Prince Henry Sinclair Part V

PRINCE HENRY SINCLAIR PART V

We left in the last posting with Prince Sinclair just arriving at the castle on the hill at Cross, Nova Scotia. The type of construction of the walls were of a type found in Norway and northern Scotland pre 13^th century. Looking down the Gaspereau River from on the hill top he had a clear view towards another island in the bay of Fundy about 2 miles off the mouth of the Gaspereau River.

The Stuart dynasty ruled Scotland from 1371 to 1603. In that time 9 Stewart Monarchs ruled Scotland.

The first family to arrive in Scotland from Normandy/Brittany Sir Walter Fitz Alan was the High Steward of Scotland. His decedents became the House of Stewart, later the name was changed to Stuart. Which were descended from Robert the Bruce's grandson Robert II

Sir Walter Fitz Alan was the son of SirAlan Fitz Fladd who was Baron of Oswasty in Shopshire. Baron Fladd was a son of Sir Alain who was a a crusader with Sir Henri Sinclair on the first crusade with Godfri de Boulion. Sir Alain was also in the greater Sinclair family as a descendant of Duke Lo Lo of Normandy through his son William Longsword and his grandson Richard I, Richards daughter married the Count of Brittany.

Sir Alain was of the Priory of Sion who was established at Mount of Olives in Jerusalem and elected Godfri de Boulion the first christen King of Jerusalem. Sir Alain was also of the Rex Deus.

The Stuart's had access to a great deal of gold which they funded their family dynasty. They were descended from Norse explorers who had been coming to the lands to the west for the last 500 years at least. The Stuarts established a settlement on a mid peninsular hilltop called Norumbega. They panned gold from the bed of the mineral rich Gold River and Norumbega also served as a refuge for Stuart family princes.

Jean Allefonsea, a french explorer who in 1548 was looking for the lost city of Norumbega, reported that he had coasted south from Newfoundland, and had discovered a great river with many islands, (an excellent description of Mahone Bay) entering it from the sea. The river is more than 40 leagues wide at its entrance. It retains its width some 30 or 40 leagues. The islands extend into the sea some 10 leagues. 15 leagues up the river is a village called Norembega, with clever inhabitants who trade in furs of all types, the town folk dress in furs of sable....the people use many words that sound like Latin. They worship the sun. They are tall and handsome. The land of Norumbega lie high and is well situated.

This is where Prince Henry was standing, The Prince established a settlement at this site on the foundations of a previous Norse colony. Nothing is recorded as to the condition of the settlement but it was believed that the Stuarts were still using this site, and they were related to Prince Henry and were also of the Rex Deus and Priory of Sion.

Prince Henry left half of his crew with instructions to return to the island in Mahone Bay and to seed it with oak acorns. After two days of rest and exploration, Prince Henry started down the river to the Bay of Fundy and the island off the mouth of the Gaspereau River and after a day of exploration set about seeding this island also with oak acorns.

The Vikings were primarily coastal navigators, they knew how to read the prevailing winds, they knew the different kinds of seaweed common in different continents and seas, they were aware of the seabirds and what direction they were flying, always towards land. They were aware of the presence of whales and other sea animals.

When they were out of sight of land they would release captured sea birds and ravens and follow them. They would drop a sounding plumb and look at the type and color of sea floor they were crossing over. They would observe the sunrise, and know that was east. At noon they would measure the angle of the sun to determine the exact time of noon, and the direction of north and south.

The numbers three and thirty three are occult numbers. They are part of “Sacred Geometry”. The calculation of speed and location (ETA) were once considered the highest form of Sacred Geometry. Without the geometry of the three sided triangle establishing ones location and distance traveled on a map or Triangulation would have been impossible.

To do this you draw a line on a chart and measure the course in degrees of the 360 degrees of the compass rose. But in the middle ages they didn't so much use degrees as points of the compass which had 18 points. The compass was invented by the Chinese a hundred and fifty years before being used in Europe.

There are question as weather Prince Henry was using a Compass or not. Some people feel that it wasn't being used until around 1410. Unlike the compasses used today they used a dry compass It was invented, but not in common use.

The dry compass had a magnetized needle attached to a compass rose and was placed in a box on a pivot with a glass cover in line with the keel. When the direction of the ship changed the needle would move wildly. For those of you who have never been on a boat or small ship they are in constant motion they never hold still, because of this holding a stead compass course is next to impossible.

The helmsman was actually going in a direction not so much holding a compass course. He would be going west or southwest or north north west. When your offshore floating down from Newfoundland in fog and rolling waves in the Labrador current it is quite easy to miss your river and quite easy to miss your mark by quite some distance.

This is why there are two oak islands, frequently you want to fetch Mahone Bay but because of wind current and waves you may end up approaching the peninsula through the Bay of Fundy. You can anchor off either one of the Oak Islands, launch a row boat and get to the Castle on the Hill from either the Gold River or the Gaspereau River.

