Death of Comyn. 305 



Triveth's Account of the Death of Comyn. 



Nicolas Triveth was the prior of the London Dominicans. 

 He was a contemporary of King Robert the Bruce. He 

 wrote " Annales Sex Regum Angliae," the chronicle of Six 

 Kings of England, from Stephen to Edward I. He was as 

 highly esteemed on the Continent as in Britain. 



Translation: — "In the same year, the loth of Februarv, 

 Robert de Brus, aspiring to the throne of Scotland, in a 

 sacrilegious manner killed the noble man John Comin, in the 

 church of the Minor Friars at the town of Dumfreis, in the castle 

 of which the justiciaries of the King of England were then 

 sitting, because he refused to agree with his treacherous faction." 



The "I'll mak' jicker " Episode. 

 The statement that Roger Kirkpatrick completed the 

 assassination of the Red Comyn is supported by no contemporary 

 authority, and relies entirely upon oral tradition. The only 

 Scottish historian of the 14th century, John of Fordun, does not 

 mention it at all. Walter Bower, the author of the " Scoti- 

 chronicon," written in 1447, and the author of the Book of 

 Pluscarden, compiled in 1461, the next historians to Fordun, 

 do mention it. Fordun wrote 85 years after the event. Bower 

 141, and the author of the Book of Pluscarden ir6 years there- 

 after. Therefore, the first mention of Kirkpatrick's 

 part in the affray occurs nearly a century and a half 

 after the event. Bower says that James Lyndsay, together with 

 Gilpatrick of Kirkpatrick, gave Comyn the finishing stroke. 

 The author of the Book of Pluscarden says James Lyndesay of 

 Kilpatrick, the cousin and very dear friend of the said Robert 

 de Broys, performed the exploit. These are the first two 

 chroniclers to bring in the name of Kirkpatrick at all. The 

 Book of Pluscarden has been erroneously ascribed to Bishop 

 Elphinstone, of Aberdeen; but the author tells us in the preface 

 that he knew Joan of Arc, who died in 1430, while Elphinstone 

 was not born till 1437. Felix Skene, the editor of the printed 

 copy, says that it was probably compiled by a priest named 

 Maurice Buchanan, who had been treasurer to the Dauphiness 

 of France. Of course, both the histories are in Latin. 



Wyntoun's Account. 

 I append the account given by Androw of Wyntoun, prior of 



