is the author of "The Colonies of England; a plan for the government of some portion of our colonial possessions," 1849; and of "The History of the Whig Ministry to the passing of the Reform Bill," written in 1849, but not published until 1852. The latter work includes a survey of English politics from 1815 to the close of Lord Liverpool's administration in 1827; and Mr. Roebuck avows that he was indebted to Lord Brougham for some of the information contained in it.—F. E.
ROELAS, Juan de las, one of the most celebrated of the Spanish painters, was born at Seville about 1558-60. His father, a Spanish admiral, died when Juan was still young; Juan, however, seems to have had a learned education, and to have taken his degree in the university of Seville, whence his designation among the Andalusian-artists of El clerigo Roelas. He is supposed to have visited Italy; his manner is large, and he seems to have been well acquainted with the colouring of the Venetian painters. He lived some time in Madrid, but being disappointed as to succeeding Castello as cabinet painter to Philip III., he left Madrid and settled at Olivares, where he died April 23, 1625. Roelas is compared with Tintoretto, and the Carracci, in style of design and composition. His masterpiece is "El Transito" of San Isidoro, in the church of that saint at Seville; where are also his "Sant Iago," in the cathedral; a "Conception," in the Academy; and a "Holy Family," a "Nativity," and an "Adoration," in the chapel of the university.—(Cean Bermudez, Diccionario Historico, &c.)—R. N. W.
ROEMER, Olaf, a Danish astronomer and statesman, the discoverer of the velocity of light, was born at Aarhuus in Jutland on the 25th of September, 1644, and died at Copenhagen the 19th of September, 1710. The French astronomer Picard having become aware of his talents during a visit to Uraniborg (where Roemer was employed in arranging the MSS. of Tycho), obtained for him the appointments of tutor to the dauphin, and member of the French Academy of Sciences, in 1671. In 1675 he communicated to the Academy his great discovery of the velocity of light, which he had deduced from certain irregularities in the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites. In 1681 he quitted Paris, to become professor of mathematics in the university of Copenhagen, and astronomer to the king of Denmark. He made many important improvements in astronomical instruments, amongst which were the invention of the transit instrument, the meridian circle, and the azimuth and altitude instrument. He made various useful mechanical inventions, amongst which was the application of the epicycloid to the forms of the teeth of wheels. After his return to his native country, he devoted much of his attention to the improvement of the useful arts there, with most happy results. About 1688 he was appointed master of the mint, and soon afterwards inspector-general of ports and arsenals. In 1706 he became a councillor of state, and at the same time burgomaster of Copenhagen, and held these dignities until his death.—W. J. M. R.
ROGER I., King of Sicily; of Norman race; born about 1096; died in Palermo, 1154. His father, Roger, assumed the title of great count of Sicily, and was succeeded by his infant son of the same name. In 1127, when Duke William of Apulia died without issue, his kinsman, Roger of Sicily, backed by an armed force, laid claim to the duchy, and after some opposition received the oath of allegiance. Pope Honorius II., indeed, excommunicated him and otherwise opposed his accession, but in 1128 granted him investiture. On Christmas day, 1130, after grave deliberation, Roger, in the cathedral of Palermo, was crowned king of Sicily, and when Pope Innocent II. withheld his sanction from this assumption of dignity, Roger took part with the antipope Anacletus: nor was it until 1139 that Innocent, an honoured prisoner in the hands of the king, accorded to him the royal investiture and accepted his allegiance to the see of Rome. In 1140 King Roger seized a portion of Abruzzo; in 1146 extended his conquests into Africa; and subsequently, in vengeance for insults offered, wrested territory and booty from the Greek emperor. At the same time he introduced the manufacture of silk into Sicily. Towards the close of his reign, Roger raised his son William to a share in the throne, and after so much discord beheld peace established in his dominions.—C. G. R.
