| John III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch | |
|---|---|
| Died | 10 February 1306 Dumfries |
| Cause of death | stabbing |
| Title | Guardian of Scotland |
| Other names | Red Comyn |
| Nationality | Scottish |
John III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch and Lord of Lochaber or John "the Red", also known simply as the Red Comyn (died 10 February 1306) was a Scottish nobleman who was an important figure in the Wars of Scottish Independence, and was Guardian of Scotland during the Second Interregnum 1296-1306. He is best known for having been stabbed to death by King Robert I of Scotland in Dumfries.
His father, John II Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, known as the Black Comyn, was one of the Competitors for the Crown of Scotland, claiming his descent from King Donald III of Scotland. His mother was Eleanor Balliol, eldest daughter of John de Balliol. The Red Comyn might thus be said to have combined two lines of royal descent, Celtic and Norman.
He had, moreover, links with the royal house of England: in the early 1290s he married Joan de Valence, daughter of William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke, an uncle of Edward I.
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On the eve of the Wars of Independence the Comyns were one of the dominant families of Scotland, with extensive land holdings in both the north and south of the country, and political influence and family connections with the crown. Of Norman-French origin, the family first made an appearance in Scotland during the reign of David I and made steady progress ever since. In the thirteenth century they acquired the lordship of Badenoch, with extensive landholdings also in Lochaber, as well as the earldom of Buchan. On the death of Alexander III, John Comyn's father was appointed to the panel of Guardians to await the arrival of the infant Maid of Norway, granddaughter of Alexander III. Her death in 1290 immersed the nation in crisis, finally solved in 1292 when John Balliol emerged as king, with the support of his Comyn kinsmen, a solution that was never accepted by the next best claimant, Robert Bruce of Annandale, grandfather of the future king. The Comyns were the principal supporters of King John as was William Wallace, even after he was deposed by Edward I in 1296. As such they were foremost among the enemies of the house of Bruce.
With the outbreak of war between England and Scotland, Comyn, his father, and his cousin, John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, crossed the border and attacked Carlisle, defended for King Edward by Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, the father of the future king. The Wars of Scottish Independence thus began in a clash between the Bruces and Comyns. Having no siege equipment, the Comyns drew off and subsequently joined the main Scottish host at Haddington, which had been assembled to meet the advance of the English army along the east coast. On 27 April the Scots were overwhelmed at the Battle of Dunbar, with John being among the many prisoners taken. While his father and cousin retreated north in the company of the king, he was sent south, to be imprisoned in the Tower of London.
John remained in prison for some months; but with the war in Scotland seemingly over he was finally released on condition that he took up service with Edward in Flanders, the main theatre of operations in his war against the French. While there he learned of the rising of William Wallace and Andrew de Moray and their joint victory over the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. In March 1298 John was among Scots who deserted from the English, finally ending up in Paris, where they appealed for aid to Philip IV. The only help they managed to get was a ship back to Scotland, arriving before the summer.
Earlier that year William Wallace had emerged as Guardian, Moray having died at Stirling or shortly after. The main task facing the Guardian was to gather a national army to meet an invasion by Edward, anxious to overturn the verdict of Stirling Bridge. For cavalry, by far the weakest element of the Scottish host, Wallace depended on the Comyns and the other noble families. On 22 July Wallace's army was destroyed at the Battle of Falkirk, the light horse being driven off at an early stage by the heavy English cavalry. It is possible that John Comyn was present at the battle, though the evidence is far from conclusive. The main Scottish sources, the chronicles of John Fordun and John Barbour, were composed decades after the event, long after the Comyns had been expelled from Scotland. The important thing to remember about Fordun and Barbour is that they were not composing detached historical narratives, but manifestos, so to speak, with a specific agenda in mind, namely to magnify the later King, Robert Bruce, and diminish John Comyn. In Fordun John and his kin move on and off stage like operatic villains. Hating Wallace, they seem only to have appeared on the battlefield with premeditated treachery in mind—"For, on account of the ill-will, begotten of the sprig of envy, which the Comyns had conceived towards the aforesaid William, they, with their accomplices, forsook the field, and escaped unhurt." This is set alongside a commendation of Robert Bruce, the future king, who, in Fordun's account, fought on the side of the English and "was the means of bringing about the victory." Set against the partisan Scottish accounts we have the contemporary English record of the Lanercost Chronicle, partisan in a different way, which simply blames the inadequacy of the Scottish cavalry in general. Soon after the defeat John Comyn emerged as Guardian in place of Wallace, unlikely if treachery had been so manifest.
With no independent power base Wallace, whose prestige had always been based on the success of his army, had little choice but to resign as Guardian after Falkirk, though Fordun has him stepping down because of the "wickedness of the Comyns." In his place came one of the more unusual, and difficult, balancing acts in Scottish history: John Comyn and Robert Bruce the younger, who had now joined the patriot party. The Scots were still fighting on behalf of the absent King John, so Bruce must have paid lip service to the cause, though his royal ambitions were openly known. The records give little or nothing in the way of insight into the feelings and motives of these men, but it seems reasonably clear that hatred and suspicion of the one for the other were uppermost. At a meeting of a council of the magnates at Peebles in August 1299 an argument broke out, during which Comyn is said by an English spy to have seized Bruce by the throat. Seemingly to act as a mediator William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews, was appointed as a third Guardian, not the best of arrangements as Lamberton was politically closer to Bruce. Bruce resigned before May 1300, when the restoration of King John was looking increasingly likely, leaving only Comyn and Lamberton, but even this was too much. When parliament assembled at Rutherglen it learned that "the bishop of St Andrews and sire John Comyn were at discord and the Stewart of Scotland and the earl of Atholl took the part of the bishop, and sir John Comyn said that he did not wish to be a guardian of the realm along with the bishop. But at length they were in accord and they elected Sir Ingram d'Umphraville to be one of the guardians of the realm in place of the earl of Carrick."
