Robert III, 

 King of Scotland 



ROBERT III 



imprisoned. The dissension was 

 healed, and when David died child- 

 less in 1371, Robert, then an old 

 man, succeeded. He reigned for 

 19 years, most of which W;.e 

 troubled by wars in which he 

 could take little part. He died 

 May 13, 1390, and was succeeded 

 by his son, Robert III. 

 'Robert m (c. 1340-1406). 

 King of Scotland. The eldest 

 son of Robert II and his mistress, 

 Elizabeth 

 Mure, he was 

 declared legiti- 

 mate and made 

 earl of Carrick. 

 He was pro- 

 minent in pub- 

 lic affairs dur- 

 ing the reign 

 of his father, 

 and in 1390 he 

 succeeded t o 

 the throne, taking the name of 

 Robert instead of his baptismal 

 John. As a ruler he was incom- 

 petent, and the kingdom was 

 governed by his brother, the earl of 

 Fife, by his son, David, and then 

 by another brother, the duke of 

 Albany. Robert died, a broken 

 man, April 4, 1406. His eldest son, 

 David, duke of Rothesay, having 

 died before him, his successor was 

 the younger son, James I. 



Robert I (d. 1035). Duke of 

 Normandy, known also as Robert 

 the Devil. Son of Richard II of 

 Normandy, he succeeded his elder 

 brother Richard III in 1028. He 

 consolicterSed his authority against 

 various rivals, secured from Henry 

 I of France the Vexin territory, 

 and supported the sons of Ethelred 

 against Canute. After the pesti- 

 lence of 1033 in Normandy, 

 Robert set out for the Holy Land, 

 and died of fever at Nicaea on his 

 way home. His only and illegiti- 

 mate son was William the Con- 

 queror. His sobriquet came from 

 his ruthlessness in war. 



Robert H (c. 1054-1134). Duke 

 of Normandy. The eldest son of 

 William the Conqueror, he quar- 

 relled with his 

 father, and in 

 1079 there was 

 war between 

 them. In 1087, 

 however, h e 

 became duke 

 of Normandy 

 and was soon 

 at strife with 

 his brothers, 

 William and 

 Henry. In 1096 he pledged the 

 duchy to William II and went on 

 a crusade, from which, after many 

 daring deeds, he returned to find 

 Henry king of England. Henry 

 bought off Robert's claims, but the 



Robert II, 

 Dnke of Normandy 



6644 



two soon came to blows. In 1106 

 a battle was fought at Tenchebrai, 

 and Robert was made prisoner, 

 and he remained in captivity until 

 his death at Cardiff in Feb., 1134. 

 His son, William the Clito, was at 

 one time' a claimant for the 

 English throne. 



Robert Els mere. Novel by 

 Mrs. Humphry Ward. On its 

 publication in 1888 it created some- 

 thing of a sensation ; partly owing 

 to its theme, that of the conflict be- 

 tween old-fashioned faith and the 

 new Christianity. Not altogether 

 successful as a story, the critical 

 ability of which it gave evidence 



ROBERTS 



gained the attention of many who 

 were not customary novel readers. 

 Its immediate success was thought 

 to owe much to a highly laudatory 

 review by W. E. Gladstone. 



Robert the Devil. Hero of a 

 13th century French metrical 

 romance. He was the son of 

 Bertha, daughter of Robert, duke 

 of Normandy, and of a fiend in 

 the guise of a knight. In him 

 is represented the struggle between 

 the dual nature of his heritage, 

 though the human conquers. The 

 story was used by Meyerbeer in 

 his opera, Robert le Diable, 1831, 

 for which Scribe wrote the libretto. 



