through to the spring of 1308, prolonged after the king was overtaken by a bout of serious illness. This was, perhaps, the best opportunity for Comyn to destroy his enemy. With Bruce incapacitated, and the royal army reduced in numbers, an attack was mounted against his camp at Slioch near Huntly; but it was pressed with no great determination, and Buchan withdrew after some desultory arrow fire. Unfortunately the only sources we have for the whole campaign in the north-east are uniformly hostile to Comyn. There are two possibilities here: either Buchan's talents as a soldier were limited, or he could not fully rely on the forces at his disposal. The evidence suggests a combination of both factors. The campaign concluded in December 1307 or May 1308, depending on which source is correct, when Buchan's army collapsed at the Battle of Inverurie. Eventually, Buchan fled to England after his earldom was subjected to systematic devastation. The Harrying of Buchan was carried out with one aim in mind: to destroy forever Comyn power in north-east Scotland. For once the devastation were carried out not by the English but by Scots against their fellow Scots, so thorough and effective that it was remembered for some fifty years after the event. As a piece of political terrorism it was supremely effective. A similar herschip in Galloway did not destroy the loyalties of the local people for the Balliol family, which were to resurface in the 1330s. But the earldom of Buchan would never again rise for the Comyns. In England the fugitive earl was well received by King Edward, who appointed him warden of the west marches in June 1308; but he was not to enjoy his new responsibilities for long, dying sometime before December. Alice Comyn, his niece and heir, married Henry Beaumont, a French nobleman in the English service. Beaumont was to claim the earldom of Buchan in right of his wife, a claim pursued with such relentless determination that it was a major factor in bringing about the Second War of Scottish Independence in the 1330s and beginning anew the war between the Comyns and the Bruces. References Documentary and narrative Barbour, John, The Bruce, trans, A. A. H. Douglas, 1964. Bower, Walter, Scotichronicon, ed. D. E. R. Watt, 1987–1996. Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, I-V, ed. J. Bain et al. 1881–1986. Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough, ed. H.