Comyn, CUMMING

Comyn, CUMMING, or CUMYN, a family which rose to great power and eminence in England and Scotland. It took its name from the town of Comines, near Lille, on the frontier between France and Belgium. While one branch remained there, and in 1445 gave birth to the historian Philippe de Comines (q.v.), another followed the banners of William of Normandy to the conquest of England. In 1069 the Conqueror sent Robert of Comines, or Comyn, whom he created Earl of Northumberland, with 700 horse to reduce the yet unsubdued provinces of the north. He seized Durham, but had not held it for 48 hours when the people suddenly rose against him, and he perished in the flames of the bishop's palace, leaving two infant sons. The younger, William, became Chancellor of Scotland about 1133, and nine years later all but possessed himself of the see of Durham. The chancellor's grandnephew, Richard, inherited the English possessions of his family, and acquired lands in Scotland. By his marriage with Hextilda, the granddaughter of Donald Bane, king of the Scots, he had a son William, who was Great Justiciary of Scotland, and about 1210 became Earl of Buchan by marrying Marjory, daughter and heiress of Fergus, the last Celtic Earl of Buchan. Their son, Alexander, Earl of Buchan, married Isabella or Elizabeth, second daughter of Roger de Quenci, Earl of Winchester, and with her acquired the high office of Constable of Scotland, with great estates in Galloway, Fife, and the Lothians. By a previous marriage with a wife whose name has not been ascertained, William Comyn was father of Richard—whose son John (Red John Comyn) became Lord of Badenoch—and of Walter, who by marriage became Earl of Menteith, and was one of the guardians or regents of Scotland during the minority of Alexander III. Through other marriages the family obtained, for a time, the earldoms of Angus and Athole, so that, by the middle of the 13th century, there were in Scotland 4 earls, 1 lord, and 32 belted knights of the name of Comyn. Within seventy years afterwards this great house was so utterly overthrown that, in the words of a contemporary chronicle, 'there was no memorial left of it in the land, save the orisons of the monks of Deer' (founded as a Cistercian monastery by William Comyn, Earl of Buchan, in 1219). The Comyns perished in the memorable revolution which placed Bruce on the throne of Scotland. Their chief, Black John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, great-grandson of William, Earl of Buchan, had, in 1291, been an unsuccessful competitor for the crown, as a descendant of the old Celtic dynasty through the granddaughter of King Donald Bane. His son, also called Red John Comyn, was one of the wardens of Scotland, and distinguished himself by his gallant resistance to the English. Suspected by Bruce of betraying him to Edward, Comyn fell under Bruce's dagger, before the altar of the Franciscan friars at Dumfries in 1306; and his kindred went down, one after another, in the struggle to avenge him. John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, the son of Alexander and Isabella de Quenci, was defeated by Bruce in a pitched battle, near Inverury, in 1308, when his earldom was wasted with such relentless severity, that—we are told by the poet who sang the victories of Bruce—for sixty years afterwards men mourned the desolation of Buchan. Such of the Comyns as escaped the sword found refuge, with their wives and children, in England, where, although they were so poor as to be dependants on the bounty of the English court, they married into the best families, so that, in the words of Mr Riddell, 'their blood at this day circulates through all that is noble in the sister kingdom.' See M. E. Cumming-Bruce, Family Records of the Bruces and the Comyns (Edin. 1870).