PRINCE
HENRY
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 Margaret I of
Denmark to King Haakon of Norway. This began a close friendship of
Henry and Margaret I 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. A bought this time he was married to Princess
Florentina of Denmark, Queen Margaret 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 there 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, and 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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