nobles. John of Buchan was stripped of the symbols of power and taken south to the Tower of London. Buchan was imprisoned in England south of the River Trent. In June 1297, he promised to serve in the army against France. That same year Scotland was engulfed in a widespread rebellion, led by Sir Andrew Moray in the North and Sir William Wallace in the South of the country. Moray's rising was of particular interest to Buchan, because it touched on the borders of his own estates. It was with the intention of bringing Moray under control, that Edward finally sent Buchan back to his home in July, 1297. War of the Comyns For Buchan, the task of bringing Moray under control would demand diplomatic skill, involving national politics and family loyalties. Moray was known to him, as the son of his close neighbor Sir Andrew Moray of Petty and Avoch. Andrew Moray, at the time, was still in prison in England. Long political allies, there was also a family association between the Morays and the Comyns. Sir Andrew had taken as his second wife Euphemia Comyn, the daughter of the first Lord of Badenoch. To do nothing, or even to join the rebels, involved risks for Comyn, because the Red Comyn was with Edward in Flanders. In the end the two sides met up on the banks of the Spey. Afterward, Moray retired into a "great stronghold of bog and wood" where he could not be followed, as Buchan later offered Edward by way of excuse. Hugh de Cressingham, the chief agent of the English occupation, expressed his opinion that this was a thinly disguised double-act, writing that "the peace on the other side of the Scottish sea (Firth of Forth) is still in obscurity, as it is said, as to the doings of the earls who are there." The Guisborough Chronicle had little doubt of Comyn's culpability, who "at first pretended to repress rebellion but in the end changed sides and became a thorn in our flesh." However, later that year, shortly before the Battle of Stirling Bridge, Buchan was still believed to be loyal by the English government. The reality is that Wallace and Moray could scarcely have met up, or even recruited sufficient forces in the north, without the tacit approval of Buchan and his associates. The noble and the guardian Buchan can be said to