Rymer.” Some of his poetical pieces were also inserted in J. Nichols’s Select Collection (1780–86, 8 vols.), and two are reproduced in A. H. Bullen’s Musa Proterva (1895).
Two more volumes of the Foedera were issued by Sanderson in 1715 and 1717, and the last three volumes (xviii., xix. and xx.) by the same editor, but upon a slightly different plan, in 1726–35. The latter volumes were published by Tonson, all the former by Churchill. Under Rymer it was carried down to 1586, and continued by Sanderson to 1654. The rarity and importance of the work induced Tonson to obtain a licence for a second edition, and George Holmes, deputy keeper of the Tower records, was appointed editor. The new edition appeared between 1727 and 1735. The last three volumes are the same in both issues. There are some corrections, enumerated in a volume, The Emendations in the New Edition of Mr Rymer’s Foedera, printed by Tonson in 1730, and on the whole the second is an improvement upon the first edition. A third edition, embodying Holmes’s collation, was commenced at the Hague in 1737 and finished in 1745. It is in smaller type than the others, and is compressed within ten folio volumes. The arrangement is rather more convenient; there is some additional matter; the index is better; the type is not so good, but it is to be preferred to either of the previous editions. When the volumes of the Foedera first appeared they were analysed by Leclerc and Rapin in the Bibliothèque choisie and Bibliothèque ancienne et moderne. Rapin’s articles were collected together and appended, under the title of Abregé historique des actes publiques de l’Angleterre, to the Hague edition. A translation, called Acta Regia, was published by Stephen Whatley, (1726–27), 4 vols. 8vo, reprinted both in 8vo and folio, the latter edition containing an analysis of the cancelled sheets, relating to the journals of the first parliament of Charles l., of the 18th volume of the Foedera.
In 1810 the Record Commissioners authorized Dr Adam Clarke to prepare a new and improved edition of the Foedera. Six parts, large folio, edited by Clarke, Caley and Holbrooke, were published between 1816 and 1830. Considerable additions were made, but the editing was performed in so unsatisfactory a manner that the publication was suspended in the middle of printing a seventh part. The latter portion, bringing the work down to 1383, was ultimately issued in 1869. A general introduction to the Foedera was issued by the Record Commission in 1817, 4to.
The wide learning and untiring labours of Rymer have received the warmest praise from historians. His industry was raised by Hearne (Collections, ii. 296). Sir T. D. Hardy styles the Foedera “a work of which this nation has every reason to be proud, for with all its blemishes—and what work is faultless?—it has no rival in its class” (Syllabus, vol. ii. xxxvi.), and Mr J. B. Mullinger calls it “a collection of the highest value and authority” (Gardiner and Mullinger’s Introduction to English History, p. 224).
The best account of Rymer is to be found in the prefaces to Sir T. D. Hardy’s Syllabus (1869–85, 3 vols. 8vo). There is an unpublished life by Des Maizeaux (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. No. 4223), and a few memoranda in Bishop Kennet’s collections (Lansd. MS. No. 987). See also Dict. of Nat. Biogr. vol. 1. In Caulfield’s Portraits, &c. (1819), i. 50, may be seen an engraving of Rymer, with a description of a satirical print of him as “a garreteer poet.” Rymer’s two critical works on the drama are discussed by Sir T. N. Talfourd in the Retrospective Review (1820), vol. i. pp. 1–15.
Sir T. D. Hardy’s Syllabus gives in English a condensed notice of each instrument in the several editions of the Foedera, arranged in chronological order. The third volume contains a complete index of names and places, with a catalogue of the volumes of transcripts collected for the Record edition of the Foedera. In 1869 the Record Office printed, for private distribution, Appendices A to E “to a report on the Foedera intended to have been submitted by C. Purton Cooper to the late Commissioners of Public Records,” 3 vols. 8vo (including accounts of MSS. in foreign archives relating to Great Britain, with facsimiles). In the British Museum is preserved (Add. MS. 24699) a folio volume of reports and papers relating to the Record edition. Rymer left extensive materials for a new edition of the Foedera, bound in 59 vols. folio, and embracing the period from 1115 to 1698. This was the collection offered to the earl of Oxford. It was purchased by the Treasury for £215 from a Mrs Anna Parnell, to whom Rymer left all his property, and is now in the British Museum (Add. MSS. Nos. 4573 to 4630, and 18911). A catalogue and index may be consulted in the 17th volume of Tonson’s edition of the Foedera. The Public Record Office possesses a MS. volume, compiled by Robert Lemon about 1800, containing instruments in the Patent Rolls omitted by Rymer. In the same place may be seen a volume of reports, orders, &c., on the Foedera, 1808–11, and the transcripts collected for the new and unfinished edition. (H. R. T.)
