ROBERT I
1619
ROBERTS
appreciated by the general public through these. He died in 1481 on the 2oth of February.
Robert I of Scotland (Robert the Bruce). See BRUCE, ROBERT.
Robert II of Scotland, 1371-90, was born on March 2, 1316, two years after the battle of Bannockburn. He lost both his parents in infancy, and throughout the disastrous reign of his uncle, David II, he was one of the most prominent nobles of Scotland, twice acting as regent during his exile and captivity. On David's death he obtained the crown, and became the founder of the Stuart dynasty. The wars which Robert waged with England were conducted by his barons, who shaped the policy of the kingdom according to their pleasure. The most noted, features of Robert's reign were the invasions of Scotland by the duke of Lancaster ("old John of Gaunt") in 1384 and by Richard II in 1385 and the retaliatory expedition of the Scotch in 1388, which culminated in the battle of Otterburn. King Robert died in Ayrshire, April 19, 1390.
Robert III of Scotland, was born about 1340 and came to the throne on the death of his father, Robert II. His weakness and imbecility as ruler virtually placed the government in the hands of his brother, the Earl of Menteith. The chief events of Robert's reign were the invasion of Scotland by Henry IV of England in 1400 and the retaliatory expedition of Archibald Douglas, which resulted in the terrible disaster at Homildon Hill in Northumberland two years later. Robert died of grief on April 4. 1406, on learning that his son James had been taken prisoner by an English cruiser, while crossing the Channel on his way to France.
Roberts, Frederick Sleigh, Lord Roberts, Earl of Kandahar, Pretoria and Waterfprd. In 1852 a diminutive English boy of 20 in the brand-new uniform of a lieutenant and with the erect carriage acquired in the military school at Sandhurst, E n g la n d, e m-barked for India. The typical sol-(dier, he was born in camp at Cawn-pore, Sept. 30, 1832, and was bred for war. He was immediately nicknamed Little Bobs by the officers of his mess1 in affectionate raillery. He had the toughness and nervous alertness of a terrier. Quiet, keen, cool, a shrewd observer and personally popular, big soldiers were ashamed not to follow where "Little Bobs" led. He learned Hindustani so as to deal personally with native chiefs;
LORD ROBERTS
telegraphy to be independent of operators. He trained himself to remain in the saddle 100 miles or 36 hours at a stretch. He had the geographical instinct that is invaluable to a soldier — he never got lost in the darkest night or the roughest country. For the rest, he never fell sick in the worst pest-holes of India, he was personally brave and proverbially lucky.
Employment for an officer so equipped was never lacking in India. Enlisted for ten years he remained forty-one. In '57, '67 and '78 there were wars — the Indian mutiny, the expedition into Abyssinia and the Afghan war. In each he distinguished himself and rose steadily in rank. In the siege of Delhi he was wounded, in the relief of Lucknow he won the Victoria Cross. The trouble in Afghanistan found him, at 40, a major-general and in command of the column that marched from Kabul to the relief of Kandahar. This march was made spectacular by the fact that the force was cut off from communication for a month, and lost to the world in the desert. "Little Bobs' " bump of locality brought his column through in safety. His generalship lifted the siege. He and his horse were decorated by Queen Victoria. As commander of the army of Burmah he remained in India until 1893. At 61 he was an earl, a member of the house of lords, and held the military rank of field-marshal. He retired to the honorary duties of commander of the army of Ireland, feeling that his active career was finished. He was in his 68th year when disasters to the army in South Africa in the Boer War of 1899 demanded his return to the front. It was in mourning that he went to Cape Town, for his only son and heir to his titles and estates had fallen at Colenso, after winning the Victoria Cross.
"Little Bobs is at the helm at last" was the cry of relief from all England. His grasp of the complicated situation was immediate and masterly, and his activity and energy shamed officers 20 years his junior. He inspected guns and stores and troopships, visited prison-camps and hospitals, laid out transport-lines and planned every detail of a campaign along a i,ooo-mile front of hostilities. He quickly brought order out of chaos, posted every man to the best advantage, and led the main column of the a.rmy of invasion. The march to Pretoria may be compared, in its intention and results, with Sherman's march to the sea. He struck at Cronj£ entrenched at Kimberly, captured Bloemfontein, capital of Orange Free State, compelled the Boers to abandon the siege of Lady smith, divided and demoralized the forces of the enemy, ignored the guerilla chief — De Wet — and bluffed his way on scant rations into Pretoria and so turned defeat into victory. But for "Little Bobs" South Africa would probably have been lost and Great Britain's hold
