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Comyn Family

The Comyn family have had a rough time virtually since the beginning of the fourteenth century, portrayed as they inevitably are as the bad guys to Robert Bruce's good guys. As supporters of John Balliol's claim to the disputed Scottish throne at the end of the thirteenth century, their own power was too dangerous and widespread through much of Scotland for them to survive intact the ruthless nature of the Bruce claim and succession. Indeed, one of their most powerful leaders, John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, was murdered in the church of Greyfriars in Dumfries by Robert Bruce himself, after being invited there to treat for a truce on 10 February 1306.

As history is written by the victors, so the rise to prominence at the Scottish court by the Comyns and their increasing ownership of vast tracts of land and important strategic castles has been portrayed as selfish ambition by some historians, influenced by the romantic notion of Robert Bruce as the Scottish patriot who freed his country from English tyranny. With this emphasis on the complicated story of the Bruce's victory, it is no wonder that the family he destroyed has been marginalised and largely forgotten.

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