With as many titles as
Prince Henry holds you might imagine he was a master of time
management and that I am sure he was. But he also needed to take
“business trips” sometimes for extended periods of time. He made
regular excursion to Roslyn Castle, in addition to the rest of the
five hundred properties that were contained in his estate.
In 1384 he visited Roslyn
to arrange a donation of land for his cousin, Sir James St. Clair,
Baron of Longformacus, the deed of donation was witnessed by five
Nobles During 1385 he was also away from the islands for a prolonged
period of time. A large English army under King Richard II marched
on Scotland.
Prince Henry spent several
weeks in this campaign. The Templar's under his command defended
Scotland and followed the English into the northern provinces of
England and laid siege to Carlisle Castle.
This defense of Scotland
prevented Henry from returning to Orkney for several month's. When he
did return he continued with his responsibilities to Queen
Margaret, maintaining law and order among the rough and tumble
islanders, arranging trading relationships managing infrastructure
projects and making occasional excursions to his properties to the
south.
Queen Margaret was ruler
of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Her infant son was King of these
kingdoms but died as a child in 1389. She realized that her Royal
subjects, mainly the men would rather be ruled by a man so she
adopted a 5/yo boy named Eric of Pomerania as her heir. Then she
persuaded the council of Electors, which Prince Henry was a member
of, to recognize Eric as rightful heir to the three Kingdoms, which
in effect left her in charge of the Kingdoms until he came of age.
The charter proclaiming
Eric as heir to the throne of the three Kingdoms and was signed by
Vinold, Archbishop of Drontheim; Prince Henry Sinclair Earl of
Orkney; various bishops and nobles of the council. Prince Henry was
at Helsingborg in Sweden on July 9, 1389 when Eric was acclaimed as
King of the country and was also present in September in 1389 when
Eric was crowned King of Norway.
Nicolo Zeno was a younger
brother of Carlo Zeno who Prince Henry had met on the crusades, and
earlier in Denmark in 1364. Nicolo was almost as skilled and
experienced as his brother. He was a Captain of a galley in a war
against the Genoese. He had served at one time as the Venetian
Ambassador to Ferra in northern Italy.
His personal wealth that
he used to build and outfit a ship for voyages to the northern
waters, was such that he was one of the riches men in Venice. At all
times he kept his family informed of his progress through a series of
letters to Antonio and Carlo.
Two hundred and fifty
years later a descendant edited and published and these became known
to history as the Zeno Narrative. Nicolo describes passing through
the straits of Gibraltar and on to Flanders and England. He continues
with an account of a terrible storm that resulted in a shipwreck that
I described at the Island of Fer.
Prince Henry is described
as lord of the islands of Frislanda and Portlanda, which is the
ancient Italian version of Fer Island, Portlanda being Orkney. He
further describes Prince Henry as war like, valiant, especially famous
in naval exploits, and a “great lord who ruled certain islands
called Portlanda which laid to the south of Frislanda”
Besides being described as
lord of these islands he goes further and describes him as Duke of
certain estates in Scotland, Prince Henry invited Nicolo and his
crew to serve aboard his fleet, and they shared navigational
techniques and knowledge.
Nicolo and his crew served
in Prince Henry's Navy in the Shetland Islands for a period of time,
the Prince showed his gratitude by granting Captain Nicolo Zeno the
honor of Knighthood and rewarded his crew with handsome gifts.
As part of the Zeno
Narratives there is a letter from Nicolo to his brother Antonio,
requesting him to commission another ship to come out to the islands
and join in the expedition.
Since
Antonio
had as great a desire as his brother to see the world and it's
various
nations, and
to make himself a great name, he bought a ship and directed his
course that way.
After a long voyage full
of many dangers, he joined Sir Nicolo in safety and was received by
him
with great gladness, as
his brother not only by blood, but also in courage.
In
1392 Queen Margaret contacted King Richard II of England to arrange
safe passage for Prince Henry Sinclair Earl of Orkney and Barron of
Roslyn to travel to London to lease three warships to make good the
deficiency in the Norwegian fleet.
On
March 10th, 1392 safe -conduct was granted to Prince Henry
to enter England with a part of no more than twenty-four people.
Anyone who was a fugitive from English law was excluded from the
safe-conduct. This was good until September 29 of 1392.
It
is safe to assume that Prince Henry brought some of his Italian
sailors with him especially in light of what was about to take place.
It is reasonable to assume that the Zeno brothers were compiling a
list of nautical supplies needed for a trans-Atlantic voyage, while
Prince Henry took care of state business for the crown.
After
Prince Henry had the Shetland Islands operating to his standards he
set a bought building a second Castle, perhaps fortress is more
appropriate description. The foundation can still be seen to-day .
near Lerwick Scotland in Bressay bay.
Captain
Nicolo Zeno remained at Bressay and the following year, 1393,
equipped three barks for a voyage of exploration.
He
sailed north in July of 1393 and set foot on Greenland: here he found
a monastery of the preaching friars. A church dedicated to St. Thomas
by a hill which vomited fire like Vesuvius and Etna. There is a
spring of hot water there which is used to heat both the church of
the monastery and the chambers of the friars.
The
water comes up into the kitchen so boiling hot that they use no other
fire to cook their food. They also put their bread into brass pots
without any water, and it is baked as if it were in a hot oven.
Dr
William H Hobbs a geologist at the University of Michigan states that
evidence of everything written in the Zeno Narrative has been
discovered in that area of Greenland. As a result of the severe
weather Nicolo encountered in Greenland He became ill and returned to
the Shetland Islands where he died. His brother Antonio assumed his
responsibility as Admiral of the Fleet and also inherited Nicolo's
wealth and honor's.
The
account of Nicolo's survey of Greenland and his death in the Shetland
Islands were confirmed by Marco Barbaro in his work Discendenz
Patrizie published in 1536, twenty -two years before the Zeno
Narratives were published
Prior
to the infamous voyage of 1398 Antonio Zeno writes a letter to
Carlo's stating;
...this
noble man (Prince Henry) is now determined to send me out with a
fleet
towards these parts. There are so many that want to join on the
expedition
on account of the novelty and the strangeness of the thing,
that
I think we shall be very well equipped, without any public expense
at
all
a
descendant wrote two hundred years later: “ he set sail with
many vessels and men, but he was not to be the commander, as he
expected to be.” The Prince was in charge and three days before
their scheduled departure the fisherman (guide) died. Despite that,
however the expedition went ahead.
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