John Comyn, 7th Earl of Buchan

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John Comyn, 7th Earl of Buchan (* around 1250; † between August 11 and December 3, 1308 ), was a Scottish magnate .

Origin and heritage

John Comyn came from the Comyn clan . He was the eldest son of Alexander Comyn, 6th Earl of Buchan and his wife Elisabeth de Quincy . As early as 1283, his father gave him lands in the north of England while he was still alive . On the death of his father in 1289, the forty-year-old John Comyn inherited the title of Earl of Buchan and his father's extensive estates. In addition to lands in Scotland, his legacy also included extensive possessions in the English Midlands . However, his majority of his possessions were in Northern Scotland, which is why Buchan was sheriff of Banffshire in 1289 , and he was sheriff of Wigtownshire in 1290 . During the interregnum in which Scotland settled after the death of King Alexander III. located since 1286, Buchan also administered some royal castles.

Role in the Great Cause

Buchan handed over the royal castles he administered to the English King Edward I in 1291 , who was to decide on the claims of the thirteen aspirants to the Scottish throne on behalf of the Scottish nobility . During the Great Cause , the process in which the King of England reviewed the claims of the candidates, Buchan, along with Bishop William Fraser of St Andrews and Domhnall, 6th Earl of Mar , evaluated the claims of the candidates. In 1292 Buchan asked the English king to keep the promises he had made in the Treaty of Bingham . Buchan was present when the English king proclaimed Buchan's cousin John Balliol as the new Scottish king on November 17, 1292 . He gave him some or perhaps all of his land in Galloway in exchange for land in northeastern Scotland.

Role during the Scottish War of Independence

Military at war with England under John Balliol

As tensions grew between England and Scotland, Buchan played an important role in the Scottish government. In the spring of 1296 he led a raid across the English border, whereupon the English king confiscated his Whitwick estate in Leicestershire . When the Scottish resistance collapsed after the defeat at the Battle of Dunbar , Buchan was present at the forced abdication of John Balliol in July 1296. He also submitted to the English king himself.

Resistance to the English occupation

Edward I initially required Buchan to live on his English estates south of the Trent , but in June 1297 he sent Buchan back to northeast Scotland. Together with Bishop Henry le Chen of Aberdeen and Gartnait , the son of the Earl of Mar, he was supposed to break Andrew Murray's resistance to the English occupation. However, Buchan only faked his actions against Murray and openly switched sides soon after. He fought the English, but it is unclear whether he took part in the Battle of Falkirk in 1298 , in which Edward I decisively defeated the Scots. After the defeat, Buchan was part of the core of the remaining Scottish government and attended the meeting in Peebles in August 1299 . During that meeting, the Comyn family rifted with the Bruce family . The dispute resulted in the capture of the Earl of Carrick by John Comyn the Younger , while Buchan accused William de Lamberton , the Bishop of St Andrews, of treason. The Scots then settled their internal dispute when they learned that Buchan's younger brother, Sir Alexander Comyn , who was fighting on the side of the English, was plundering lands in northern Scotland with Lachlan Macruarie , a nobleman from north-west Scotland. As Justiciar of Scotia , Buchan heard cases in Aberdeen which were brought before him for decision. His brother Alexander later protested against this, claiming that Edward I had handed over this office to him. Buchan did not attend the parliament in Rutherglen , planned for May 1300 , because at the time he was in Galloway, where an English invasion was feared and would be supported by the population. Since the parliament was postponed until December 17th, Buchan was able to attend the meeting. Buchan previously led a Scottish force, which, however , had to flee from an English army on the River Cree . In 1301 Buchan was able to prevent together with Sir John Soulis at Loudoun that the army of Edward I located near Glasgow could unite with the troops of the English heir to the throne Edward in western Ayrshire . Afterwards Buchan fled into French exile in view of the military superiority of the English.

Change to the English side and expulsion from Scotland

In 1304 Buchan returned to Scotland and, like most other Scottish nobles, submitted to the English king. Edward I accepted him with grace and appointed him one of the advisors to the new governor John of Brittany . On May 22, 1306, he and the English heir to the throne were made Knight of the Bath . The peace was disrupted in 1306 by the rebellion of Robert Bruce . Since Bruce John Comyn had murdered the Younger, Buchan was forced to support the English side. In late 1307, Robert Bruce moved to northeastern Scotland with the intent of breaking Buchan's rule in the area. Probably in May 1308 Bruce was able to defeat Buchan's troops in the Battle of Inverurie , then Bruce had the Comyns' possessions in Buchan plundered. The new English King Edward II appointed Buchan as overseer of Annandale , Carrick and Galloway, the western Scottish Marches , but Buchan no longer actively participated in the war in Scotland after the loss of his northern Scottish possessions and withdrew to England, where he was died before the end of 1308.

Marriage and inheritance

Buchan was seldom successful as a military man, which perhaps resulted in his never being named a Guardians of Scotland . On the other hand, he was an able administrator who served the Scottish government well. His marriage to Isabel Macduff remained childless and ended miserably when Isabel left Buchan in 1306. Instead, she joined Robert Bruce and crowned him King of Scots on March 25, 1306. Captured by the English afterwards, Edward I had them locked in a cage.

After Buchan's death, his remaining possessions in England fell to his niece Alicia Comyn and her husband Henry de Beaumont, 1st Baron Beaumont , the latter was able to participate in Scottish parliaments as " Earl of Buchan " from 1334 under the rights of his wife and with English protection However, the lands in Scotland were never returned to him, his wife or his descendants and the earl title attached to these lands became extinct.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 45.
  2. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 63.
  3. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 65.
  4. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 84.
  5. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 117.
  6. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 108.

literature

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Alexander Comyn Earl of Buchan
1290-1308 		Title forfeited
(1334-1340 Henry de Beaumont de iure uxoris Alicia Comyn )
Alexander Comyn Constable of Scotland
1290-1308 		Title forfeited
personal data
SURNAME John Comyn, 7th Earl of Buchan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH around 1250
DATE OF DEATH between August 11, 1308 and December 3, 1308