Cumming

The family is Norman in origin, the name derived from Comines near Lisle in northern France, on the frontier with Belgium. They claimed to be directly descended from the Emperor Charlemagne. Robert de Comyn came to England with William the Conqueror in 1066 and was given lands in Northumberland. His grandson, William, came to Scotland in the reign of David I, who bestowed lands upon him in Roxburghshire. He eventually rose to become Chancellor of Scotland. William’s nephew, Richard, married a granddaughter of Donald Bane, later Donald III, second son of Duncan I. In the early thirteenth century as a result of good marriages they held three earldoms: Monteith, Menteith, and Atholl and Buchan. When Alexander III was killed near Burntisland, two Comyns, both direct descendants of Duncan I, were appointed to the council of six guardians of Scotland. They were Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan, and ‘Black John’ Comyn, Lord of Badenoch. After the death in 1290 of the child queen Margaret, the ‘Maid of Norway’, and granddaughter of Alexander III, at least six claimants to the throne (including John Balliol, brother-in-law of the Black Comyn, Robert Bruce, grandfather of the future king, and the two Comyn guardians) invited Edward I of England to decide who should succeed to the Scottish throne. He agreed, providing the chosen successor recognised him as overlord of Scotland, a demand which the Scots were not in a position to resist at that time. Edward’s choice was John Balliol, but resistance broke out again, with the claimants taking sides and switching allegiances in the struggles to win the throne and to break free of England. In 1306, Robert the Bruce, grandson of the original claimant, invited Red Comyn to a meeting in the church of the Greyfriars in Dumfries in the hope of negoti-ating a compromise. They quarrelled, daggers were drawn and Comyn was stabbed to death in the church, an act for which Bruce was excommunicated. Comyn’s son was defeated in a skirmish with Bruce and fled to join the English. 

He was killed at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. The fall of the Badenoch Comyns removed the family from the centre of Scottish politics, but many branches had been established which continued to thrive. The name generally became spelt ‘Cumming’, and the Cummings of Altyre were recognised as the chiefly line. Sir Alexander Cumming of Altyre was created a baronet on 21 May 1804. Sir William Gordon-Cumming of Altyre, fourth Baronet, served with the Scots Guards in the Zulu War of 1879 and later in the Guards’ Camel Regiment. He is perhaps best remembered for his part in the Royal Baccarat Scandal, in which the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, became the first member of the royal family to give evidence in a civil court in an action for slander rising out of an accusation of cheating at a game of cards. In 1997 Sir William, 6th Baronet was recognised by the Lord Lyon as chief having abandoned the name 'Gordon'. He has since been succeeded by his son Alistair.

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