THE SINCLAIR'S

The Earls son Ivor, accompanied King Harald Fine-Hair, to conquer the Shetlands, Orkney and the Hebrides and the Isle of Man. Ivar was killed on the raid of the Isle of Man. For his service King Harald gave Earl Rognvald the Earldom of Shetland and Orkney.

The Earl passed his rule to his brother Sigurd. Sigurd and Thorstein the Red and Aud the Deep Minded conquered all of Caithness, Moray, Ross, and a large part of Argyll in Scotland. After Sigurds death his son ruled for one year and died childless..

Earl Rognvald younger son Einar became the Earl of Orkney and ruled it well. He discovered the concept of digging turf, or peat as a fuel to be burnt instead of wood, thus becoming known to history as Turf Einer.

Earl Rognvald son Hrolf, went to France in search of new lands and opportunities. He went up the River Sein and settled in the fertile Sine Valley. After much conflict King Charles the Simple made his peace in the hope of using Hrolf to avoid further raids by Vikings.

The treaty in 912 A.D. Awarded Hrolf the dukedom of the territories now called Normandy and the treaty was signed in the Castle Saint Clair-sur-Epte. Hrolf changed his name to the Latin name of Rollo.

Duke Rollo was given the lands of Normandy conditioned on his marriage to Princess Gidele, King Charles daughter and his conversion of his entire enterage to Christianity.

Duke Rollo was then baptized in the waters of the spring called Saint Clair who was martyred there in 884 A.D. The use of the family name of Saint Clair can be traced to Richard II, the fourth Duke of Normandy. When the names of the territories they were controlling were taken as the names of the rulers.

Duke Rollo was childless with Duchess Gidele and remarried to Popee, the daughter of the Count of Bayeaux. They had a son known as William Long-Sword. William was succeeded by Richard I. Richard I daughter Emma married King Ethelred the Unready of England. Another of his daughters married Geoffery, the Count of Brittany, while a third daughter Mathild married Eudes, the Count of Chartres.

Duke Rollo's family married into the aristocratic families of Chaumont, Gisors, d'Evereaux, and Blois, the family of the Count of Champagne. They were also related to the Dukes house of Burgundy, the Royal house of France and also the House of Flanders and Godfri de Bouilion, the first Christian ruler of Jerusalem and an ancestor of the Hapsburgs.

It is difficult to understand why such a prestigious family as the Royal Houses of France would have anything to do with the marauding, pirating, pillaging Vikings. One thing is evidently clear the Vikings married into the Rex Deus, and the Holy Bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

During the Middle Ages the Christians of Europe used to go to the Holy Land for the purpose of visiting the tomb of Christ and other sacred places. Those who made such a journey were called "pilgrims." Every year thousands of pilgrims, kings, nobles and people of humbler rank, went to the Holy Land. While Jerusalem was in the hands of the Arabian caliphs who reigned at Baghdad, the Christian pilgrims were generally well treated. After about 1070, when the Turks took possession of the city, outrages became so frequent that it seemed as if it would not be safe for Christians to visit the Savior's tomb at all.