John Comyn, 3rd Earl of Buchan (circa 1260 – 1308) was a chief opponent of Robert the Bruce in the civil war that paralleled the War of Scottish Independence. He should not be confused with the better known John III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, who was his cousin, and who was killed by Bruce in Dumfries in March 1306. Confusion between the two men has affected the study of this period of history.
Buchan was the representative of a family that had long dominated the politics of Scotland. He was defeated by Bruce at the Battle of Barra and was subsequently forced to flee to England. Bruce's Harrying of Buchan destroyed support for the Comyns in northern Scotland. This defeat, together with Comyn's death that year, produced a significant and lasting shift in the balance of power in Scotland.
Comyns of Buchan The Comyns, a family of Norman origin, first made their appearance in Scotland during the reign of David I. In 1136 William Comyn, who had formerly been in the service of Henry I of England, became Chancellor of Scotland. William Comyn was part of a new class of French-speaking foreigners whose power and status in Scotland was entirely dependent on their service to the king. They were to be used by David and his successors in extending royal authority to the semi-independent fringes of the kingdom. The Comyns first grants of land were in the south of Scotland. In 1212 they made their most significant advance when William Comyn, Justiciar of Scotia, married Marjory, the only child and heir of Fergus, the "earl" or mormaer of Buchan. The lordship encompassed a large area in the north-east of Scotland. When their son Alexander succeeded them, the Comyns became the first family of Norman origin to acquire comital status in Scotland . This allowed Comyns to gain a head start on the Bruces, also of Norman-French origin, who did not acquire the earldom of Carrick until the later thirteenth century. William also advanced Comyn power by acquiring for his son, Walter Comyn, the southern section of the old earldom of Moray, the Lordship of Badenoch, which also included the more westerly district of Lochaber. By the middle of the thirteenth century Comyn leadership thus extended from the shores of Aberdeenshire westwards all the way to Loch Linnhe. The family remained in power through the successive reigns of Alexander II and Alexander III; but they might be said to have reached the heights of their power and influence during the reign of John Balliol .
Competitors and kings In 1290 Margaret, Maid of Norway, the last direct descendant of the Canmore dynasty, died, leaving the Scottish throne with no clear successor. Thirteen competitors came forward, including Robert Bruce of Annandale, grandfather of the future king, and John Balliol. Although John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, sometimes known as the Black Comyn, was one of the minor competitors, the weight of the family was behind the claim of Balliol, Badenoch's brother-in-law. Following the intervention of Edward I, Balliol finally emerged in 1292 as the strongest claimant in terms of feudal law, though the Bruce family was not reconciled to this outcome. Any successful future bid for the crown could only proceed with the co-operation, or by the destruction, of the house of Comyn. By 1292 the great division which was to dominate Scottish politics on and off for over fifty years had taken definite shape.
John of Buchan
John Comyn became third earl of Buchan following the death of his father, Alexander, in 1289. Comyn was some 30 years of age at the time. He was prominent in John Balliol's administration, emerging as Constable of Scotland by 1293. He was one of those summoned by Edward I, in his capacity as the Feudal overlord of Scotland, to serve in the wars in France. When King John agreed to the demands of the English king for Scottish participation in the war, Buchan and others, took management of the kingdom into their own hands. The new government concluded an alliance with France and prepared for war with England. In the first act of that war Buchan, along with his cousin, John, the Red Comyn, son of the Black Comyn and nephew of King John, led an attack on Carlisle. This attack was against Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, son of the competitor. Thus it might be said that what was to become the War of Scottish Independence opened with a clash between the Comyns and the Bruces.
The attack on Carlisle was a failure; so too was the whole Scottish campaign of 1296. Edward, having knocked out the main Scottish host at the Battle of Dunbar, moved North in rapid stages. Buchan and King John surrendered at Montrose in July, along with other leading Scottish nobles. John of Buchan was stripped of the symbols of power and taken south to the Tower of London. Buchan was imprisoned in England south of the River Trent. In June 1297, he promised to serve in the army against France. That same year Scotland was engulfed in a widespread rebellion, led by Sir Andrew Moray in the North and Sir William Wallace in the South of the country. Moray's rising was of particular interest to Buchan, because it touched on the borders of his own estates. It was with the intention of bringing Moray under control, that Edward finally sent Buchan back to his home in July, 1297.
