Thorough study of the Comyns, a Norman-Scottish noble family who rose to dominate Scotland in the late 1200s, but were forever disgraced in the eyes of patriotic Scots for opposing William Wallace and, in particular, Robert the Bruce. Bruce's murder of the senior Comyn at Dumfries I 1306 was a critical moment in the struggle which Bruce eventually won to establish himself as ruler of Scotland. Young does not write as a Comyn partisan, but he does stick to a straightforward unbiased account of the family, setting aside much of the traditional obloquy that goes back to Barbour's Bruce and similar accounts. ( )