Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/619

Rh ROBERT 595 In March 1318 first the town and then the castle of Berwick capitulated, and Bruce wasted the English border as far as Ripon. In December he held a parliament at Scone, where he displayed the same wisdom as a legislator which he had shown as a general. The death of his brother and his daughter rendered a resettlement of the crown advisable, which was made in the same order as before, with a provision as to the regency in case of a minor heir in favour of Randolph, and failing him Douglas. The defence of the country was next cared for by regula- tions for the arming of the whole nation, down to every one who owned the value of a cow, a measure far in ad- vance of the old feudal levy. Exports during war and of arms at any time were prohibited. Internal justice was regulated, and it was declared that it was to be done to poor and rich alike. Leasing-making a Scottish term for seditious language -was to be sternly punished. The nobles were exhorted not to oppress the commons. Reforms were also made in the tedious technicalities of the feudal law. In 1319 an attempt to recover Berwick was repelled by Walter the Steward, and Bruce took occasion of a visit to compliment his son-in-law and raise the walls 10 feet. His position was now so strong that foreign states began to testify their respect. Bruges and Ypres rejected a request of Edward tp cut off the Scottish trade with Flanders. The pope, who had excommunicated Bruce, was addressed by the parliament of Arbroath in 1320 in a letter which compared Bruce to a Joshua or Judas Maccabaeus, who had wrought the salvation of his people, and declared they fought "not for glory, truth, or honour, but for that liberty which no virtuous man will survive." Moved by this language and conscious of the weakness of Edward, the pope exhorted him to make peace with Scotland, and three years later Randolph at last procured the recognition of Bruce as king from the papal see by promising aid in a crusade. In 1326 the French king made a similar acknowledgment by the treaty of Corbeil. Meantime hostilities more or less constant continued with England, but, though in 1322 Edward made an incursion as far as Edinburgh, the fatal internal weakness of his government prevented his gaining any real success. Some of his chief nobles Lancaster in 1321 and Sir Andrew Hartcla in 1322 entered into correspondence with the Scots, and, though Hartcla's treason was detected and punished by his death, Edward was forced to make a treaty for a long truce of thirteen years at Newcastle on 30th May, which Bruce ratified at Berwick. The intrigue of the queen with Roger Mortimer led to the end of the ignominious reign by Edward's deposition and murder in 1327 ; and one of the first acts of the new reign, after a narrow escape of the young king from capture by Randolph, was the treaty of York, ratified at Northampton in April 1328, by which it was agreed that "Scotland, according to its ancient bounds in the days of Alexander III., should remain to Robert, king of Scots, and his heirs free and divided from England, without any subjection, servitude, claim or demand whatsoever." Johanna, Edward's sister, was to be given in marriage to David, the infant son of Bruce, and the ceremony was celebrated at Berwick on 12th July. The chief author of Scottish independence barely survived his work. His last years had been spent chiefly at the castle of Cardross on the Clyde, which he acquired in 1326, and the conduct of war, as well as the negotiations for peace, had been left to the young leaders Randolph and Douglas, whose training was one of Bruce's services to his country. Ever active, he employed himself in the narrower sphere of repairing the castle and improving its domains and gardens, in shipbuilding on the Clyde, and in the exercise of the royal virtues of hospitality and charity. The reli- gious feeling, which had not been absent even during the struggles of manhood, deepened in old age, and took the form the piety of the times prescribed. He made careful provision for his funeral, his tomb, and masses for his soul. He procured from the pope a bull authorizing his confessor to absolve him even at the moment of death. He died from leprosy, contracted in the hardships of earlier life, on 7th June 1329, and was buried at Dunfermline beside his second wife, Elizabeth de Burgh, whom he had married about 1304, and who bore him late his only son, David, who succeeded him. Of two surviving daughters, Matilda married Thomas Ysaak, a simple esquire, and Margaret became the wife of William, earl of Sutherland. Marjory, an only child by his first wife, Isabella of Mar, had pre- deceased him. Several children not born in wedlock have been traced in the records, but none of them became in any way famous. In fulfilment of a vow to visit the Holy Sepulchre, which he could not accomplish in person, Bruce requested Douglas to carry his heart there, but his faithful follower perished on the way, fight- ing in Spain against the Moors, and the heart of Bruce, recovered by Sir William Keith, found its resting-place at Melrose. When his corpse was disinterred in 1819 the breast-bone was found severed to admit of the removal of the heart, thus confirming the story pre- served in the verses of Barbour. That national poet collected in the earliest Scottish poem, written in the reign of Bruce's grandson, the copious traditions which clustered round his memory. It is a panegyric ; but history has not refused to accept it as a genuine representation of the character of the great king, in spirit, if not in every detail. Its dominant note is freedom the liberty of the nation from foreign bondage, and of the individual from oppression. It is the same note which Tacitus embodied in the speech of Galgacus at the dawn of Scottish history. Often as it has been heard before and since in the course of history, seldom has it had a more illustrious champion than Robert the Bruce. (M. M.) ROBERT, the name of two dukes of Normandy. See NORMANDY, vol. xvii. p. 542 for ROBERT I. (d. 1035) and p. 544 for ROBERT II. (d. 1134); see also ENGLAND, vol. viii. p. 301. ROBERT, HUBERT (1753-1808), born at Paris in 1753, deserves to be remembered not so much for his skill as a painter as for the liveliness and point with which he treated the subjects he painted. The contrast between the ruins of ancient Rome and the life of his time excited his keenest interest ; and, although he had started for Italy on his own responsibility, the credit he there acquired procured him the protection of the minister Marigny and an official allowance. His incessant activity as an artist, his daring character, his many adventures, attracted general sympathy and admiration. In the fourth canto of his L'Imagincdion Delille celebrated Robert's miraculous escape when lost in the catacombs ; later in life, when imprisoned during the Terror and marked for the guillotine, by a fatal accident another died in his place and Robert lived. The quantity of his work is immense ; the Louvre alone contains nine paintings by his hand and specimens are frequently to be met with in provincial museums and private collections. In spite of a certain naturalness in details which was wanting to his predecessor Panini, all Robert's work has more or less of that scenic character which justified the taste of Voltaire when he selected him to paint the decora- tions of his theatre at Ferney. Robert fell, struck by apoplexy, on 15th April 1808. His brush was in his hand; he had painted till the last moment. He was much en- graved by the abbe Le Non, with whom he had visited Naples in the company of Fragonard during his early days ; in Italy his work has also been frequently reproduced by Chatelain, Lienard, Le Veau, and others. See C. Blanc, Hist, des Pcintrcs ; Villot, Notice dcs Tableaux du Louvre ; Julius Meyer, Gcsch. mod. fr. Malerei. ROBERT, Louis LEOPOLD (1794-1835), French painter, was born at Chaux de Fonds (Neufchatel) in Switzerland on 13th May 1794, but left his native place with the en-