Robert de Comines

Robert de Comines
Died	28 January 1069 Durham, County Durham, England
Cause of death	Burnt to death
Title	Earl of Northumbria
Term	1068–1069

Robert de Comines (died 28 January 1069) (also Robert de Comines, Robert de Comyn) was briefly Earl of Northumbria.

Life

His name suggests that he originally came from Comines, then in the County of Flanders, and entered the following of William the Conqueror.

He was sent to the north as earl from 1068 to 1069 after the deposition of Gospatric. He reached Durham with 700 men, where the bishop, Æthelwine, warned him that an army was mobilised against him. He ignored the warning and, on 28 January 1069, the rebels converged on Durham and killed many of his men in the streets, eventually setting fire to the bishop's house where Robert was staying. He was consumed by the blaze.

After this attack, Æthelwine turned against the Normans and gathered an army in Durham before marching on York, leading to the Harrying of the North in retaliation by King William's army.

Issue

Robert de Comines could be the father of:

• 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 (died c. 1158), Lord Chancellor to David I of Scotland and Archdeacon of Worcester in 1125 and 1157.

Sources

• Creighton, Mandell (1887). "Comin, Robert de" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 440.
• Stenton, Frank M. Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1971.