This was obviously an arrangement that suited Comyn, because Umphraville was a close political associate and a kinsman of King John. With the Guardianship taking Scotland one way Robert Bruce went the other, making his peace with Edward by February 1302 in a document in which he expressed the fear that "the realm of Scotland might be removed from the hands of the king, which God forbid, and delivered to John Balliol, or to his son."
The new triumvirate lasted to May 1301, when John de Soules emerged as sole Guardian, seemingly appointed by Balliol himself pending his return. The following year, with Soules leaving for France on a diplomatic mission, Comyn became sole Guardian, occupying the position for the next two years. Comyn became Lord of Badenoch following his father's death that same year.
John Comyn led troops at the Battle of Roslin 24 February 1303 along side Simon Fraser which led to a devastating defeat of the English forces led by Sir John Segrave.
There was a certain inevitability to the Comyn domination of Scottish government in the years before 1304: not only were they the most powerful of the noble families, but their heartlands to the north of the Forth had been untouched ever since the campaign of 1296. English invasions in 1298, 1300 and 1301 had been confined to the south of the country, leaving the north as the chief recruiting ground, and supply base, of the Scottish army. The Guardian's prestige increased still further when he and Sir Simon Fraser defeated an English force at the Battle of Roslin in February 1303. For once Fordun recognised the achievement:
There never was so desperate a struggle, or one in which the stoutness of knightly prowess shone forth so brightly. The commander and leader in this struggle was John Comyn, the son... John Comyn, then guardian of Scotland, and Simon Fraser with their followers, day and night, did their best to harass and to annoy, by their general prowess, the aforesaid kings officers and bailiffs... the aforesaid John Comyn and Simon, with their abettors, hearing of their arrival at Rosslyn and wishing to steal a march rather than have one stolen upon them, came briskly through from Biggar to Rosslyn, in one night, with some chosen men, who chose rather death before unworthy subjection to the English nation; and all of a sudden they fearlessly fell upon the enemy.
Politically, however, the outlook was bleak. Philip entered into a final peace with Edward, from which Scotland was excluded. John Balliol, whose star had risen briefly above the horizon, now sank into the twilight of history. In a mood of desperation the Scottish diplomats in Paris, who included Comyn's cousin Buchan, wrote words of encouragement; "For God's sake do not despair...it would gladden your hearts if you would know how much your honour has increased in every part of the world as a result of your recent battle with the English." However, for the first time since 1296 Edward was preparing an offensive that would take him deep into the north of Scotland. Unable to mount an effective resistance, and with his main base threatened with destruction, Comyn entered into peace negotiations, concluded at Strathord near Perth in February 1304. However, this was no abject surrender, unlike that of King John in 1296. Comyn laid down clear terms, insisting that there should be no reprisals or disinheritance, which Edward accepted, with notable exceptions. Edward maintained his particular hatred for one former Guardian. Comyn was thus obliged to adhere to a condition in which he and other named individuals were to "capture Sir William Wallace and hand him over to the king, who will watch to see how each of them conducts himself so that he can do most favour to whoever shall capture Wallace..." There is no evidence to suggest Comyn made any effort to fulfill this condition, though this does not imply that he would have failed to hand over Wallace if he had the opportunity.
On 10 February 1306 Robert Bruce participated in the killing of John Comyn before the high altar of the Greyfriars Church in Dumfries.[1] Robert the Bruce called Comyn to a meeting, stabbed him and rushed out to tell Roger de Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick went in to finish the job uttering: "You doubt! I mak siccar!" ("I make sure!")
Apart from these bare facts, nothing certain can be gathered from contemporary accounts. While later Scottish sources all try to justify the crime by amplifying earlier accusations of malevolence and treachery against Comyn, the English sources portray Robert as a villain who lured Comyn into a church — taken as a guarantee of safety — with the intention of committing premeditated murder. One thing all the sources agree on, both English and Scottish, is that Bruce could never move his cause forward for as long as John Comyn was alive.
We know that by early 1306, either from the records or subsequent events, that Bruce had secured the support of leading Scottish churchmen, like William de Lamberton and Robert Wishart the bishop of Glasgow, for some kind of political coup, most likely involving the revival of the Scottish monarchy. Balliol was obviously never going to return — not that Bruce would have worked for such an outcome — so the only two realistic candidates for the office were either himself or John Comyn. Some sources suggest that Bruce offered a pact, whereby one would take the crown in return for the lands of the other; but it does not seem credible that he would have hazarded his long-cherished claim so lightly.
The murder of John Comyn took Edward by complete surprise. Thirteen days after the event, a garbled version of the facts reached his court at Winchester, where the murder was reported as "the work of some people who are doing their utmost to trouble the peace and quiet of the realm of Scotland." Once the picture became clear he reacted in fury, authorising Aymer de Valence, Comyn's brother-in-law, to take extraordinary action against Bruce, who had since been crowned king less than seven weeks after the killing in Dumfries. He also emphasised his blood relationship with the Comyns by ordering his cousin, Joan, to send John's young son and namesake to England, where he was placed in the care of Sir John Weston, guardian of the royal children. John Comyn the younger grew to manhood in England, not returning to Scotland until 1314, when he was killed at the Battle of Bannockburn. The death of his father plunged Scotland into a brief but bloody civil war, largely concluded by 1308, but with political reverberations that were to last for decades.
| Peerage of Scotland | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John II |
Lord of Badenoch 1302–1306 |
Succeeded by John IV |