26. Robert the Bruce Kills John Comyn, Dumfries, Scotland 1306
In this rendition of the death of John Comyn, which indeed Robert the Bruce caused, by stabbing him, we see the angry and fierce Bruce and a sort of angelic and serene dead Comyn. The clothes are wrong, but that’s the Victorians for you; also, we don’t actually know if the killing was outright murder or self defense; we do know that since Comyn had thrown Bruce under the Edward I of England bus, Bruce was not in a good mood. Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux, “Death of Comyn,” from Cassell’s Illustrated History of England, vol. 1, p. 330.
Robert the Bruce was not yet King of the Scots when he stabbed John Comyn in front of the high altar in Greyfriars’ Church in Dumfries. But he would be, pretty soon, in spite of being excommunicated for violence in the church. We explain the fight for the crown of Scotland and the interfering bossiness of Edward I of England, but we don’t explain whether the Bruce murdered Comyn or it was self-defense, because we don’t really know. Because chroniclers.
As promised, or threatened, depending on how you look at it, a lovely graph of the family connections of the contenders for the Scottish Crown, in the Great Cause. It is a doozy. Created by Czar Brodie; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitors_for_the_Crown_of_Scotland
