R O B 



ROB 



the nephew of Comyn ; and Bruce, difmiffing liis few fol- 

 lowers, was conflrained to take refuge in an unfrequented 

 ifle of the Hebrides. 



Neither friends nor foes were acquainted with the fate of 

 Bruce, when lie fuddenly appeared at his eilate of Carrick, 

 at the head of a fmall but refolute band, with which he fur- 

 prifed an Englifh lord, who had obtained a grant of that 

 property ; but on the approach of a detachment from the 

 Englifh army, he retreated to the Highlands. In the mean 

 time, Edward was preparing for an expedition into Scot- 

 land with a f rce which was to reduce it to entire fubmif- 

 fion. He was foon after delivered from the molt formidable 

 of his foes, by the death of Edward I. near Carlifle, as he 

 was jult upon the point of entering Scotland with a great 

 army. His fon, Edward II., though he obeyed his fa- 

 ther's dying injunction of marching into Scotland, yet 

 purfued the war with no vigour, and foon returned to Eng- 

 land to join his favourite Gaveiton. Robert, who had re- 

 duced the weltern counties, left them in charge of his gallant 

 friend, fir James Douglas, and proceeded againll his enemies 

 in the north. He afterwards made himfelf mafter of Inver- 

 nefs, and the northern diitricts ; and at length, having taken 

 the caitle of Forfar and the town of Perth, he brought the 

 whole of Scotland, except a few fortrefles, to acknowledge 

 his authority. In the beginning of 1 3 14, there remained in 

 Scotland only the caftles of Stirling, Dunbar, and Berwick, 

 in the hands of the Englifh. Edward had now, after the 

 death of Gaveiton, reconciled himfelf with his difcontented 

 barons ; and it was refolved that he (hould make an attempt 

 to recover Scotland, with fuch a force as might overcome all 

 refillance. At the head of the greatelt army that had ever 

 entered that country from England, he moved from Berwick 

 in June 13 14, and marched for Stirling, to relieve its caitle, 

 then befieged by Robert in perfon. The Scotch army, 

 much inferior in number to the Englilh, but compofed of 

 veteran troops, awaited the approach of the enemy on the 

 banks of the rivulet of Bannock, in the road to Stirling. 

 In a fkirniifh of cavalry preceding the engagement, Robert 

 difplayed his llrength and prowels by cleaving down to the 

 chin, with bis battle-axe, an oppolite commander, of the 

 family of Bohun. This was an omen of the fuccefs of the 

 great battle of Bannockburn, in which, through the able 

 difpofition and conduct of Robert, the Scotch obtained the 

 mod decifive victory over the Englilh that their annals 

 boaft, and eltablifhed the independence of their country. 

 Edward himfelf narrowly efcaped ; and the number of noble 

 prifoners was fuch as to enable Robert to recover, by ex- 

 change, his wife, daughter, and filter, with feveral men of 

 rank, who had been the captives of Edward I. The king 

 of Scotland followed up his fuccefs by an invafion of Eng- 

 land, in whicli he ravaged the northern counties without op- 

 pofition. He now thought himfelf flrong enough to give 

 the Englifli government moleftation in another quarter; and 

 in 13 15 he tent his brother, Edward, over with a body of 

 troops to the north of Ireland, to aflilt the natives in free- 

 ing themfelves from the dominion of England. Robert 

 himfelf followed with a large reinforcement in 13 16, but 

 was compelled by famine to return ; and his brother, after 

 experiencing a variety of fortune, was defeated and flain in 

 an engagement with the Englifli near Dundalk. 



