron Torboltoun. This Charles (1672-1723), on whom his father the king bestowed the surname of Lennox, was the son of the celebrated Louise de Keroualle, duchess of Portsmouth. His son Charles, 2nd duke (1701-1750), added to the titles he inherited from his father that of duke of Aubigny in France, to which he succeeded in 1734 on the death of his grandmother the duchess of Portsmouth; and all these honours are still held by his descendant the present duke of Richmond.

The seven dukes of Richmond of the Lennox line have all borne the Christian name of Charles. The 2nd duke, by his marriage with Sarah, daughter of the 1st Earl Cadogan, was father of Lady Caroline Lennox, who eloped with Henry Fox,