Robert Bruce stabs Comyn before the altar

February 1306

In the Greyfriars church at Dumfries, Bruce and John Comyn argued over the Scottish crown. Blades came out on holy ground. Comyn bled to death before the high altar, a sacrilege that shocked Christendom. Excommunicated and hunted, Bruce rode to Scone six weeks later and had himself crowned king of a country he barely held.