by the horrors of her own creations, but the nearest approach to eccentricity on Mrs Radcliffe's part was dislike of public notice. Of scenery Mrs Radcliffe was an enthusiastic admirer, and she made driving tours with her husband every other summer through the English counties. She died on the 7th of February 1823. In the history of the English novel, Mrs Radcliffe holds an interesting place. She is too often confounded with her imitators, who vulgarized her favourite “ properties ” of rambling and ruinous old castles, dark, desperate and cadaverous villains, secret passages, vaults, trapdoors, evidences of deeds of monstrous crime, sights and sounds of mysterious horror. She deserves at least the credit of originating a school of which she was the most distinguished exponent; and none of her numerous imitators approach her in ingenuity of plot, fertility of incident or skill in devising apparently supernatural occurrences capable of explanation by human agency and natural coincidence. She had a genuine gift for scenic effect, and her vivid imagination provided every tragic situation in her stories with its appropriate setting. Sir Walter Scott wrote an appreciative essay for the edition of 1824, and Miss Christina Rossetti was one of her admirers. She exercised a great influence on her contemporaries, and “ Schedoni ” in The Italian is one of the prototypes of the Byronic hero.
RADCLIFFE, SIR GEORGE (1593–1657), English politician, son of Nicholas Radcliffe (d. 1599) of Overthorpe, Yorkshire, was educated at Oldham and at University College, Oxford. He attained some measure of success as a barrister, and about 1626 became the confidential adviser of 'Sir Thomas Wentworth,
afterwards earl of Stratford, who was related to his wife, Anne Trappes (d. 1659). Like his master he was imprisoned in 1627 for declining to contribute to a forced loan, but he shared the
good, as well as the ill, fortunes of Wentworth, acting as his
adviser when he was president of the council of the north.
When Wentworth was made lord deputy of Ireland, Radcliffe, in
January 1633, preceded him to that country, and having been
made a member of the Irish privy council he was trusted by the
deputy in the fullest possible way, his advice being of the greatest
service. In 1640, Radcliffe, like Strafford, was arrested and was
impeached, but the charges against him were not pressed, and in
1643 he was with Charles I. at Oxford. He died at Flushing in
May 1657. Radcliffe wrote An essay towards the life of my Lord
Strajord, from which the material for the various lives of the
statesman has been largely taken.
See Sir T. D. Whitaker, Life and Correspondence of Sir G. Radcliffe (1810).
RADCLIFFE, JOHN (1650–1714), English physician, was
born at Wakefield in 1650. He matriculated at University
College, Oxford, and after taking his degree in 1669 was elected to a fellowship at Lincoln College, which he gave up in 1677 when,
under the statutes of the college, he was called on to take orders.
Graduating in medicine in 167 5, he practised first in Oxford, but
in 1684 removed to London, where he soon became one of the
leading physicians. He frequently attended William III. until
1699, when he caused offence by remarking, as he looked at the
King's swollen ankles, that he would not have his legs for his
three kingdoms. On the 1st of November 1714 he died of
apoplexy at his house in Carshalton. By his will he left property
to University College for founding two medical travelling
fellowships and for other purposes. Other property was put
at the disposal of his executors to use as they thought best, and
was employed, among other things, in building the Radcliffe
Observatory, Hospital and Library at Oxford, and in enlarging
St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. Radcliffe was elected
M.P. for Bramber in 1690 and for Buckingham in 1713.
RADCLIFFE, an urban district in the Radcliffe-cum-Farnworth parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, on the river Irwell, 2 m. S.S.W. of Bury, on the Lancashire & Yorkshire railway. Pop. (1991) 25,368. The church of St Bartholomew dates from the time of Henry IV.; some of the Norman portions of the building remain. Cotton-weaving, calico-printing, and bleaching, dyeing, paper-making, iron founding and machine-making are the principal industries, and there are extensive collieries in the neighbourhood.
RADEBERG, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony,
pleasantly situated in a fertile district on the Röder, 10 m. N.E.
of Dresden, by the railway to Görlitz and Breslau. Pop. (1905)
13,301. It has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church,
and an old castle. Its principal industries are the manufacture
of glass, machinery, furniture and paper, and it produces a
light Pilsener beer which is largely exported. Near the town are
the Augustusbad and the Hermannsbad, two medicinal springs.
RADEGUNDA, ST (d. 587), Frankish- queen, was the daughter of Berthaire, king of the Thuringians. Berthaire was killed by
his brother Hermannfried, who took Radegunda and educated
her, but was himself slain by the Frankish kings Theuderich
and Clotaire (529), and Radegunda fell to Clotaire, who later
married her. Her piety was already so noteworthy that it was
said that Clotaire had married a nun, not a queen. She left
him when he unjustly killed her brother, and fled to Medardus,
bishop of Poitiers, who, notwithstanding the danger of the
act, consecrated her, as a nun. Radegunda stayed in Poitiers,
founded a monastery there, 'and lived for a while in peace. Here
Venantius Fortunatus, the Italian poet, found a friendly reception,
and two of the poems printed under his name are usually
attributed to Radegunda. From him we gain a most pleasing
picture of life at the monastery. The queen died on the 13th of
August 587;
See the references in A. Molinier, Sources de Fhistoire de France.
RADETZKY, JOSEF, COUNT or RADETZ (1766-1858), Austrian soldier, was born at Trzebnitz in Bohemia in 1766, to the nobility of which province his family, originally Hungarian, had for several centuries belonged. Orphaned at an early age, he was educated by his grandfather, and after the old count's death, at the Theresa academy at Vienna. The academy was dissolved during his first year's residence, and he joined the army
as a cadet in 1785. Next year he became an officer, and in 1787 a first lieutenant in a cuirassier regiment. He served as a galloper on Lacy's staff in the Turkish War, and in the Low Countries during the Revolutionary War. In 1795 he fought on the Rhine. Next year he served with Beaulieu against Napoleon in Italy, and inwardly rebelled at the indecisive “ cordon ” system of warfare which his first chief, Lacy, had instituted and other Austrian generals only too faithfully imitated. His personal courage was conspicuous; at Fleurus he had led a party of cavalry through the French lines to discover the fate of Charleroi, and at Valeggio on the Mincio, with a few hussars, he rescued Beaulieu from the midst of the enemy. Promoted major, he took part in Wurmser's Mantua campaign, which ended in the fall of the place. As lieutenant-colonel and colonel he displayed both bravery and skill in the battles of the Trebbia and Novi (1799), and at Marengo, as colonel on the staff of Melas, he was hit by five bullets, after endeavouring on the previous evening to bring about modifications in the plan suggested by the “ scientific ” Zach. In 1801 Radetzky received the knighthood of the Maria Theresa order. In 1805, on the march to Ulrn, he received news of his promotion to major general and his assignment to a command in Italy under the archduke Charles, and thus took part in the successful campaign of Caldiero. Peace again afforded him a short leisure, which he used in studying and teaching the art of war. In 1809, now a lieutenant field marshal, he fought at Wagram, and in 1810 he received the commander ship of the Maria Theresa order and the colonelcy of the 5th Radetzky hussars. From 1809 to 1812, as chief of the general staff, he was active in the reorganization of the army and its tactical system, but, unable tocarry out the reforms he desired owing to the opposition of the Treasury, he resigned the post. In 1813 he was Schwarzenberg's chief of staff, and as such had considerable influence on the councils of the Allied sovereigns and generals. Langenau, the quartermaster-general of the Grand Army, found him an indispensable assistant, and he had a considerable share in planning the Leipzig campaign and as a tactician won great praises in the
