His other daughters he had bestowed on princes whose alliance promised to be useful to him. On the death of Wenzel he wished to seize Bohemia; but he failed in his attempts both on that country and on Hungary. From the death of Conrad IV. in 1254 till the election of Rudolf, there had been many pretenders to the imperial throne, but none of them had been universally recognized. This long period, called the interregnum, one of the saddest and most lawless in German annals, was favourable to the growth and freedom of towns. And well that there was such an atonement for infinite anarchy and woe. One of the principal competitors, Richard, earl of Cornwall, had received a species of imperfect and wavering recognition as German emperor from 1256 to 1272, when he died. But Richard's rival, Alphonso X. of Castile, called the Wise or Learned, a brilliant yet somewhat chimerical prince, persisted in his claims after Rudolf's elevation. Rudolf was the faithful, almost abject servant of the church. As a reward. Pope Gregory X. energetically took the side of Rudolf against Alphonso. Though not forgetful of his own interests, and though never losing sight of what the house of Habsburg was, and aimed to be, Rudolf showed himself not unworthy of that august and weighty office, which the magnificent Hohenstauffen had held with so much lustre. He was the vindicator and the restorer of the imperial rights, the champion of law, the promoter of civilization, of commerce, and of commercial intercourse; the cherisher of that industrial spirit which was fated to annihilate the worst feudal iniquities. At sixty-four Rudolf took, as successor to his departed wife, a princess of Burgundy who was only fourteen—an act singularly foolish in a life of singular sagacity. When travelling in the west of Germany, Rudolf died at Germersheim on the 30th September, 1291. He was succeeded in the German empire by Adolphus of Nassau, a supremely brave but most incompetent and unprincipled man; and in his hereditary states by his son Albert, who was turbulent, treacherous, and cruel. Both these men had rejoiced in blood, and they both died a bloody death.—W. M—l.
RUDOLF II., Emperor of Germany, the son of the Emperor Maximilian II., and the contrast in everything to that excellent prince, was born in 1552. He succeeded his father alike in the Austrian dominions and on the imperial throne in 1576. Educated by the Jesuits at the court of the most Jesuitical of all monarchs, Philip II. of Spain, Rudolf added Jesuitical cunning and perfidy to his natural incapacity, irresolution, and intolerance. He had a passion for fine horses, a passion still more childish and intense for alchemy and astrology, and he totally neglected the affairs of government; or if he interfered with them it was to abridge or neutralize the concessions made by his predecessors to the protestants. Continual conspiracies and rebellions were the result; and at last, to resist oppression, a powerful protestant organization, called the Union, was created with the elector palatine, Frederick IV., at its head. Unfortunately the protestants were not merely as bigoted as the catholics, but they persecuted each other. To this cause we must ascribe the dead halt which protestantism made in Germany when in the very heat of its triumph. Having lost the affections of his protestant subjects by his injustice, the respect of the whole German empire by his inefficiency, Rudolf contrived by his guilty indifference to kindle frequent insurrections in his states, and to involve them in foolish and fruitless wars with the Turks. By degrees, formally as well as substantially, the authority which Rudolf did not so much misuse as leave unused, fell into the more vigorous grasp of his brother Matthias. Some domains and a pension of three hundred thousand florins a year were assigned to the royal puppet. Keenly Rudolf felt a disgrace which was eminently merited. He died February 20, 1612. He had never been married; Matthias was his successor, at the end of whose reign the Thirty Years' war began.—W. M—l.