EARL ROBERTS OF KANDAHAR 



Spenser Wilkinson. Professor of Military History, Oxford 



See the articles on the wars in which Roberts took part, e.g. Afghan 



War; Indian Mutiny; S. African War; also Paardeberg. See 



also the biographies of soldiers who were associated with Roberts, 



e.g. Kitchener ; Nicholson, and others 



Frederick Sleigh Roberts was born 

 Sept. 30, 1832, at Cawnpore, the son 

 of General Sir Abraham Roberts of 

 the East India Company's service. 

 He was educated at Eton, Sand- 

 hurst, and Addiscombe, and became 

 second lieutenant in the Bengal 

 Artillery, Dec. 12, 1851. In 1852 he 

 sailed to Calcutta, whence it was in 

 those days a three months' journey 

 to Peshawar. There for a year he 

 acted as aide-de-camp to his father, 

 who was in command of the dis- 

 trict. In 1854 he was appointed 

 to the horse artillery, and in 1856 

 to the quartermaster-general's 

 branch of the staff. 



This appointment brought him 

 into touch with the men who were 

 shortly to make their mark in 

 Indian history, John Lawrence, 

 Herbert Edwardes, and John 

 Nicholson, whom of all men he 

 most admired. In May, 1857, oc- 

 curred the outbreak at Meerut, 

 the beginning of the Indian 

 Mutiny. The chief officers at Pesha- 

 war met to determine the action 

 to be taken in the Punjab, and 

 Roberts had the duty of writing 

 the minutes of their conference. 

 He was appointed staff officer to 

 Neville Chamberlain's mobile 

 column, afterwards taken over 

 by Nicholson. In response to an 

 appeal from Delhi for artillery 

 officers, he travelled alone to that 

 place, where he was appointed 

 D.A.Q.M.G. for the artillery. At 

 the end of the siege he was ap- 

 pointed D.A.Q.M.G. to the column 

 sent to Cavnpore, which on the 

 way fought the actions at Buland- 

 shahr and at Agra. 



From Cawnppre, Roberts march- 

 ed with Hope Grant to the Alum- 

 Bagh, where he was introduced to 

 Sir Colin Campbell, commander of 

 the second expedition for the relief 

 of Lucknow. Campbell entrusted 



him with a series of dangerous 

 missions, and when the column 

 fought its way into Lucknow it 

 was Roberts who three times 

 hoisted the British flag on the 

 summit of the mess-house. After 

 the relief of Lucknow, Hope Grant, 

 marching up the Doab to Fateh- 

 garh, defeated a band of mutineers 

 at Khudaganj, Dec., 1857, and in 

 the pursuit after this action 

 Roberts saved the life of a sowar 

 and rescued a standard from two 

 sepoys, thus whining the V.C. 

 Roberts acted as A.Q.M.G. to Sir 

 Hope Grant's column until the 

 end of March, 1858. when he 

 turned over the duties to Garnet 

 Wolseley, and came home on sick 

 leave. He remained nearly a year 

 at his father's house at Waterford. 

 In May, 1859, he married Nora, 

 daughter of Captain John Bews, 

 and in July he sailed with his wife 

 to India. 



Again in the Q.M.G/8 branch, 

 he was engaged in the Umbeyla 

 expedition of 18G3, in the Abys- 

 sinian expedition iu 1867, and the 

 Lushai expedition in 1871. In 

 1875 he became Q.M.G. of the In- 

 dian Army, and in March, 1878, 

 commander of the Punjab Frontier 

 Force. Shortly afterwards the 

 ameer of Afghanistan rejected Lord 

 Lytton's overtures, and war was 

 declared against him. Roberts was 

 given command of the Kurram 

 Field Force, with instructions to 

 occupy Kurram and Khost. He 

 attacked and defeated the Afghans 

 at the Peiwar Kotal. 



In the following year the murder 

 of Cavagnari, the British agent at 

 Kabul, led to a renewal of the war, 

 and Roberts was ordered to march 

 to Kabul. With 7,500 men he in- 

 vaded Afghanistan by the Shutar- 

 gardan Pass, defeated the Afghan 

 army at Charasia, Oct. 6, and next 



