Genealogy Windsor-Cicognani » Lady, Countess of Buchan Alice Comyn (1289-1349)

Personal data Lady, Countess of Buchan Alice Comyn 

  • She was born in the year 1289 in Scotland.
    Occupation.... Tailleuse pour hommes
  • She died in the year 1349, she was 60 years old.
  • This information was last updated on October 10, 2019.

Household of Lady, Countess of Buchan Alice Comyn

She is married to Henry Beaumont.

They got married on July 14, 1310, she was 21 years old.


Child(ren):

  1. John Beaumont  1307-1342 
  2. Catherine Beaumont  1310-1368
  3. Elizabeth Beaumont  1312-1400
  4. Thomas Beaumont  1313-????
  5. Isabel Beaumont  1315-1360
  6. Richard Beaumont  1316-????
  7. Joan Beaumont  1321-1349


Notes about Lady, Countess of Buchan Alice Comyn

Alice Comyn, Countess of Buchan, Lady Beaumont (1289 – 3 July 1349) was a Norman-Scottish noblewoman, a member of the powerful Comyn family which supported the Balliols, claimants to the disputed Scottish throne against their rivals, the Bruces. Sh
e 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.
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.
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 beenforfeited to the crown prior to her uncle's death in England to where he had gone as a fugitive.
Blanche of Lancaster was a granddaughter of Alice Comyn and Henry de Beaumont
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.
The marriage produced ten children:
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
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

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Ancestors (and descendant) of Alice Comyn

Alice Comyn
1289-1349

1310
John Beaumont
1307-1342
Joan Beaumont
1321-1349

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When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin:
Roger Windsor, "Genealogy Windsor-Cicognani", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/genealogy-windsor-cicognani/I12032.php : accessed August 10, 2025), "Lady, Countess of Buchan Alice Comyn (1289-1349)".