War of the Comyns
For Buchan, the task of bringing Moray under control would demand diplomatic skill, involving national politics and family loyalties. Moray was known to him, as the son of his close neighbor Sir Andrew Moray of Petty and Avoch. Andrew Moray, at the time, was still in prison in England. Long political allies, there was also a family association between the Morays and the Comyns. Sir Andrew had taken as his second wife Euphemia Comyn, the daughter of the first Lord of Badenoch. To do nothing, or even to join the rebels, involved risks for Comyn, because the Red Comyn was with Edward in Flanders. In the end the two sides met up on the banks of the Spey. Afterward, Moray retired into a "great stronghold of bog and wood" where he could not be followed, as Buchan later offered Edward by way of excuse. Hugh de Cressingham, the chief agent of the English occupation, expressed his opinion that this was a thinly disguised double-act, writing that "the peace on the other side of the Scottish sea (Firth of Forth) is still in obscurity, as it is said, as to the doings of the earls who are there." The Guisborough Chronicle had little doubt of Comyn's culpability, who "at first pretended to repress rebellion but in the end changed sides and became a thorn in our flesh." However, later that year, shortly before the Battle of Stirling Bridge, Buchan was still believed to be loyal by the English government. The reality is that Wallace and Moray could scarcely have met up, or even recruited sufficient forces in the north, without the tacit approval of Buchan and his associates.
The noble and the guardian Buchan can be said to have made at least some indirect contribution to the victory at Stirling, though he was not personally present at the battle. Afterwards his career goes through a period of particular obscurity, few details having survived. It seems certain, though, that the death of Moray, either during or shortly after the battle, and the political ascendancy of William Wallace, who emerged as Guardian of Scotland by early 1298, had an effect on his general attitude towards the rising. Few if any of the major players at this time were either the selfless patriots or the dark villains depicted by later history. Personal advantage and self-interest were always significant factors. For Buchan, and many of his fellow nobles, Wallace was less of the great hero and more of the political parvenu, who by the normal order of things would have been a figure of little importance in a conservative feudal society. It would therefore have been particularly galling for Buchan to see the vacant bishopric of St Andrews filled, at Wallace's behest, by William Lamberton in place of the man he had expected to take the position, Master William Comyn, his own brother. Both John Fordun and John Barbour said in their chronicles, although their neutrality could be questioned, that the Comyns abandoned Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk. Their interpretation of events involves some intellectual acrobatics: Fordun condemns the Comyns for losing the battle for Wallace, while in the next breath he commends Robert Bruce, the future king, for winning it for the English. Yet, setting this interpretation of events aside, the evidence suggests Comyn hostility towards Wallace, magnified, perhaps, by Lamberton's known association with the Bruce family.
Shortly after the defeat at Falkirk, Wallace resigned as Guardian. He was replaced by Robert Bruce the younger, who had now joined the patriots, and John Comyn of Badenoch, who had returned to Scotland. This uneasy match was obviously intended to balance the competing interests in Scotland; for though Bruce acted with the Red Comyn in the name of "the illustrious King John", his claim to the throne was openly known. In 1299, the whole delicate structure threatened to fall apart at a meeting of the baronial council at Peebles, a potentially murderous episode reported by an English spy. David Graham, an adherent of the Comyns, made a surprise intervention;
At the council Sir David Graham demanded the lands and goods of Sir William Wallace because he was leaving the kingdom without the leave or approval of the Guardians. And Sir Malcolm Wallace, Sir William's brother, answered that neither his lands nor his goods should be given away, for they were protected by the peace in which Wallace left the kingdom. At this the two knights gave the lie to each other and drew their daggers. And since Sir David was of Sir John Comyn's following and Sir Malcolm Wallace of the Earl of Carrick's following, it was reported to the Earl of Buchan and John Comyn that a fight had broken out without their knowing it; and John Comyn leaped at the Earl of Carrick and seized him by the throat, and the Earl of Buchan turned on the Bishop of St. Andrews, declaring that treason and lesemajestie were being plotted. Eventually the Stewart and others came between them and them.
Lamberton was added to the panel of Guardians with the intention of keeping the peace, an odd arrangement considering the Comyns' hostility towards him. In the end he had to step down when The Red Comyn declared that he no longer wished to serve with him. Bruce himself stepped down in 1300, at a time when the restoration of King John looked like a serious possibility, the chief political aim of the whole Comyn family.
The Comyns in power
From about 1300 to 1304 the war of Scotland was also, in a sense, the war of the Comyns. With his cousin as Guardian, Buchan was occupied as Justiciar North of the Forth, holding court at Aberdeen in early 1300. He was also active on the border, taking part in raids against the English and in Galloway, where, as sheriff of Wigtown, he attempted to win over the local people to the national cause. In 1301 he joined with John de Soules in campaigning against the English army in the valley of the River Clyde. The following year he was chosen to take part in an embassy to Paris to try to prevent a peace treaty between England and France. In his absence his cousin helped beat an English force at the Battle of Roslin, but this was a false dawn, overtaken by ensuing darkness. Edward, preparing for a major offensive against Scotland, persuaded Philip IV to exclude her from the Treaty of Paris, signed in May 1303. Buchan joined with the other ambassadors in writing words of encouragement to his cousin: