[Robben Island], a small island at the entrance of Table Bay, 10 m. NW. of Cape Town; has a lunatic asylum and a leper colony.
[Robbia, Luca Delia], Italian sculptor, born in Florence, where he lived and worked all his days; executed a series of bas-reliefs for the cathedral, but is known chiefly for his works in enamelled terra-cotta, the like of which is named after him, "Robbia-ware" (1400-1482).
[Robert I]. See [Bruce].
[Robert II.], king of Scotland from 1371 to 1390, son of Walter Stewart and Marjory, only daughter of Robert the Bruce; succeeded David II., and became the founder of the Stuart dynasty; was a peaceable man, but his nobles were turbulent, and provoked invasions on the part of England by their forays on the Borders (1316-1390).
[Robert III.], king of Scotland from 1390 to 1406, son of Robert II.; was a quite incompetent ruler, and during his reign the barons acquired an ascendency and displayed a disloyalty which greatly diminished the power of the Crown both in his and succeeding reigns; the government fell largely into the hands of the king's brother, the turbulent and ambitious Robert, Duke of Albany; an invasion (1400) by Henry IV. of England and a retaliatory expedition under Archibald Douglas, which ended in the crushing defeat of Homildon Hill (1402), are the chief events of the reign (1340-1406).
[Robert the Devil], the hero of an old French romance identified with Robert, first Duke of Normandy, who, after a career of cruelty and crime, repented and became a Christian, but had to expiate his guilt by wandering as a ghost over the earth till the day of judgment; he is the subject of an opera composed by Meyerbeer.
[Roberts, David], painter, born in Edinburgh; began as a house-painter; became a scene-painter; studied artistic drawing, and devoted himself to architectural painting, his first pictures being of Rouen and Amiens cathedrals; visiting Spain he published a collection of Spanish sketches, and after a tour in the East published in 1842 a magnificently-illustrated volume entitled the "Holy Land, Syria, Idumæa, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia;" a great number of his pictures are ecclesiastical interiors (1796-1864).
[Roberts, Lord], born at Cawnpore, educated in England; entered the Bengal Artillery in 1851; served throughout the Indian Mutiny, commanded in the Afghan War, and achieved a brilliant series of successes, which were rewarded with honours on his return to England; was made commander-in-chief of the Madras army in 1881, commander-in-chief in India in 1885, and commander of the forces in Ireland in 1895; b. 1832.
[Robertson, Frederick William], distinguished preacher, born in London; a graduate of Brasenose College, Oxford, entered the Church in 1840, was curate first at Winchester, next at Cheltenham, and finally settled in Brighton; is known far and wide by his printed sermons for his insight into, and his earnestness in behalf of, Christian truth (1816-1853).
[Robertson, Joseph], antiquary, born and educated at Aberdeen; apprenticed to a lawyer, but soon took to journalism, and became editor of the Aberdeen Constitutional, and afterwards of the Glasgow Constitutional; in 1849 was editor of the Edinburgh Evening Courant, and four years later received the post of curator of the historical department of the Edinburgh Register House; author of various historical, antiquarian, and topographical works (1810-1866).