Then at last we discovered. Land as the sea ran high and we did not know what country it was, we were afraid at first to approach it. But by God's blessing, the winds lulled, and then a great calm came on. Some of the crew then pulled ashore and then soon returned with joyful news. They had found an excellent country and a still better harbor. So we brought our barks and our boats in to land, and we entered a excellent harbor. We saw in the distance a great mountain that poured out smoke.

Zeno Narrative

Admiral Antonio Zeno goes on to describe a landing party of 100 Templar's sent to the mountain to seek out any inhabitants. Those who remained on the ship retrieved wood from the island , replenished their water supply. They also caught a considerable quantity of fish and waterfowl, which were found in large quantities.

After eight days the 100 Templar's returned and reported that they had been through the island and up to the mountain. The smoke naturally came from a great fire in the bottom of the hill. There was a spring giving out certain matter like pitch, which ran into the sea. There were a great multitude of people half wild and living in caves. These people were small in stature and very timid; for as soon as they saw our people, they fled into their holes. Our men also reported that there was a very large river near by and a very good and safe harbor.

Zeno Narrative

This was the first description by Europeans of Stellarton Nova Scotia, in the Pictou area of Nova Scotia. This also was close to Cape D' Or. On the Zeno Map of the North there are symbol's on the map showing two settlements, one in Pictou and the other at the Castle on the Hill in central Nova Scotia.

From both of these two settlements they could maintain look outs, to survey the Bay of Fundy and the gulf of St Lawrence. They were close to fishing and an ample supply of waterfowl and with the many ancient mines in the area they already had a form of lodging set up for the fast approaching winter.

It is believed based on Micmac legends that Prince Henry divided his time between these locations during the winter. In Pictou he built a ship over the winter and continued frequent exploration of the Peninsula.

We know that from descriptions of the Oak Island treasure hunters that there are two wooden chests in the very bottom of the pit and that they were built extremely sturdy and by what description we can get from boring studies and video from cameras inserted into the sink hole the chests are beneath the area of the oak platforms which were associated with pirate activity of the 1500's and early 1600's.

The spruce wood that is carbon dated to 835 AD and 1135 AD would also predate Prince Henry's voyage but that doesn't necessarily mean that it wasn't put there by earlier travelers perhaps Norse Stuart voyagers. The vikings were defiantly in the area somebody was operating the ancient gold mines and for Prince Henry to have found the Sink Hole with out prior knowledge is just a little suspicious, but for him to plant oak trees as sign posts makes perfect sense.

The chests were made out of planks that were 8 in thick, just as a point of reference the supports for the average home deck today are 4 in treated studs. There were 22 in of space in these chests, the length of these chests was unknown but based on the thickness of the chests I would tend to think they were quite long.

I imagine that the chests were also covered in a grease to act as a sealer against the elements. The boring studies showed that there were metal items in the chest and also parchments. Parchments are not the normal type of treasure that pirates would carry.

Part of the Holy Grail was said to be knowledge lost during the great flood. Sacred knowledge going back to the time of Moses. This knowledge would have been expressed on parchments.

Templar's are also well known builders. In their building they used “ Sacred Geometry”, They had built two castles in the Shetlands not to mention 13 ships for his fleet. They would have had the knowledge and skills to transport such heavy chests and rig a hoist to lower them 200 feet into the pit.

Of course this is my opinion and not fact. But this makes sense. I don't believe this is all of the Holy Grail because they wouldn't normally leave all their wealth in one spot. This voyage to the new lands across the Atlantic was to escape the oppression of the church, it was the new Jerusalem.

This meant they probably brought all the necessities they would need to establish a settlement, that meant women. While Prince Henry was exploring the peninsula his crew were busy teaching the Micmac's how to make fishing nets and the use of them in fishing. They were also involved in building a “stone canoe” which is the term the Micmac used to describe the ship that they were building to return home in.

They called it stone because they laid a deck that they could walk on and it was the strangest canoe the Micmac had ever seen!

Prince Henry gave a farewell banquet and invited all to attend;

By the great lake Minas shore

on the silver waters edge.

And when the feast was over,

entered his great canoe and

sailed away over the water,

the shiny waves of the Minas.

When Prince Henry departed leaving his settlers behind, he probably left the Bay of Fundy and his first stop may very well have been at Desert Island Maine. In the area of North East Harbor Maine. Prince Henry had brought a select few Micmac's with him to serve as guide's and to convey his peaceful intentions to others of the greater Algonquin nation. They worked their way down the Penobscot Bay of Maine. Down past the area of Camden Maine, taking their time exploring as they went.

They rounded Cape Ann exploring as they went at times they left effigies of their vessels in shore side rocks. They followed around Boston Bay with a short excursion up The Charles River in what is now Boston.

They saw a high hill, inland in the far off distance and a group left the ship with a small vessel to take the Merrimack River towards the high hill known as Prospect Hill. Sir James Gunn ,a life long friend of Prince Henry, and a Knight Templar, took part in the expedition, but the ascent up the hill proved to much for the loyal knight and he died in his sleep while camped on the hilltop.

For his life long service to clan Sinclair Prince Henry ordered an effigy carved into a rock which became known to history as the WESTFORD KNIGHT. From on top of the Hill they were able to see the countryside for 50 miles in all directions.