RUDYARD, Sir Benjamin, a prominent member of the Long parliament, was born in 1572. He had long been conspicuous as an accomplished gentleman and an elegant scholar, before he took part in political discussions. He was a respectable poet, and the intimate friend of Ben Jonson, who addressed to him some highly eulogistic verses. When the contest began between Charles and his parliament, Sir Benjamin quitted his fashionable pursuits and haunts about town, and joined Hampden and Pym and the other patriots. He had long held a seat in the house of commons, and his great experience in parliamentary forms, combined with his masterly eloquence, gravity, courtesy, and moderation of tone, gave him great weight in the house, and made him an important accession to the constitutional party. May, the historian of the parliament, speaks in the highest terms of the talents and graces of mind, as well as of the remarkable eloquence of this courtly and accomplished gentleman; and instances his oration at the opening of the Long parliament as "a perfect exemplar" at once of the unsparing exposure of grievances and of "the way of sparing the king." Sir Benjamin, however, though acting with Pym and Hampden, did not by any means approve of all their proceedings. He opposed the attainder of Strafford, and gave only a partial support to the Grand Remonstrance. But there is no truth in the assertion of Chronicler Heath that the venerable and worthy knight died of remorse as soon as the civil war began; complaining on his deathbed that he had been deceived by Pym and Hampden. It is certain, however, that he ultimately became anxious for a compromise between the king and the parliament, and that during the progress of the war he cried out incessantly for peace; but he remained in his place in the house of commons as long as he could, and acted to the last with the patriots. Though he held the office of surveyor of the court of wards and liveries, he made a speech against it in 1645, and it was abolished in the following year. He received compensation, however, for the loss of his place. Sir Benjamin survived till 1658, and died at the age of eighty-seven. A number of his speeches and poems have been published; the latter are included in the same volume with the poems of William earl of Pembroke, London, 1660.—J. T.
RUE, Charles de la, a learned ecclesiastic and Jesuit, was born at Paris in 1643. He shone in early life as a preacher and poet. A Latin poem of his on the victories of Louis XIV. so pleased Corneille that he translated it into French metre, and presented it to the king. His majesty was so gratified with the tribute, that he appointed the author one of the board for preparing the classics for the use of the dauphin. The editing of Virgil was committed to De la Rue, and he executed his task so as to give general satisfaction. Some tragedies and panegyrics were also composed by him, which had their brief day of popularity. He died in the college of the Jesuits in 1725.—J. E.
RUE, Charles de la, another and higher scholar, was born at Corbie in Picardy, 1685. He joined the learned order of the Benedictines in an abbey at Meaux. His erudition and theological lore have been justly extolled. Of his celebrated edition of Origen, undertaken at the suggestion of Montfaucon, two folio volumes were published during his life, and a third after his death which took place from a paralytic stroke in 1739. From the materials amassed by him his nephew, Vincent de la Rue, published a fourth volume in 1739. The nephew died in 1762.—J. E.
RUFFHEAD, Owen, an English barrister and miscellaneous writer, was born about 1723, and died in 1769. He conducted a periodical paper called the Contest, was the author of a Life of Pope and of several pamphlets, and published an edition of the Statutes.—J. T.
RUFFIN (Count), a distinguished French general, was born at Yvetot, on the Lower Seine. Having made choice of the military profession, he became aid-de-camp to General Jourdan, and afterwards chief of the staff to General Ney during the Italian campaign of 1800, in which he distinguished himself by several brilliant exploits. His gallantry at the battle of Austerlitz gained him the rank of commandant of the legion of honour. He served with distinction in Poland in 1807, and especially at the bloody battle of Eylau, and in resisting the attack of a greatly superior Russian force at Ostrolenka. He was sent to Spain in 1808, and was soon after elevated to the rank of general of division. He fought in the battle of Espinosa, in which the Spaniards were defeated with great slaughter; and at Ucles, in January, 1809, by his skilful manœuvres compelled six thousand of the enemy to lay down their arms. He took a prominent part in the short but sanguinary conflict of Barossa in 1811, but in the crisis of the battle he was mortally wounded and taken prisoner. He died soon after on board one of the British ships, off the Spanish coast.—J. T.
RUFFO, Dionigi Fabrizio, Cardinal, born in Naples of a wealthy and noble family, 1774; died in the same city, 13th December, 1827. First treasurer to Pope Pius VI., afterwards intendant of the palace and domain of Caserta, Ruffo is most prominent as the cardinal leader of that body of royalists who, under the banner of the white cross and the name of army of
