PRINCE HENRY I SINCLAIR
Baron of Roslyn, Baron of Pentland Moor, Baron of Cousland, Baron of Cardain Saintclair, Lord of Shetland, Earl of Orkney, under the King of Norway, Lord chief Justice of Scotland, Lord Admiral of the High Seas, great protector, keen defender of Prince of Scotland, Knight of the Order of St. Michael, Grand Master Scottish Rite Knight Templar, member Priory of Sion, of the Rex Deus, grandfather of William Sinclair 1st Earl of Caithness builder of Roslyn Chapel, he was age 13 at this time around 1358.
In 1363, five years after ascending to the barony of Roslyn, Prince Henry was appointed Ambassador to Denmark. He moved to Copenhagen for two years. One of his first duties was to attend the wedding of Princess Margrette of Denmark to King Haakon of Norway. This began a close friendship of Henry and Margrette that would last until his death.
KNUTSON EXPEDITION
...we desire to make known to you Sir Paul Knutson that you are to select men that shall go in the koru (Royal Trading Vessel) ...from among my bodyguards and also from the retainers of other men, whom you wish to take on the voyage, and that Commandant Paul Knutson will have full authority to select such men that he feels are best qualified to accompany him, whether officers or men....
The objective of the expedition was to bring apostates back to Christianity. They first departed for Greenland, where they found the village abandoned and then their fleet split into three groups. The first to remain between the St. Lawrence River and Hudson Bay. The second group penetrated deep inland, and the third group, stayed at Leif Erickson’s original colony at Norembega.
In 1898 a Minnesota farmer was clearing trees on his farm when he discovered a rune stone with an inscription on it which has become known to history as the Kensington Stone. Hjalmar Holand translated the inscription
....We are eight Swedes and twenty two Norwegians on an exploratory journey from Vinland round about west. We had camp by a lake with two skerries one day’s journey north from the stone. We were out and fished one day. After we came home we found ten of our men red with blood and dead. Ave Virgo Maria save us from evil! We have ten men by the sea to look after our ships. Fourteen day’s journey from this island in the year of our lord 1362.
According to Professors storm and Nansen who claim there is conclusive evidence that the remnants of the expedition returned to Norway in 1364.
Hearing of the Knutson expedition was one of many events in the young Prince's life that would be formidable. Abought this time he was married to Princess Florentina of Denmark, Queen Margrette younger sister. It was in 1364 that he made the acquaintance of Admiral Carlo Zeno of Venice, who was later to become savior of Chioggia.
Admiral Zeno was touring the northern cities with King Peter of Cyprus. In order to promote a new crusade. They had two objectives, two raise funds for this very expensive undertaking and to recruit crusaders.
Henry was recruited by King Peter of Cyprus in 1365. The Sinclair's had given refuge to persecuted Knight Templar's during the purge in 1307. They formed into the army and navy of Scotland and they and their descendants formed into the Scottish Rite of Knight Templar’s under the patronage of the Clan Sinclair.
Henry departed on the crusade in 1366 leaving his new bride with her family in Denmark. He departed for Cyprus as part of a fleet with 300 ships, they moved on to Egypt where they pillaged Alexandria and from then on he was frequently called the Holy Henry Sinclair.
When he was away on the crusade his wife Princess Florentina died before reaching puberty. Upon his return he married his childhood sweetheart, Janet Halyburton, the daughter of Lord Dirleton. They had three children Henry II, John, and a daughter Elizabeth.
To strength his position and as is custom within the Rex Deus he arranged marriages for his children. Henry II married Egida Douglas, the granddaughter of King Robert II of Scotland. John married the daughter of King of Denmark, Ingeborg. Elizabeth married the Justice John Drummond of Cargill.
Henry had a direct lineal decent from Turf Einar, Earl of Orkney, and natural son of Rognvald the Mighty. He received the Earldom of Orkney on Aug 2nd 1379. Prince Henry had his work cutout for him in the Orkney and Shetland Island where corruption was running rampant, the church was corrupt and stealing from the general populace and from the tax coffers, it was a haven for piracy, and tax's weren't being collected.