ROGER, Bishop of Salisbury, prime minister of Henry I., is said to have been originally curate of a little church near Caen in Normandy. Prince Henry, afterwards Henry I., entering it with some followers, so runs the story, during his early exile in France, Roger shortened the service to suit the supposed taste of his military audience, and received an immediate invitation from Henry to follow him. Making himself very useful during the prince's years of adversity, he was amply rewarded on Henry's accession. He was at once appointed chancellor; in 1102 bishop of Salisbury; and in 1107 chief justiciary and treasurer of the realm. Holding these appointments he was the most powerful subject in the kingdom, and he is said to have exerted himself to reform the collection of the revenue, the state of the currency, and the administration of justice. His nephews were made bishops, and the king's brother, the captive Robert, was intrusted to his care. Roger joined the other nobles in taking the oath of fealty to Matilda, and even assisted in overcoming the scruples of some of them. Nevertheless he aided Stephen in his assumption of the crown, and was continued in the office either of justiciary or treasurer by Stephen, who appointed his son Roger chancellor. Presently Stephen grew suspicious of his powerful subject with his strongly-fortified castles, fearing probably that Roger might join the party of Matilda. In June, 1139, Roger was compelled to attend a council at Oxford, and the surrender of his castles was demanded from him. With his son and his nephew the bishop of Lincoln, he was placed under watch and ward, while his other nephew, the bishop of Ely, hastened to his uncle's castle of Devizes and shut himself up in it. Stephen appeared with his prisoner before the castle, and threatened, unless it were surrendered, to hang the younger Roger, the chancellor. The bishop refusing, a scaffold was erected, and the son was about to be executed in the sight of his father, who fell upon his knees and vowed that he would taste no food until the castle was surrendered. It was not before three days of fasting had elapsed that the bishop of Ely gave way. Roger died soon afterwards of a quartan ague, on the 4th of December, 1139. He did much for his cathedral, and in its annals he is styled Magnus (the Great).—F. E.
ROGER, or RICHARD, of Hexham, was prior of the convent at that place in 1153, and a voluminous chronicler. He wrote an account of the state and bishops of the church of Hexham, histories of King Stephen and King Henry, and a Chronicle from Adam to Henry the emperor. Special mention has been made of his account of the battle of "The Standard" at Cuton Moor in 1138, which terminated in the defeat of David king of Scotland, who had invaded England. In Hutchinson's Northumberland (vol. i. p. 96) is the print of an effigy found in Hexham cathedral, representing a hooded monk with a device on a shield resembling the letters RI, which are supposed to identify the monument with that of Prior Richard.—R. H.
ROGER of Hoveden. See Hoveden.
ROGER of Wendover, an early English Chronicler, is supposed to have been a native of Wendover in Buckinghamshire. Entering the monastery of St. Albans, he rose to be precentor, and was afterwards made prior of Belvoir, a "cell" of his abbey. Soon after the accession of Henry III. he was deposed for wasting the property of the house, and was recalled to St. Albans. Matthew Paris records that he died on the 6th of May, 1237. His chronicle, the "Flores Historiarum," commences, after the fashion of monkish annalists, with the creation and comes down to 1235, two years before its writer's death. His narrative of events, from the middle of the fifth century to the close of the twelfth, is of some value as a compilation partly from other chronicles now lost. From the close of the twelfth century to the year 1235 he chronicles the events of which he was a contemporary, and his value is that of an original writer, narrating what he saw and heard with "plain straightforward simplicity." The industrious researches of his editor, Mr. Coxe, have resulted in proving that, down to the year 1235, the Chronicle of Matthew Paris (q.v.) is simply a redaction of the "Flores Historiarum" of Roger of Wendover. The Latin text of the "Flores," from the invitation of the Saxons into England to the close of the work, was first edited by Mr. Coxe for the English Historical Society in 1841-44, the reverend editor printing in an appendix the variations introduced by Matthew Paris. An English translation, by Giles, of Coxe's text of the "Flores" forms two volumes of Bohn's Antiquarian Library, 1849.—F. E.
ROGERS, Benjamin, a musician, son of Peter Rogers of St. George's chapel, Windsor, was born in that town, and after being a chorister, became a lay clerk, or singing man, of the choir of which his father was a member. He was afterwards chosen organist of Christ church, Dublin, but compelled to quit Ireland when the civil war broke out in 1641, and was reappointed to