They came down to what is now Plymouth and continued around Cape Cod exploring as they traveled making copious notes and making maps as they progressed.

They went to Martha Vineyard to a settlement that the Vikings had established as a settlement after leaving Greenland in 999 AD. From this settlement they traveled up Narraganset Bay.

When the exploratory expedition returned to the ship they retreated back down the bay to the area of Newport where they established a winter camp.

In 1524 when Verrazano arrived in Narragansett Bay he described a European looking tower with local inhabitants that were quite interesting. He described them as the most beautiful and civilized people he had met on his expedition; they excelled his own people in size and he called them “Euro-Amer-Norse”.

When the first settlers arrived in 1600's, they described a group of blue eyed fair haired natives that they called the “banished Indians”, they were the descendants of the group of people that Verrazano described.

On the Mercator world map published in 1569 a tower was clearly identified in New England. The tower known as the “Newport Tower”, is described as a circular round rubble stone structure that was thought to be a combination of a church and an watch tower.

The structure was built in Norse-Romanesque style, inspired by the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The structure was a combination of Templar temples, round cathedrals of Scandinavia, and traditions of Norse Scottish builders from where the builders came.

The Architectural features are those found in construction between 1150 and 1400. This structure was pre planned this was not a spontaneous idea. It was built with Sacred Geometry. The masons were completely familiar with the construction materials available on site.

The structure was aligned to the east and each of the eight supporting pillars were on a cardinal point of the Templar's. It was not constructed using a compass, the north pillar is aligned within three degrees of the north star, 600 years later.

The tool marks are of tools made before 1400. These marks are unique and not seen in colonial structures. The arch and lintel designs are of those found in Orkney, Shetland, and the round churches of Scandinavia before 1400.

There isn't any architectural comparable structure in America. It is similar architecturally to Great Heeding Church in Denmark,, St. Olaf's church at Tonsberg Norway, The Church of St. Mikael in Scheswig in Denmark, and Vardsberg Church in Ostergotland Sweden.

To build this church in the early 1400's, five thousand cubic feet of soil had to be excavated, and later refilled. The building required more than a million pounds of stone, sand and lime.

In the spring Prince Henry left his Templar building crew on site and departed for the Orkney Islands. He brought several variety's of plants back with him which are indigenous only to North America

. When Henry's grandson William began construction of Roslyn Chapel which was started 1448 and completed 1482, ten years before Columbus voyaged to the New World, William incorporated depictions of maize, aloe cactus, sassandras, albidium, trillum, grandilorum and quercus nigra all of these plants were completely unheard of in Europe at this time. Henry returned in the summer of 1400 and was said to have died by an incursion of either England or the Hanseatic League that same year. However there isn't a record of his burial. Neither in Norway or in Scottish documents.

He wasn't buried in the Orkney’s or the Castle at Roslyn. How could a person who is a Royal and an extremely important person in both Scotland and Norway fail to have been recorded in state documents?

Henry's son Henry II was never formally installed as Earl of Orkney because he was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1405. He was released from time to time to attend to family business, as long as a prominent family member took his place. As a result of his prolonged imprisonment he didn't leave much of a trace upon history.

For Henry II not to have been formally recognized as the Earl of Orkney is significant, normally the Crown would have had to address this immediately. Why didn't Norway address this matter immediately?

The Treaty of  kalmar was signed in 1397. Bishop Rens of Orkney represented Henry in his absence. This treaty unified Norway, Denmark and Sweden under one crown. Could Henry be absent with the Queen's full blessing, was he engaged in a mission of exploration to extend the Queen's sovereignty to the New World?

To suggest that as meticulous and organized as Henry was it would be unbelievable that he didn't leave instructions who would succeed him in the event of his death.

The King of Scotland was becoming increasingly concerned over Henry's rise in power and wealth. There is an unproven theory that the Prince could have been killed in a skirmish with the King of Scotland.

I am more inclined to go with the theory that Henry gave Antonio permission to return to Venice where he died of natural causes a year later. I suggest that Henry returned to North America and assimilated in with the Micmac Indians. Henry’s beliefs and values were close to those of the Micmac’s.

Templar ideals stress communal living, service to others, and the elevation of the communities which they join. On his journey's to America he had found a community that not only preached these ideas but lived them also.

It is not beyond the realm of possibilities that the attractions of this way of life outweighed the so called good life in Europe! Living in the arrogant, dangerous, intolerant world of mid-evil Europe!

There is perhaps a clue in Indian legends that lends credence to this theory. When the Narragansett Indians were asked who built the Newport Tower, they replied that one of their ancestors built it as a Temple. They described the fire haired green eyed people as their ancestors.

The Indians didn't have Temples. If Prince Henry did build this structure as a temple it would be significant, perhaps an attempt to merge two beliefs into one!

There are credible reports of “white skinned” Indians in Nova Scotia, Narargansett Bay and also the Mayan's were confused when Cortez arrived in the Yucatan Peninsula as to recognize him as Quetzalcoatl the feathered Serpent god, or with the green eyed fair haired god that had treated them so well a hundred years ago!