The Pope had recognised Edward I of England's claim to overlordship of Scotland in 1305 and Bruce was excommunicated by the Pope for murdering John Comyn before the altar in Greyfriars Church in Dumfries in 1306.

The Scotichronicon says that on being told that Comyn had survived the attack and was being treated, two of Bruce's supporters, Roger de Kirkpatrick uttering the words " I mak siccar (" I make sure ") and John Lindsay, went back into the church and finished Bruce's work.

No records have ever been found in England stating that King Edward had any knowledge of treachery by Robert Bruce before his acts against Comyn.

Buchan had a very large population because it was the agricultural capital of northern Scotland and much of its population was loyal to the Clan Comyn even after the defeat of the Earl of Buchan.

With these acts, Bruce had successfully destroyed the power of Clan Comyn, which had controlled much of northern and southwestern Scotland for over a hundred and fifty years.

Several Scottish nobles chose to ignore the summons, including Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, whose Carrick estates had been seized by John Balliol and reassigned to John ' The Red ' Comyn.

Comyn, it seems, had broken an agreement between the two, and informed King Edward of Bruce's plans to be king.

The situation changed again on 10 February 1306, when Robert the Bruce murdered his rival John Comyn and a few weeks later, on 25 March, had himself crowned king of Scotland by Isobel, sister of the Earl of Buchan.

The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott ( 1822 ) attest that Robert the Bruce hid in the forests about this hill after he had killed one of his rivals, John " the Red " Comyn.

Ever since the death of John Comyn at the hands of Robert Bruce and his supporters in 1306 the Wars of Scottish Independence had also been a civil war.

The Treaty of Northampton in 1328 brought an end to over thirty years of intermittent warfare between England and Scotland ; but it also left a large and discontented party of Scots and Anglo-Normans, men with Balliol and Comyn associations, who had lost lands and property in Scotland.

Both Comyn and Bruce had been forced to give fealty to King Edward I of England on pain of execution, and every appearance is that both intended to pursue the Scottish crown.

According to John Barbour's The Brus, written with access to people who were at the event, Comyn and Bruce had previously signed an agreement to that effect which Comyn betrayed to King Edward I.

Valence moved quickly, and by the middle of summer he had made his base at Perth, where he was joined by many of the supporters of John Comyn.

In 1258 Jedburgh had also been the focus of royal attention, with negotiations between Scotland's Alexander III and England's Henry III over the heir to the Scottish throne, leaving the Comyn faction dominant.

The Comyn brothers were instructed to remain in Moray until all signs of the rebellion had been stamped out.

Alexander was therefore to hold the Badenoch lands with no greater authority than John Comyn had a century before.

* Joan de Valence, married to John Comyn ( the " Red Comyn "), Lord of Badenoch ( died 10 February 1306, murdered ), and had

* Eleanor de Balliol, who married John II Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, and had a son, John ' The Red Comyn, Lord of Badenoch ( d. 1306 ).

After the death of Edward Bruce and the recall of the expeditionary force from Ireland, Sir Thomas was sent by his uncle as envoy to the court of Rome where he succeeded in getting a temporary absolution for King Robert who had been excommunicated for killing John Comyn.

Blair Castle is said to have been started in 1269 by John I Comyn, Lord of Badenoch ( died c. 1275 ), a northern neighbour of David I Strathbogie, Earl of Atholl ( died 1270 ), who started building on the Earl's land while he was away on crusade.

Ballinderry House, the former seat of the Comyn family, who are relations of Daniel O ' Connell, has been restored and is now a guest house.

In the first section, Lady Rohana Ardais, a Comyn woman of young middle-age-nobility by birth and possessing the psychic powers of laran, or telepathy in Rohana's case-travels with a band of Renunciates to the city Shainsa to free her kinswoman Melora who had been kidnapped ten years before.

Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Buchan and wife of John Comyn, 3rd Earl of Buchan ( a cousin of the murdered John Comyn ), who claimed the right of her family, the MacDuff Earl of Fife, to crown the Scottish king for her brother, Donnchadh IV, Earl of Fife – who was not yet of age, and in English hands – arrived the next day, too late for the coronation, so a second coronation was held and once more the crown was placed on the brow of Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, Lord of Annandale, King of the Scots.

Whether the details of the agreement with Comyn are correct or not, King Edward moved to arrest Bruce while Bruce was still at the English court.

Looping back via the hinterlands of Inverness and a second failed attempt to take Elgin, Bruce finally achieved his landmark defeat of Comyn at the Battle of Inverurie in May 1308, then overran Buchan and defeated the English garrison at Aberdeen.

The First War of Scottish Independence can be loosely divided into four phases: the initial English invasion and success in 1296 ; the campaigns led by William Wallace, Andrew de Moray and various Scottish Guardians from 1297 until John Comyn negotiated for the general Scottish submission in February 1304 ; the renewed campaigns led by Robert the Bruce following his killing of The Red Comyn in Dumfries in 1306 to his and the Scottish victory at Bannockburn in 1314 ; and a final phase of Scottish diplomatic initiatives and military campaigns in Scotland, Ireland and Northern England from 1314 until the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328.

Comyn appears to have thought to get both the lands and the throne by betraying Bruce to the English.

March was with the English, but his wife, Marjory Comyn, sister of the Earl of Buchan, did not share her husband's political loyalties and allowed her fellow Scots to occupy the castle.

A Scottish army led by Simon Fraser and John Comyn defeated the English.

On Inchmahome ( Innis MoCholmaig, island of St Colmaig ) stand the ruins of Inchmahome Priory, an Augustinian priory founded in 1238 by Walter Comyn, and built in the Early English style, with an ornate western doorway.

English forces laid siege to Loch Leven in 1301, but the garrison was relieved in the same year when the siege was broken by Sir John Comyn.

Andrew " Sandy " Comyn Irvine ( 8 April 1902 – 8 June 1924 ) was an English mountaineer who took part in 1924 British Everest Expedition, the third British expedition to the world's highest ( 8, 848 m ) mountain, Mount Everest.

He was successful in taking prisoner the Comyn Earl of Atholl, commander of the English forces in Scotland, but, on his swearing allegiance to the Scottish Crown he was set free.

Comyn, however, disregarded his oath, returned to the English camp, and resumed his hostilities.

After Robert the Bruce killed John III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch at Greyfriars Kirk in Dumfries, the Earl of Buchan joined the English side in the Scottish Wars of Independence.

# Elizabeth ( also known as Isabel ), who married Alexander Comyn, 2nd Earl of Buchan ;

It was not until 1229, when William Comyn of Buchan, led a royal army into Moray and finally, and brutally, pacified the province for King Alexander II ; he was rewarded by a grateful king with the lordship of Badenoch.

The taking of Castle Grant, 14th century ; Originally a Comyn Clan stronghold, Clan traditions tell us that the castle was taken from the Comyns by a combined force of the Grants and MacGregors.

Certain that his wound was fatal, he cried out " I am killed, remember me to my wife ", and called for his chaplain Stephen Comyn.

He was succeeded by Robert Bruce and John Comyn as joint Guardians, but they could not see past their personal differences.

As a nephew and supporter of King John, and as someone with a serious claim to the Scottish throne, Comyn was Bruce's enemy.

In 1299, William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews, was appointed as a third, neutral Guardian to try to maintain order between Bruce and Comyn.

Soules was appointed largely because he was part of neither the Bruce nor the Comyn camps and was a patriot.

John Comyn, who was by now Guardian, submitted to Edward.

His ambition was further thwarted by the person of John Comyn.

Comyn was the nephew of John Balliol.

They state that the Comyn murder was planned in an attempt to gain the throne of Scotland.

Six weeks after Comyn was killed in Dumfries, Bruce was crowned King of Scots by Bishop William de Lamberton at Scone, near Perth on 25 March with all formality and solemnity.

The Harrying of Buchan in 1308 was ordered by Bruce to make sure all Clan Comyn support was extinguished.