RYOT, or Rayat (from the Arabic ra’a, “to pasture”), properly a subject, then a tenant of the soil. The word is used throughout India for the general body of cultivators; but it has a special meaning in different provinces. The ryotwari tenure is one of the two main revenue systems in India. Where the land revenue is imposed on an individual or community owning an estate, and occupying a position analogous to that of a landlord, the assessment is known as zamindari; and where the land revenue is imposed on individuals who are. the actual occupants, the assessment is known as ryotwari. Under zamindari tenure the land is held as independent property; while under ryotwari tenure it is held of the crown in a right of occupancy, which is under. British rule both heritable and transferable. The former system prevails in northern and central India, and the latter in Bombay, Madras, Assam and Burma.
RYSWICK, TREATY OF, the peace which in 1697 ended the war between France on the one side and the Empire, England, Spain and Holland, on the other. Begun in 1689 under the leadership of the new king of England, William III., its object was to put a check on the ambitious designs of Louis XIV., and it raged in the Netherlands, the Rhineland, Italy, Ireland and Spain, in India and America and on the sea (see Grand Alliance, War of the). Negotiations for peace had begun in 1696, but they were soon broken off, William III. and the English parliament at this time refusing to treat except “with our swords in our hands.” But in May 1697 they were renewed under the mediation of the king of Sweden. The French representatives had their headquarters at the Hague and those
of the allies at Delft, the conferences between them taking place at Ryswick. For the first few weeks no result was reached, and in June William III. and Louis XIV., the protagonists in the struggle, each appointed one representative to meet together privately. The two chosen were William Bentinck, earl of Portland, and marshal Boulilers, and they soon drew up the terms of an agreement, to which, however, the emperor Leopold I. and the king of Spain would not assent. But in a short time Spain gave way, and on the 20th of September 1697 a treaty of peace was signed between France and the three powers, England, Spain and Holland, the Empire still holding aloof. William then persuaded Leopold to make peace, and a treaty between France and the Empire was signed on the 30th of October following.
The basis of the peace was that all towns and districts seized since the treaty of Nijmwegen in 1679 should be restored. Then France surrendered Freiburg, Breisach and Philippsburg to Germany, although she kept Strassburg. On the other hand, she regained Pondicherry and Nova Scotia, while Spain recovered Catalonia, and the barrier fortresses of Mons, Luxemburg and Courtrai. The duchy of Lorraine, which for many years had been in the possession of France, was restored to Leopold Joseph, a son of duke Charles V., and the Dutch were to be allowed to garrison some of the chief fortresses in the Netherlands, including Namur and Ypres. Louis undertook to recognize William as king of England, and promised to give no further assistance to James II.; he abandoned his interference in the electorate of Cologne and also the claim which he had put forward to some of the lands of the Rhenish Palatinate.
For further details see C. W. von Koch and F. Scholl, Histoire abregée des traités de paix (1817–18); A. Moetjens, Artes et mémoires de la paix de Ryswick (The Hague, 1725); A. Legrelle, Notes et documents sur la paix de Ryswick (Lille, 1894); and H. Vast, Les Grands Traités du règne de Louis XIV (Paris, 1893–99). See also L. von Ranke, Englische Geschichte, English translation as History of England (Oxford, 1875).
RZHEV, or Rznov, a town of Russia, in the government of Tver, 76 m. S.W. of the town of Tver, occupying the bluffs on both banks of the Volga (here 350 ft. wide) near the confluence of the Vazuza. Pop. (1900) 31,514. It is the terminus of a branch line (85 m.) from the St Petersburg & Moscow railway, and is the centre of a large transit trade between Orel, Kaluga and Smolensk and the ports of St Petersburg and Riga. In the 12th century Rzhev belonged to the principality of Smolensk. Under the rulers of Novgorod it became from 1225 a subordinate principality, and in the 15th century the two portions of the town were held by two independent princes.