The depofition and death of Edward II., in 1327, gave 

 occafion to a breach of the truce on the part of the king 

 of Scotland, who feems not to have conlidered himfelf as 

 bound to the new government. In reality, however, he was 

 tempted by the disordered Itate of England to renew hof- 

 tilitieSj for which he had been fome time preparing. Young 

 Edward III. was not a prince to fuffer an infult without 



refiftance and retaliation ; and learning that the Scotch 

 under Douglas and Murray, were making dreadful ravages 

 in Northumberland, he allembled a powerful army, and 

 went in fearch ol them. They, however, eluded all his at- 

 tempts to bring them to action, and retired to their own 

 country. Edward difiniffed his army, and in the fame year 

 a peace was agreed upon between the two nations, by an 

 article of which the king of England renounced all claim 

 to fuperiority over the kings or kingdom of Scotland ; and 

 thus the great object of Robert's reign, the independence 

 of his country, was finally eltablifhed. At the fame time, 

 his only ion D?.vid, then live years of age, was contracted 

 to Joan, Edward's filter. Robert was now nearly worn 

 out with the cares and fatigues of his active life ; and in 

 1329, at his caitle of Cardrofs, he expired, in the 54th year 

 of his age and the 24th of his reign, leaving a name me- 

 morable in the annals of his country, which he refcued by 

 his courage and wifdom from a foreign yoke, and rcilorcd 

 to its rank among nations. Hume. Henry. Univ. Hift. 



Robf.rt, king of Naples, fon of Charles II., by the 

 filler of Ladiflaus, king of Hungary, born in 1279, was 

 duke of Calabria at the time of his father's death, in 1 309. 

 The fuccellion was difputed between him and the fon of his 

 elder brother, Carobert, king of Hungary ; but the college 

 of cardinals (Naples being then conlidered as a fief of the 

 holy fee) decided in Robert's favour. He was crowned at 

 Avignon, and, in gratitude to the pope, exerted himfelf to 

 oppofe the Ghibelline or imperial party in Italy. At this 

 time the crown of Sicily was in poileffion of Frederic III. 

 of Arragon, who, for his defence againll the king of Na- 

 ples, formed an alliance with the emperor. Robert was am- 

 bitious to extend his dominion, and almoit the whole of his 

 reign was fpent in fruitlefs attempts to conquer the iiland of 

 Sicily. He alfo, during his contefls with the Imperialilts, 

 aggrandized himfelf in Lombardy, and for fome time he 

 held the fovereignty of great part of Romagna, Florence, 

 Lucca, Ferrara, Genoa, and feveral other places in Pied- 

 mont. He was the molt potent prince in Italy of his age ; 

 but it is Iels on account of his political and military fuccelleS 

 that he deferves commemoration, than becaulc he was the 

 greatelt royal proficient in fcience and letters, and the moll 

 munificent patron of them, in the century in which he lived. 

 Many of the early writers give their teltimony to his merits 

 in this refpect ; and Petrarch, in particular, in feveral parts 

 of his writings, is profufe in Ins praife. Robert, however, 

 is faid, when a child, to have been fo How of comprehenlion, 

 that it was with the greatelt difficulty he could he taught 

 the elements of grammar ; and it was not till his preceptor 

 had interetted him in jEfop's Fables, that he exhibited any 

 fondnefs tor learning. Tli.' private character of the king 

 was highly amiable, and the only fault with which he is 

 taxed was a difpofition to avarice, that grew upon him with 

 his years. He had the misfortune of loling his only Ion, 

 Charles, at the age of 31, on which occafion he exclaimed 

 that the crown was fallen from his head. He died in Ja- 

 nuary 1343, in the 64th year of his age, and 34th of his 

 reign. 



Robert, Claude, a French ecclefiaftic and chronologift 

 of fome celebrity, was born at Chellav, a villa > between 



Bar-fur-Seilie and Tpnnerre, on tin' borders of Burgundy, in 

 the year I 5^4. From fome leniinary in the province jult 

 mentioned, he went to purine In. academical Itudiesat Paris, 

 where he obtained an exhibition in the college of Cambray. 



As foon as he h id been admitted to the degree of licentiate 



in canon la .v, he accompanied his pupil into Burgundy, where, 



iii 1590, he was pn [i cited to a canonry of the Chapel-au- 

 Richc at Dijon. Afterwards he travelled with his pupil 



through 



