Robert Comine
Robert Comine (also
Robert de Comines) was very briefly
earl of Northumbria in
1068. A
Norman lord in
William the Conqueror's following, he was sent to the north as earl from
1068-
1069 after the deposition of
Cospatrick. He got as far as
Durham with his 700 men, where the
bishop,
Ethelwin, warned him that an army was mobilised against him. He ignored the advice 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 in the blaze. Northumbria had been in a state of near chaos since
1066, before the
Conquest, and now things really flared up. The
Harrying of the North was in part the consequence of assassinating William's man Robert.
*
Stenton, Frank M. Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition.
Oxford University Press,
1971.
