Roturiers.
Wealthy citizens in the French feudal days, who purchased land from the feudal lords. The ranks of the nobility were recruited from their descendants, as the possession of land for three generations ennobled the third holder. This was abolished, however, in the reign of Philip the Fair, from which time the roturiers remained a class apart.
Round Robin.
A document signed by the Duke of Leinster, and other Irish peers and commoners, by which the signatories undertook to make government in Ireland impossible, if the government inflicted penalties upon any of their number on account of their action in the matter of the regency in 1789. They had been instrumental in obtaining a resolution of the Irish Parliament, in opposition to the Ministry, offering the sovereignty of Ireland unconditionally to the Prince of Wales.
Round Table Conference.
A series of meetings held in 1887 between Sir George Trevelyan, Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. John Morley and Sir William Harcourt, with the object, if possible, of finding a basis for the reunion of the Liberal Unionists and the Gladstonians. No result was arrived at.
Roundheads.
The name given to the Puritan party, on account of their close-cropped hair. It was first used during the riots in London in 1641.
Rout of Moy.
An attempt by 1,500 men of the Clan MacLeod, in 1846, to capture the Young Pretender, who was staying at the Castle of Moy, belonging to the Laird of MacIntosh. Their approach was discovered by the blacksmith of the MacIntoshes, who with five or six companions was patrolling near the castle. This small party separated, and firing into the MacLeods from different parts of the wood, so disconcerted them that they fled in disorder, thinking they had fallen into an ambush of the Pretender’s whole army.