Amy Robsart

ROBSART, AMY, first name of LADY AMY DUDLEY (1532 1560), wife of Lord Robert Dudley, afterwards earl of Leicester. She was the daughter of Sir John Robsart of Norfolk, and was married to Lord Robert on June 4, 155o. When Elizabeth became queen in 1559 Lord Robert was soon known to be her favourite, and it was believed that she would marry him if he were free. His wife never came to court and was never in his company. In 156o she went by her husband's directions to Cumnor Place, a house near Oxford, rented by his agent Anthony Forster or For rester, member of parliament for Abingdon. Here she was found lying dead on the floor of the hall on Sept. 8, 156o, by her servants. The circumstances of her death were never cleared up.

See G. Adlard, Amy Robsart and Leycester (London, 1870), and W. Rye, The Murder of Amy Robsart (London, 1885).

ROC,

or more correctly Ruxx, a fabulous bird of enormous size which carries off elephants to feed its young. The legend of the roc, familiar from the Arabian Nights, was widely spread in the East ; and in later times the home of the monster was sought in Madagascar, whence gigantic fronds of the Raphia palm very like a quill in form appear to have been brought under the name of roc's feathers (see Yule's Marco Polo, bk. iii. ch. 33). Such a

feather was brought to the Great Khan, and we read also of a gigantic stump of a roc's quill being brought to Spain by a mer chant from the China seas. The roc is hardly different from the Arabian `ankei (see PHOENIX) ; it is also identified with the Persian simurgh.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-For

a collection of legends about the roc, see E. W. Lane, Arabian Nights (1839), chap. xx., notes 22, 62 ; H. Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo (1871). See also S. Bochart, Hierozoicon (2663), bk. vi., ch. 14; Al Kazwini, Kosmographie (1847-48), i., 419 seq.; Ibn Batilta, Voyages (1853), iv., 305 seq.; Ad Damiri, Hayat al-Hay-awan, trans. A. S. G. Jayakar (1906).