Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/466

 royal forests was given him (ib. ii. 113). But the revolt of Wallace soon induced Edward to release Comyn, in the hopes of his exerting his great influence against the turbulent patriot. In June 1297 Comyn received a safe-conduct to proceed to Scotland, and his estates were restored (Rotuli Scotiæ, i. 43 5). In July he acted as a surety for his son, then set at liberty. He was alive in November 1299, but died soon after at his castle of Lochindorb, bk. viii. line 1167). He married Marjory or Margery, daughter of John Baliol of Barnard Castle and Devorguilla, his wife, by whom he had one son, John Comyn [q. v.], his successor (, i. 316), and one daughter, who married David, earl of Atholl. He was surnamed the Black Comyn (, bk. viii. line 1221).  COMYN, JOHN, the younger (d. 1306), of Badenoch, surnamed ,was the son and heir of John Comyn the elder [q. v.], one of the competitors for the crown of Scotland in 1291. His mother was Margery, the eldest sister of John Balliol (Scala-Chron. p. 121). In 1292 he and his father were exempted from attending at the common pleas in the liberty of Tynedale (''Illustr. Doc. i. 373). In 1295 a John Comyn de Scotia ' valletus ' was committed to the Fleet and the Tower of London for striking one of the exchequer doorkeepers (ib. p. 431). Next year (26 March 1296) his wife Joan, who is described as a kinswoman of Edward I, was given letters of safe-conduct to London (ib''. p. 272). This journey is probably to be ascribed to the fact that John Comyn the younger, who had already been knighted by Balliol, was in open rebellion; for on this very day he was with the seven counts of Scotland in their invasion of England and futile attack on Carlisle (, Rolls Ser., p. 155). A fortnight later he was present at the burning of Hexham Priory, but was driven back with his associates by the rumour of Edward's approach (ib.; ii. 99). Immediately after this he helped to seize the castle of Dunbar (22 April); but was delivered as a hostage to the king on the day previous to the surrender of this fortress on 28 April ( p. 427). The captive Scotch nobles were distributed over various castles in England; but within two years he was liberated (30 July 1297), on condition that he would serve Edward beyond the sea, or, according to Robert of Brunne, on his promising to go on a pilgrimage ( ii. 105;, ii. 776; Wallace Papers, p. 80). Meanwhile Wallace had risen in rebellion (May 1297), and Edward was attempting to stifle the insurrection by the help of the elder John Comyn, who had sworn fealty to him in July 1296 ( ii. 131;, p. 321; , p. 194). The rhyming English chroniclers charge the released lords with breaking their word and fleeing to the king of France, who, however, refused to assist them. But, according to Rishanger, they left Edward as he was returning from Flanders to England, towards the beginning of 1298. From France Comyn seems to have gone to Scotland, where, however, he was probably not present at the battle of Stirling (11 Sept.) ( ap. Wallace Papers). John Comyn the younger was probably at the battle of Falkirk (22 July). The current story, that Wallace owed his defeat to the treachery of the Comyns, cannot be traced back earlier than Fordun (about 1363), from whose pages Wyntoun and Bower seem to have borrowed their account (, p. 331;, ii. 346). Indeed, as Lord Hailes remarks, it is inconceivable, had the accusation been true, that the Scots would have appointed Comyn guardian of the realm almost immediately after this disaster. From the battle of Falkirk till the beginning of 1304 John Comyn the younger seems to have been the most prominent man in Scotland (, p. 331). He does not appear, however, to have been sole guardian during the whole of this time. In November and December 1299 he held the office in concert with Bishop Lamberton of St. Andrews and Robert Bruce the elder, and if we may trust Bain's conjectural dating, these three were irregularly appointed at Peebles in August 1299 (, ii. 859;, No. 1978). Fordun adds that Balliol gave him John de Soulis for a colleague at some period (p. 331). We may perhaps infer from his words that the relations of these two guardians were not very friendly, and that Comyn was not a party to the Scotch intrigues with Boniface VIII in 1300. In the same year Comyn seems to have had an interview with Edward near Kirkcudbright, shortly after the capture of Caerlaverock (i.e. after 12 July). When his petition that Balliol might be restored, and that the Scotch lords might retain their lands, was refused, he departed with threats of war, and made an ineffectual attempt to oppose Edward's passage of the ' Swyna ' on 8 Aug. (, p. 440). On 