Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney

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Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney and feudal baron of Roslin (c. 1345 – c. 1400), was a Scottish nobleman. He is sometimes identified by another spelling of his surname, St. Clair. He was the grandfather of William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness, the builder of Rosslyn Chapel. He is also noted for the modern legend that he undertook early explorations of Greenland and North America in about the year 1398. According to a biography published a few decades after his death, he died in battle against English forces around the year 1400.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Life

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Henry was son and heir of William Sinclair, Lord of Roslin, and Isobel of Strathearn, a daughter of Maol Ísa, Earl of Orkney. Henry's maternal grandfather had been deprived of much of his lands (the earldom of Strathearn being completely lost to the King of Scots).

On his father's death in 1358, Henry succeeded as baron of Roslin, Pentland and Cousland, a group of minor properties in Lothian.

Three cousins: Alexander de L'Arde, Lord of Caithness; Malise Sparre, Lord of Skaldale; and Henry, were rivals for the succession to the earldom of Orkney. On August 2, 1379 at Marstrand, near Tønsberg, Norway, King Haakon VI of Norway invested and confirmed Henry as the Norwegian Earl of Orkney over a rival claim by his cousin Malise Sparre.

In 1389, Henry attended the coronation of king Eric of Pomerania in Norway, and pledged his oath of fealty. Historians have speculated that in 1391, Earl Henry and his troops slew Malise Sparre near Scalloway, Tingwall, Shetland.

[edit] The Sinclair voyage to America

Little else is known about Sinclair's life. Much has been written through conjecture, however, about his possible career as an explorer. In particular, starting in 1784, he was identified by Johann Reinhold Forster as possibly being the Prince Zichmni described in letters allegedly written around the year 1400 by the Zeno brothers of Venice, in which they describe a voyage throughout the North Atlantic under the command of Zichmni.[1]

The authenticity of the letters (which were allegedly rediscovered and published in the early 16th century), the exact course of the voyage, as well as whether or not it even occurred, are challenged by historians. Most regard the letters (and the accompanying map) as a hoax by the Zenos, who published them. Moreover, the identification of Zichmni as Henry Sinclair is very controversial, although it is taken for granted among supporters of the theory.

The most controversial theories speculate that Henry/Zichmni traveled not only to Greenland but to present-day Nova Scotia, where he may have founded a settlement among the Micmac Indians, and perhaps as far south as present-day Massachusetts and Rhode Island. According to these theories, his expedition may have been responsible for the building of the Newport Tower and the carving of the Westford Knight.

The theory that Henry Sinclair explored North America is based on several separate propositions:

  1. That the letters and map ascribed to the Zeno brothers and published in 1558 are authentic.
  2. That the voyage described in the letters as taken by Zichmni around the year 1398 actually reached North America.
  3. That Zichmni is Henry Sinclair.

The Theory also hinges on the contention that there are stone carvings of American plants in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, plants supposedly not seen by Europeans until Columbus.[2] The Chapel was built by Henry Sinclair's grandson William Sinclair and was completed in 1486. Columbus made his first voyage in 1492. This is seen by authors Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas as being compelling evidence for the theory that Henry sailed to America.[2] however scholars have pointed out that the plants are not American at all, but stylised depictions of common European plants. .[3]

[edit] Sinclair's Voyage and the Knights Templar

Intertwined with the Sinclair voyage story is the claim that Henry Sinclair was a Knight Templar and that the voyage either was sponsored by or conducted on the behalf of the Templars, though the order was suppressed almost a century before Henry's lifetime.[4]

Knight and Lomas speculate that the Knights Templar discovered under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem a royal archive dating from King Solomon's times that stated that Phoenicians from Tyre, by orders of Solomon, voyaged to a westerly continent following a star called "La Merika". According to Knight and Lomas, the Templars learned that to sail to that continent, they had to follow a star by the same name, which became the origin of the name "America". Sinclair supposedly followed this route, seeking refuge from the suppression of the Templars.[5]

The theory also makes use of the supposed Templar connection to explain the name Nova Scotia ("New Scotland" in Latin), basing themselves on the 18th century tale that some Templars escaped the suppression of their order by fleeing to Scotland of Robert the Bruce[6] and fought in the Battle of Bannockburn,[7] However, this story was invented by Fr. Hay c.1700 and is not supported by any evidence.[citation needed]

Claims persist that Rosslyn Chapel contains Templar imagery. Andrew Sinclair speculates that the grave slab now in the crypt is that of a Templar knight[8]: According to author Robert Lomas, the chapel also has an engraving depicting a knight templar holding the sword over a head of an initiate, supposedly to protect the secrets of the templars.[9] Rosslyn Chapel was built by Sir William St Clair, last St Clair Earl of Orkney, who was the grandson of Henry. According to Lomas, Sir William, the chapel builder, is also the direct ancestor of the first Grand Master of Masons of Scotland, also named William St Clair (Sinclair).[10]

According to Lomas, the Sinclairs and their French relatives the St. Clairs were instrumental in creating the Knights Templar. He claims that the founder of Templars Hugh de Payns was married to a sister of the Duke of Champaine (Henri de St. Clair), [11] who was a powerful broker of the first Crusade and had the political power to nominate the Pope, and to suggest the idea and empower it to the Pope. It is believed that St Clair was the ninth of the first members, that his name was secret (i.e. he was a sleeper[clarify]), and that the position of sleeper continued in the Sinclair family line.

