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Birth:          1289 of Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Death:          3 Jul 1349 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Comyn,_Countess_of_Buchan
Alice Comyn, Countess of Buchan, Lady Beaumont (1289 – 3 July 1349) was a Scottish 
noblewoman, a member of the powerful Comyn family which supported the Balliols, 
claimants to the disputed Scottish throne against their rivals, the Bruces. She was the 
niece of John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, to whom she was also heiress, and after his 
death the Earldom of Buchan was successfully claimed by her husband Henry de 
Beaumont, Earl of Buchan, by right of his wife. His long struggle to claim her Earldom 
of Buchan was one of the causes of the Second War of Scottish Independence.

Alice was the maternal grandmother of Blanche of Lancaster, and thus great-
grandmother of King Henry IV of England.
Family[edit]

Alice was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1289, the eldest daughter of Alexander 
Comyn, Sheriff of Aberdeen and his wife Joan le Latimer and the granddaughter of 
Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan. She had a younger sister, Margaret, who would 
later marry firstly Sir John Ross, and secondly Sir William Lindsay, Lord of Symertoun.
[1]

Alice's paternal grandparents were Alexander Comyn, 2nd Earl of Buchan, Justiciar 
and Constable of Scotland, and Elizabeth de Quincy; and her maternal grandparents 
were William le Latimer and Alicia Ledet. Alice's uncle was John Comyn, Earl of 
Buchan, one of the most powerful nobles in Scotland. The earl, who died in December 
1308, was married to Isabella MacDuff, but the marriage was childless. Alice was John 
Comyn's heiress to the title of Countess of Buchan, although the earldom had been 
forfeited to the crown prior to her uncle's death in England to where he had gone as a 
fugitive.

Marriage and issue[edit]

Shortly before 14 July 1310, Alice married Henry de Beaumont, Lord Beaumont, the 
son of Louis de Brienne, Viscount de Beaumont and Agnes, Viscountess de Beaumont. 
Upon her marriage she was styled as Lady Beaumont. Henry was a key figure in the 
Anglo-Scottish wars of the 13th and 14th centuries. (See main article: Wars of 
Scottish Independence) As a consequence of her marriage to Henry, Alice had 
become, in Scottish eyes, irretrievably English, therefore the Scots recognised her 
sister Margaret's right to the Earldom of Buchan rather than her own.[1]

The marriage produced ten children:[2]
Katherine de Beaumont (died 11 November 1368), married David III Strathbogie, Earl 
of Atholl, by whom she had issue.
Elizabeth de Beaumont (died 27 October 1400), married Nicholas Audley, 3rd Baron 
Audley. Died without issue.
Richard de Beaumont
John de Beaumont (died young)
Thomas de Beaumont
Alice de Beaumont
Joan de Beaumont, married Sir Fulk FitzWarin, 3rd Lord FitzWarin
Beatrice de Beaumont, married Charles I, Count of Dammartin
John de Beaumont, 2nd Lord Beaumont (1318- 14 April 1342), on 6 November 1330 
married as her first husband, Eleanor of Lancaster, by whom he had issue. He was 
killed in a tournament.
Isabel de Beaumont (c.1320- 1361), married in 1337 Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of 
Lancaster, by whom she had two daughters, Maud, Countess of Leicester and Blanche 
of Lancaster.

Countess of Buchan[edit]

In April 1313, Isabella MacDuff, the widow of Alice's uncle John Comyn, was placed 
into the custody of the Beaumonts, following her release from her harsh imprisonment. 
She had been confined in a cage for four years in Berwick, England by the orders of 
King Edward I after she crowned Robert the Bruce king of Scotland at Scone in March 
1306. In 1310, she was sent to a convent, and three years later was ordered to one of 
the Beaumont manors where she died on an unknown date.

In 1314, Henry de Beaumont fought at the Battle of Bannockburn on the side of the 
English.

Sometime between 1317 and 1321, Alice succeeded to the English estates of her 
younger sister, Margaret.

On 22 January 1334, Alice's husband Henry was summoned to Parliament of England 
as the Earl of Buchan. He was recognised as earl from that date until 16 November 
1339. On 10 February 1334, he sat in the Scottish Parliament bearing the same title. It 
was Henry's relentless pursuit of Alice's inherited earldom of Buchan which was one of 
the factors that lead to the Second War of Scottish Independence between the 
Comyns and their ancient rivals, the Bruces.

Alice died on 3 July 1349 at the age of sixty. Her husband Henry had died in 1340 in 
the Low Countries where he had gone with King Edward III of England. With the death 
of Alice, the earldom of Buchan forever passed out of the Comyn family.

Alice's numerous descendants included, Kings Henry IV of England and Henry V of 
England, Philippa of Lancaster, Anne Boleyn, and Humphrey Kynaston, the English 
highwayman.

In fiction[edit]

Alice Comyn appears as a character in Barbara Erskine's novel Kingdom of Shadows 
(1988), which is based upon the life of Isabella MacDuff.

Parents
COMYN Alexander (ABT 1250 - 1308)
DE LATIMER Joan (ABT 1260 - 10 May 1342)

Siblings
COMYN Alice (1289 - 3 Jul 1349)

Marriage To DE BEAUMONT Henry (ABT 1285 - 10 Mar 1339)
    m. BEF 14 Jul 1310 

Notes

Parents
DE BRIENNE Louis "D' Acre" (ABT 1235 - 1297)
DE BEAUMONT Agnes (ABT 1250 - )

Children by DE BEAUMONT Henry ABT 1285 - 10 Mar 1339
DE BEAUMONT John (1318 - 14 Apr 1342)

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