Robert de Comines
Robert de Comines | |
|---|---|
| Died | 28 January 1069 Durham, County Durham, England |
| Other names | de Comyn,[1] Cummins[2], de Comin,[3] de Cumin,[3] de Commines[4] |
| Title | Earl of Northumbria |
| Term | 1068–1069 |
Robert de Comines (died 28 January 1069) was briefly Earl of Northumbria. His violent death was one of the key events that led to the Harrying of the North.
Life
[edit]Little is known of Robert,[2] but his name suggests that he originally came from Comines,[2] then in the County of Flanders, and entered the following of William the Conqueror.[3]
The previous, English, earl Gospatric joined a major rebellion against Willian in 1068 and de Comines was sent from Gloucester[3] to the north as to replace him as earl. He reached Durham unopposed with between 500 and 900 men,[3] where the bishop, Æthelwine, warned him that an army was mobilised against him[5] and not to enter the city.[3] He ignored the warning and, on 28 January 1069, the rebels breached Durham's city gates[3] and killed many of his men in the streets, eventually setting fire to the bishop's house in which Robert had taken refuge and Robert died.[5]
After this attack, Æthelwine turned against the Normans and gathered an army in Durham before marching on York,[5] one of the events that led to the Harrying of the North in retaliation by King William's army.
Issue
[edit]Robert de Comines could be the father of:[1]
- John de Comyn (died c. 1135), killed during The Anarchy, married the daughter and co-heiress of Adam Giffard of Fonthill, had issue, and;
- William de Comyn (Cumin) (died c. 1158), Lord Chancellor to David I of Scotland, disputed Bishop of Durham (1141–1143) and Archdeacon of Worcester in 1125 and 1157.
Notes
[edit]- 1 2 Paul 1904–1914, p. 503.
- 1 2 3 Morris 2012, p. 222.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Creighton 1887.
- ↑ Douglas 1964, p. 214.
- 1 2 3 Stenton 1971, p. 602.
Sources
[edit]- Creighton, Mandell (1887). . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 440.
- Douglas, David C. (1964). William the Conqueror: The Norman Impact Upon England.
- Morris, Marc (2012). The Norman Conquest: The Battle of Hastings and the Fall of Anglo-Saxon England. ISBN 978-1-4481-3602-5.
- Paul, James Balfour (1904–1914). The Scots peerage : founded on Wood's ed. of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom. Robarts – University of Toronto. Edinburgh: D. Douglas.
- Stenton, Frank M. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England (3rd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-821716-1.
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