John “Red” Comyn (c. 1270–1306): The Nobleman Who Stood Between a Kingdom and Its King
In the fractious and violent theater of Scotland’s struggle for independence, no figure embodies the brutal complexity of medieval loyalty more than John “Red” Comyn—nobleman, warrior, Guardian of Scotland, and ultimately, martyr to a rival king’s ambition. Born into one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Scotland, Red Comyn was not a usurper or traitor, but a man raised to command, bred to govern, and convinced that the rightful destiny of Scotland should pass through his bloodline. Yet history would not spare him the dignity of legacy. Stabbed to death at the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries by Robert the Bruce in 1306, Comyn became a casualty not of foreign conquest, but of the bitter internal feud that would determine Scotland’s future. “Comyn may have been too proud, too cautious, and too slow—but his death handed Bruce the crown, and Scotland the hero it needed,” wrote historian Michael Penman. “And yet for a moment, Comyn held the kingdom in his grasp” (Penman, Robert the Bruce: King of the Scots, 2014).
John Comyn was born around 1270, the scion of the Comyn of Badenoch family, a dynasty that by the late 13th century controlled vast territories stretching across the north of Scotland and into the Borders. The Comyns had long been fixtures in the political architecture of Scotland; his father, John Comyn I, served as one of King Alexander III’s chief counselors. When the Scottish throne fell into crisis after Alexander’s death in 1286, it was not King Edward I of England but the Comyns who wielded much of the internal authority. They were claimants to the crown themselves, with John Comyn’s grandmother being a sister to King John Balliol, thus placing Red Comyn squarely in the line of royal succession.
During the early phase of the Wars of Independence, Red Comyn was an ardent supporter of King John Balliol and a fierce opponent of English encroachment. When Edward I deposed Balliol in 1296 and claimed Scotland as a vassal kingdom, Comyn stood among the few nobles who actively resisted. He played a pivotal role in guerrilla campaigns across the north and, following the death of William Wallace’s military momentum, Comyn was named one of the Guardians of Scotland, sharing power briefly with Robert the Bruce—an alliance that was always more cold war than co-rule. As Fiona Watson observed, “Comyn and Bruce may have fought the English together, but they never stopped fighting each other” (Watson, Under the Hammer, 1998).
In 1303, with Scottish resistance faltering and Edward’s forces marching steadily north, Comyn made a fateful decision: he submitted to Edward I, seeking clemency and preservation of his lands. To some, this was betrayal; to others, it was prudence. He was hardly alone—many Scottish nobles did the same—but his position as Guardian made the act particularly damaging to national morale. Still, Comyn maintained significant influence. Unlike Bruce, who had fewer vassals and less institutional clout, Comyn controlled fortresses, commanded loyal clans, and retained the support of the Balliol faction. For Edward, this made Comyn both a useful figure and a dangerous one. For Bruce, it made him the final obstacle.
The rivalry between Comyn and Bruce reached its fatal climax on 10 February 1306, when the two men met at Greyfriars Church in Dumfries. The details remain murky—whether they met to negotiate or confront is unknown—but what followed is etched in stone and memory. Bruce, possibly provoked by Comyn’s alleged betrayal of a secret agreement (he may have informed Edward of Bruce’s plans to claim the crown), stabbed Comyn before the altar. One of Bruce’s supporters, Roger de Kirkpatrick, reportedly uttered the words, “I mak siccar”—”I’ll make sure”—before delivering the final blow.
Comyn’s murder in a house of God was an outrage of both moral and political proportions. It led to Bruce’s excommunication and fractured the already unstable Scottish nobility. The Comyns, along with their allies the Balliols and the MacDougalls, would continue to resist Bruce’s rule for years, leading to a brutal civil war within a war. Yet paradoxically, the killing of Comyn forced Bruce’s hand: within weeks, he was crowned King of Scots at Scone, launching a new and more unified phase of rebellion against English rule. As G.W.S. Barrow noted, “The death of Comyn was not the end of division—but it was the beginning of resolution” (Barrow, Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland, 1988).
John Comyn’s accomplishments were significant. He held Scotland together in the chaotic interregnum between Wallace’s rebellion and Bruce’s kingship, maintained noble unity longer than most, and led effective resistance in a dark hour of national vulnerability. But his greatest failing was perhaps strategic: he could not choose a side in time. He was a nobleman in an age that demanded revolutionaries, and when the revolution came, it demanded his life. In his death, Scotland lost a potential king—but gained the crisis it needed to consolidate around a different one.
In the end, Scotland was profoundly affected by Red Comyn—less for what he did than for the blood he spilled and the crisis his absence created. His murder cleared the path for Bruce, but at the cost of further division and years of internecine warfare. The Comyn name, once among the greatest in the land, faded rapidly in the wake of Bruce’s ascendancy. Yet history remembers Comyn not as a villain, but as a rival. A man whose vision of Scotland might have been more cautious, less heroic, but perhaps more stable. He is the ghost at the feast of Scottish independence, and the blood on the altar that consecrated a king.
References
- Barrow, G.W.S. Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland. Edinburgh University Press, 1988.
- Watson, Fiona. Under the Hammer: Edward I and Scotland, 1286–1307. Tuckwell Press, 1998.
- Penman, Michael. Robert the Bruce: King of the Scots. Yale University Press, 2014.
- McNamee, Colm. The Wars of the Bruces: Scotland, England and Ireland, 1306–1328. Tuckwell Press, 1997.
- Prestwich, Michael. Edward I. Yale University Press, 1997.
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