Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/439

 letters to him that his master should pay a visit to England as a counterpoise to the design of bringing the pretender to St. James's, which was confidently attributed to Harley. But Robethon had always opposed such projects in the past, and he now wisely pointed out the offence which such a visit would give Queen Anne. A man of address, with a wide knowledge of the world and a fair acquaintance with English political parties, Robethon obtained much influence with George I, though he was held by the ladies of the court to be sly and, when he tried to be pleasant, ‘quite insupportable’ (, Diary, passim).

Robethon was named among those who were to accompany the king to England in 1715, being designated ‘domestick secretary and privy counsellor.’ Like most Hanoverian courtiers, he was thought to be necessitous, and English statesmen found him presumptuous. Sunderland used him and Bothmer as instruments wherewith to alienate the king from Walpole and Townshend in 1716. Upon his resignation Walpole remarked bitterly, ‘I have no objection to the king's German ministers, but there is a mean fellow (of what nation I know not) who is anxious to dispose preferments.’ Robethon had, it appears, obtained a grant of a reversion, and wanted to sell it to Walpole for 2,500l. Before the return of Walpole to power, Robethon's influence diminished. His ability as a linguist was displayed in 1717 when he translated Pope's ‘Essays on Criticism’ into smooth French verse (, Pope, Index, s.v. ‘Roboton’ and ‘Robotham’). The work appeared simultaneously in Amsterdam and in London. He was in 1721 governor of the French hospital of La Providence in East London (Misc. Geneal. new ser. iii. 64). He died in London on 14 April 1722. His wife, who from the squatness of her person and her croaking voice was known as ‘Madame Grenouille,’ survived him. The pair seems to have had a pension from the Prince of Wales as well as one from the king. The ‘Mrs. Robethon, one of the bed-chamber belonging to the Princess Amelia,’ who died on 5 July 1762, after forty years' service in the royal family, was probably a daughter.

A portion of Robethon's correspondence is in the eleven quarto volumes of Hanoverian correspondence among the Stowe MSS. at the British Museum (Nos. 222–32; the items are fully described in the Catalogue, 1895, i. 287–321). The nucleus of this collection was formed by the electress Sophia's papers, which were entrusted to Robethon by George I upon his mother's death in 1714. They were afterwards sold by the executors of the secretary's son, Colonel Robethon, in 1752, to Matthew Duane, and while in his hands were examined by James Macpherson [q. v.] They were subsequently purchased by Thomas Astle [q. v.], and in 1803 by the Marquis of Buckingham (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. pt. iii. p. 15). Volume xi., entitled ‘Rebelles,’ is specially curious.

[Hist. Reg. 1722, Chron. Diary, 22; Gent. Mag. 1762, p. 342; Tindal's Cont. of Rapin, 1745, iv. 503; Macpherson's Orig. Papers, passim; Strickland's Queens of England, v. 345; Coxe's Walpole, i. 153, 210; Coxe's Marlborough, passim; Wentworth Papers; Kemble's State Papers, pp. 58, 144, 480, 506, 512; Legrelle's Succession d'Espagne; Agnew's Protestant Exiles, 1874; Wolfgang Michael's Englische Geschichte im achtzehnten Jahrhundert, 1896, i. 423–4, 446–8, 772–3; Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. pp. 193, 220.] 

ROBIN (fl. 1469), rebel captain, is difficult to identify. After Edward IV's marriage with Elizabeth Woodville, the consequent political disaffection centred in the north of England. There were two risings in 1469. One was headed by Robert Hildyard; the other, instigated by Warwick and Clarence, was led by ‘Robin of Redesdale.’ It was probably thought convenient to have a popular fictitious name as a watchword [see ], and Robin of Redesdale seems to have been the pseudonym adopted by a member of the numerous Conyers family. He was either Sir William Conyers (d. 1495) of Marske or his brother, Sir John Conyers, K.G., who, as head of his family, lived at Hornby, Yorkshire. Warkworth identifies Robin with Sir William (Chron. pp. 6, 44–5), and is followed by Mr. Gairdner. But Sir John and his son (also Sir John) took a prominent part in the rebellion. The two Sir Johns seem to have marched south with the rebels, and at Edgecote in Northamptonshire, on 26 July 1469, helped to defeat the Earl of Pembroke and his brother, Richard Herbert, but the younger Sir John was slain there. A year later, when Edward went into the north after his victory over rebels in Lincolnshire, at the battle of Lose Coat Field, the elder Sir John Conyers and Hildyard came in to him. The former lived until 1490, and was much favoured by Henry VII (cf., Materials for the Reign of Henry VII, Rolls Ser., i. 63, 277, &c.), to whom he was a knight of the body. He married Margery, daughter of Philip, lord Darcy, and was succeeded in his estates by his grandson William (b. 1468), son of the Sir John who was killed at Edgecote. 