Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/462

 merit on several important embassies during the quarrel between Henry and Archbishop Thomas, against the latter of whom he showed such zeal that he ultimately incurred the penalty of excommunication (, Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, vi. 602, Rolls Ser.) In 1163 he was sent on a mission to the court of the emperor, and the length of his stay alarmed both Becket and Pope Alexander III (ib. v. 59). In 1166, when the king appealed from Becket's sentence to the pope, Comyn was sent with John of Oxford and Ralph of Tamworth to the Curia, and succeeded in obtaining the appointment of two cardinal legates to hear and determine in England the quarrel of king and archbishop (ib. vi. 68, 84, 147;, i. 276, ed. Stubbs). He left Rome early in 1167, but was accused soon after of showing to the antipopethe secrets of Becket's correspondence, and Alexander ordered the legates to punish him strictly if his guilt could be satisfactorily established (, vi. 200). In connection with this may be put a letter of Alexander to Comyn himself, ordering him to abandon the archdeaconry of Bath obtained through lay patronage (ib. vi. 422). But he failed to satisfy the archbishop at least, who bitterly complained to the pope that Comyn was wandering through France and Burgundy, loudly boasting that he had succeeded in withdrawing France from Becket's side, and proclaiming that if he only dared reveal the secrets of the papal court he would convince every one that Thomas would soon be overthrown (ib. vii. 237). This must have been during his journey to Rome on a second embassy, for we find him again there at the time of Becket's murder, an event which suspended all relations between him and the pope, and ruined the negotiations for a settlement which his dexterity had almost brought to a successful issue. His last important embassy was in 1177 to Alfonso of Castile and Sancho of Navarre, at the time when they were referring their dispute to the mediation of Henry II (, i. 157, ed. Stubbs). On this occasion his name is mentioned first among the commissioners sent by the king. Comyn had, however, other employments at home. In 1169 and following years he served as justice itinerant in the south-western counties. In 1179 he was one of the six justices to carry out the new four-fold circuits into which Henry II then divided the country. His work lay in the northern division (, ii. 191). Of ecclesiastical preferment, though he had never received priest's orders, he had already held the canonry of Hoxton in St. Paul's (, ed. Hardy, ii. 397), besides the unlucky archdeaconry of Bath, and in 1170 the custody of two vacant bishoprics. But early in 1181 the death of the famous Irish saint, Lawrence O'Toole (Lorcan O'Tuathal), left vacant the archbishopric of Dublin. Henry determined to make that see for the future a pillar of English rule in Ireland. He at once seized upon the possessions of the archbishopric, and on 6 Sept. some of the clergy of the cathedral appeared before a great council at Evesham, where the king's influence soon procured from them the election of John Comyn as the new archbishop, with a semblance of canonical form (, i. 280 ;, ii. 263 ; , Expugnatio Hibernice in Opera v. 358-9, Rolls Ser.) Comyn proceeded to Rome for the pallium. He was well received by Lucius III, who on 13 March 1182 ordained him priest at Velletri, and on Palm Sunday consecrated him bishop. According to some contemporary authorities, Lucius also made him a cardinal (, v. 358 ;, i. 287). But it would be more than unusual in the twelfth century for a cardinal to reside elsewhere than at Rome, and in all his official acts there is no trace of Comyn claiming the title. He left Rome in time to be present at the Christmas court of Henry II at Caen (, i. 273), and in August 1184 was present at a council at Reading which in vain endeavoured to elect an archbishop of Canterbury (ib. i. 317). Immediately after he proceeded to Ireland for the first time, in order to prepare the way for the arrival of Earl John, to whom his father had already assigned the government of the new dependency (September 1184). In April 1185 he received John on his arrival, and with the other English colonists swore fealty to him (ib. i. 339), but he was unable to prevent the complete failure of the new ruler. He was accused, however, of surreptitiously obtaining from John a charter investing him with very extensive legal privileges (, Viceroys of Ireland, p. 50). Next year Comyn was again in England, was present at Henry's Christmas court at Guildford (. ii. 3), and was sent by the king to meet the cardinal Octavian, who had been sent from Rome to be legate of Ireland, and to crown John king of that island ; but Archbishop Baldwin persuaded Henry to send the legate back his mission unaccomplished (ib. ii. 4). A little later Comyn seems to have attached himself to Henry's revolted sons, and in June 1188 went on a mission from Richard in Aquitaine to his father. In September 1189 he was present at Richard's coronation at Winchester (, iii. 8), and also at the series of councils held by the new king before his