Robert de Comines | |
Death Date: | 28 January 1069 |
Death Place: | Durham, County Durham, England |
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.
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 in which Robert had taken refuge and Robert died
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.
Robert de Comines could be the father of:[1]