Horatio kitchener. In London, he was named as com-
mander in chief of the British army, succeeding Lord
Garnet Wolseley. Given an earldom as Lord Roberts, he
also received a grant of £100,000 from Parliament. In
1905, he retired formally to serve as the head of the Na-
tional Service League, a group advocating a strong na-
tional defense. In 1911 he published Fallacies and Facts,
a work discussing compulsory military service, which he
supported.
When the First World War broke out in 1914, Rob-
erts visited the western front to welcome the two Indian
divisions to France. It was while touring the front that
he caught pneumonia, and he succumbed to it at the
age of 82 on 14 November 1914, while in the hospital
in St. Omer. He was buried with full honors at St. Paul’s
Cathedral in London.
Long fondly remembered in the British army, Lord
Roberts won impressive victories on two continents. The
authors of the The Wordsworth Dictionary of Military Bi-
ography write: “Roberts was one of the truly respected
commanders of the British Army, much loved by his
men and adored by the public. From an early age his
personal courage was well-known—the evidence was
his extraordinary ‘chest’ of medals, at a time when gal-
lantry decorations were, in general, sparsely awarded.
After his early commands in India, his presence alone in
charge of British forces was capable of reviving morale
and even in his old age his dynamic presence in South
Africa quickly brought about the victories which had
hitherto escaped the British Army.”
References: Jerrold, Walter, Field-Marshal Earl Roberts,
V.C.: The Life Story of a Great Soldier (London: W.A.
Hammond, 1914); James, David, Lord Roberts (London:
Hollis & Carter, 1954); Roberts, Frederick Sleigh, Earl
Roberts, Roberts in India: The Military Papers of Field
Marshal Lord Roberts, 1876–1893, edited by Brian Rob-
son (Dover, N.H.: Alan Sutton for the Army Records So-
ciety, 1993); Windrow, Martin, and Francis K. Mason,
“Roberts, Frederick Sleigh, 1st Earl of Kandahar, Pretoria,
and Waterford,” in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Military
Biography (Hertfordshire, U.K.: Wordsworth Editions
Ltd., 1997), 242–246; Wallace, Edgar, Britain’s Great
Men: Lord Roberts: The Man and His Campaigns (London:
George Newnes, 1914); Hannah, W. H., Bobs, Kipling’s
General: The Life of Field-Marshal Earl Roberts of Kanda-
har, V.C. (London: Lee Cooper, 1972).
Robert the Bruce (Robert Broyss, Robert de
Broyss, earl of Carrick, Lord Annandale, Robert I)
(1274–1329) Scottish king
Robert the Bruce, whose name may have been Robert
de Broyss or Robert Broyss, was born sometime in 1274
in Turnberry, Ayrshire, the son of Robert Broyss, earl
of Carrick, and descended from a Norman baron who
came with William the Conqueror to England in 1066.
In 1292, Robert Broyss was styled as Lord Annandale,
and he allowed his son to take the title of earl of Carrick,
a title he held until his coronation as king of Scotland in- Unfortunately, details of Robert’s early life are un-
certain, but it is known that he became Lord Annandale
upon his father’s death in 1304.
In 1296, along with other Scottish barons, Robert
swore his loyalty to King edWard i of England, but he
betrayed Edward by siding with those who desired Scot-
tish independence. On 25 March 1306, he was crowned
as Robert I, king of Scotland. At once, Edward, known
as “The Hammer of the Scots,” launched a massive at-
tack on the Scottish forces Robert now led. After the
Scots were defeated at Methven in Perthshire (19 June
1306), Robert was forced to flee into exile on the island
of Rathlin, off the coast of Ireland. Edward confiscated
his family’s estates and slaughtered or punished his sup-
porters. Robert planned his return, gathering a new
army to take on Edward. In 1307, he marched this army
into Scotland and defeated the English forces at Loudon
Hill, also known as Drumclog (10 May 1307). This bat-
tle took place two months before Edward died on 7 July - Robert used Edward’s death and the interregnum
to defeat Scottish rivals at the battles of Inverurie (May
- and Brander (August 1308) and to take several
castles at Balvenie and Urquart.
Edward’s 23-year-old son, crowned as edWard ii,
did not move against the Scots, and a period of years
went by during which the Scots regained control of
Scottish lands in the north. However, by 1314 Edward
was old enough to take up his father’s crusade against the
Scots, and the English army was sent north. Edward’s
attempts to relieve the English garrison at Stirling Castle
was cut off by Robert at the famed battle of Bannock-
burn nearby (23–24 June 1314). In this landmark bat-
tle, Robert the Bruce, backed by some 40,000 Scottish
troops, took on an immense army of 60,000–80,000
English soldiers commanded by Edward II himself (the
exact number is unknown). Historian George Bruce
RobeRt the bRuce