However, a biography of Hugues de Payen by Thierry Leroy [12] identifies his wife and the mother of his children as Elizabeth de Chappes. The book draws its information on the marriage from local church cartularies dealing chiefly with the disposition of the Grand Master's properties, the earliest alluding to Elizabeth as his wife in 1113, and others spanning Payen's lifetime, the period following his death and lastly her own death in 1170.

[edit] Criticisms of this theory

One primary criticism of this theory is that if either a Sinclair or a Templar voyage reached the Americas, they did not, unlike Columbus, return with a historical record of their findings. There is no documentation to support the theory, and apart from the carvings in the Rosslyn Chapel, there is no physical evidence that could prove that Templars or Sinclair had explored the Americas. Advocates of the theory contend that this lack of documentation can be explained by a strong motivation of the Sinclair voyagers to keep their activities secret.[13] Historians deride this.[citation needed] They also question the authenticity of the Westford Knight, claiming that it is not clearly inscribed, and may be a hoax or a result of erosion that makes it appear to resemble a knight.[citation needed] And according to one historian, the carvings in Rosslyn Chapel may not be of American plants at all but are nothing more than stylized carvings of wheat and strawberries.[14]

Historians Mark Oxbrow, Ian Robertson,[15] Karen Ralls and Louise Yeoman[16] have each made it clear that the Sinclair family had no connection with the mediaeval Knights Templar. Karen Ralls has shown that among those testifying against the Templars at their 1309 trial were Henry and William Sinclair - an act inconsistent with any alleged support or membership.[17][18]

[edit] Alternative histories

In the 1980s, modern alternative histories of Earl Henry I Sinclair and Rosslyn Chapel began to be published. Popular books (often derided as pseudo-history) such as The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln (1982) and The Temple and the Lodge by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh (1989) appeared. Books by Timothy Wallace-Murphy and Andrew Sinclair soon followed from the early 1990s onwards.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
  2. ^ a b Knight & Lomas, The Hiram Key, Fair winds Press. ISBN 1-59233-159-9.
  3. ^ Historian Mark Oxbrow, quoted in "The ship of dreams" by Diane MaClean, Scotsman.com, 13 May, 2005
  4. ^ "The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar: New Light on the Oak Island Mystery" by Steven Sora, Atlantis Rising Magazine #20, 1999
  5. ^ Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, Friday January 20, 2006
  6. ^ Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Second Messiah: Templars, the Turin Shroud and the Great Secret of Freemasonry, Fair Winds Press, 2001. ISBN 1-931412-76-6
  7. ^ , despite the fact that the term Nova Scotia was invented in the reign of James VI, three centuries after Sinclair's legendary voyage.Scotsman.com Heritage & Culture - Myths & Mysteries, 10 Nov 2005.
  8. ^ Scotsman.com Heritage & Culture - Myths & Mysteries, 10 Nov 2005
  9. ^ Origins of Freemasonry on www.robertlomas.com
  10. ^ Origins of Freemasonry on www.robertlomas.com
  11. ^ The claim that Hugues de Payens married Catherine St. Clair was made in Les Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau (1967), "Tableau Généalogique de Gisors, Guitry, Mareuil et Saint-Clair par Henri Lobineau" in Pierre Jarnac, Les Mystères de Rennes-le-Château, Mélanges Sulfureux (CERT, 1995).
  12. ^ Thierry Leroy, Hugues de Payns, chevalier champenois, fondateur de l'ordre des templiers (Troyes: edition de la Maison Boulanger, 1997).
  13. ^ In The Hiram Key many references are made to entrusted secrets, which the authors claims were encoded in the architecture of the Sinclair's Rosslyn Chapel.
  14. ^ Historian Mark Oxbrow, quoted in "The ship of dreams" by Diane MaClean, Scotsman.com, 13 May, 2005
  15. ^ "The Da Vinci Connection", Sunday Herald, 14 November 2004
  16. ^ "Historian attacks Rosslyn Chapel for 'cashing in on Da Vinci Code'", Scotsman.com, 03-May-06
  17. ^ Karen Ralls, The Templars and the Grail, Quest Books; 1st Quest edition (2003), p.110. ISBN 0-8356-0807-7; The Knights Templar in England, p. 200f.
  18. ^ Processus factus contra Templarios in Scotia, 1309, being the testimony against the Templars by Henry and William St Clair, translation available in Mark Oxbrow, Ian Robertson, Rosslyn and the Grail, p. 245-256.

[edit] Further reading

Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by
(new creation)		 Earl of Orkney Succeeded by
Henry Sinclair