Robert de Comines

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 Little is known of Robert, but his name suggests that he originally came from Comines, then in the County of Flanders, and entered the following of William the Conqueror.

The English earl Gospatric joined a major rebellion against William in 1068 and de Comines was sent from Gloucester to the north in order to replace him as earl. Robert reached Durham unopposed with between 500 and 900 men, where the bishop, Æthelwine, warned him that an army was mobilised against him and advised him not to enter the city. He ignored the warning and, on 28 January 1069, the rebels breached Durham's city gates and killed many of his men in the streets, eventually setting fire to the bishop's house in which Robert had taken refuge and where he died.

After this attack, Æthelwine turned against the Normans and gathered an army in Durham before marching on York, one of the events that led 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 (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.