Henry built a Castle at Kirkwall, and brought law and order to the islands. The islanders were of Viking stock rough and tough. They included the families of Bernstane,Clouston, Cragy, Cromarty, Peterson,Petrie, Heddle, Halcro, Ireland, Kirkness, Linflater, Ness, Paplay, Rendall, Scarth,Scalter and Yenstay. All card carrying members of Clan Sinclair.
Hatred of the church was intense for years they had been illegally collecting rent, taxes, seizure of lands, every thing he did to oppose the bishop won popularity with the people. Then in 1382 their was a uprising and the bishop was killed by his flock. The bishop was a Scott. The flock were Norse. Henry consolidated his power restored the stolen lands to their rightful owners. The Avigon Pope put a proper Norse Bishop in the church, Robert Sinclair.
The Orkney and Shetlands each supported a population of 25,000. They were now a prosperous chain of islands. They exported large quantities of fish, pork, sheep and hides to Scotland, the Hanseatic merchants. They imported timber, flax, pitch, salt, wax and pewter. The prosperity of the island ensured that the taxes were high.
Under Prince Henry's control the island were the most prosperous in this period. Prince Henry started to build a fleet to increase his control over the rest of the island chain. He imported pine and oak from his estate of Roslyn, and built a fleet of thirteen seaworthy ships. He built two galleys, undecked ship powered by oars, one long decked battleship and ten decked barks.
In 1390 when Prince Henry was at the Island of Fer, negotiating trade agreements, all the peoples arose went for their weapons and immediately departed for the coast where a ship had run aground on the rocky coast.
The inhabitants were not adverse to making a profit on the misfortune of others. They practiced a form of piracy called wreckers. Any cargo that washed up on shore was considered fair game any survivors paid with their lives.
Henry noticed that the mast had snapped probably on impact and the crew were hanging on to the rigging afraid to swim to the shore which was lined with murderous pirates. Prince Henry was able to disperse the pirates with his Templar crew and was able to make lines fast and rigged to the shipwreck.
Henry was able to rescue the crew and was able to communicate with the universal christen language, Latin. They came from Venice and the captains name was Nicolo Zeno!
Nicolo Zeno was the younger brother of the savior of Chioggia, Carlo Zeno, who Henry was on the crusade with and had met while in Denmark.
Henry knew that the Venetians made annual trips to Flanders and England but didn't usually venture further north because of the Hanseatic League who violently protected their turf. Henry also new that the Venetian trading pattern were changing because of the increasing pressure from the Turks in the eastern Mediterranean and continual conflict with the Genoese.
Carlo Zeno was seeking to increase trade with Scandinavia because of the influx of fish and furs from the lands to the west that were flowing into Norway. Carlo was in Norway when news of the Knutson expedition reached Norway. He was privy to information that arrived from Nicholas Lynn and was being dispatched from Norway to Rome. Carlo was very aware of the possibility of trade with the New World.
Venice needed to increase their trade and circumvent the Hanseatic League. Both Carlo and Henry were of the Rex Deus, they both met in Norway and were exposed to the possibility of trade with the New world. Because of their brotherhood in the Rex Deus, they were steeped in the Templar tradition of secrecy based on trust in the brotherhood which would form the basis of an excellent partnership.
They were also acutely aware that persecution and repression was a fact of life in European Christendom. The churches constant search for heresy. After the genocide of the Cathars, the arrest and torture of the Templar's, no one was truly save anywhere in Europe.
From the Rex Deus perspective, their was a need for a northern trading route, out of the reach of the Hanseatic League, and the reaches of the church, somewhere men of talent could prosper and practice their true beliefs in safety without fearing for their lives.
Henry would use his power, his money, his ships, with the Zeno's knowledge of the sea's and navigation. They would use the islands as stepping stones to reach the new New World ! They would go from the Orkney’s to Iceland, to Greenland. From Greenland they had several options, Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, or strait down to Martha's Vineyard. All of which were explored and traveled to for the last five hundred years by the Vikings.
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