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Thanks Niven,
That answers a whole lot of
questions I had.
Laurel
At 17:51 03/08/99 -0700, you
wrote:
Taken from pg 228 Robert the Bruce by
Ronald McNair Scott
The men who accompanied the heart of Bruce
were: Sir William Sinclair of
Roslyn, Sir Robert and Sir Walter
Logan, Sir William Keith, Sir Alan
Cathcart and Sir Seymour Loccard
of Lee, and one other knight unnamed. 26
squires and gentlemen
were there to serve them.
The battle was fought on 25
Mar.1330.
(so Niven is saying that the unnamed knight was William's
brother John
Sinclair. Is that written in one of our Sinclair
books that Ronald Scott
didn't have access to???? I would bet
that every clan is claiming that
their ancestor was the unnamed
knight- Do we have some proof??)
It seems that
the Saracens pretended to ride away. Douglas gave the
order to
follow and his group of 10 were drawn away from the rest of
the
army. Suddenly the enemy turned their horses and encircled
them but Douglas
was able to evade them. When he looked back he
saw that Sir William
Sinclair had been captured along with two other
knights, Sir Robert and SIr
Walter Logan. Douglas came back to
rescue them but was surrounded by the
Moors and cut
down.
The casket containing Bruce's heart was
still chained around Douglas'
neck when Sir Alan Cathcart took it
from him. (Cathcart family tradition-but
I think it makes more sense
than the Saracens returning it-Saladin was a
very exceptional
person. His chivalry and nobility were unusual among his
people
and among the Europeans. The days of chivalry were formed in
his
image. His actions sharply illuminated the debauchery of
the Crusaders)
From this story we are not able
to determine whether John Sinclair was
in the group with his
brother. It doesn't sound like it. But perhaps
killed
elsewhere on the battle field that day.
As you visualize the bringing
of the bodies from Spain, here is another
aspect to
consider. :
Douglas' body was brought to his cousin, Sir
William Keith who didn't
participate in the battle because he had a
broken arm. He was now in charge
it seems. Maybe he and
Cathcart were the only ones to survive???/
Since
it would take some weeks to embark, sail south to the
Mediterranian
and then up the coast to Scotland, it is obvious that in that
warm
climate these bodies couldn't be taken home as they were. So
Sir
William Keith had the bodies prepared for the journey by having
them boiled
(in vinegar-from a Cadfael story) so that the flesh fell
off. It was only
the bones of the dead that went back to
Scotland. The flesh was buried in
holy ground in Spain. I
wonder whether anyone has gone there to look for a
monument to
them?
The heart of Bruce was carried in the little
casket and buried at
Melrose Abbey. The bones of Doublas were
buried in the Kirk of Douglas.
Laurel
Mea
culpa. Sir Robert Logan was killed. It was Sir William Keith who
brought
the bones back. The small gravestone of William
Sinclair would suggest this.
There is no doubt that both William and
John Sinclair fell at the Battle of Theba
on 8th September, 1330 because
the Barony of Rosslyn went straight to William,
the grandson, who must
have been a minor at the time when his uncle, John, (if
he had been alive
would have been appointed guardian).
One of Bruce's latest acts was
to settle, in 1329, on Sir William Sinclair a pension
of £40 in
anticipation of the service he was to do for him i.e. take his body to
the
Holy Land for burial. This had been immediately preceded by
'ane annual'.
In the Lord Chamberlain's account for 1329 he is
credited with the payments to
Sir Henry St Clair (the father of Sir
William Sinclair) of £13.6.8d, to Sir William
St. Clair £20
and to John St Clair £10.; and in 1330 the full payments are
noted
of £27.13.4d and £40 and £20; and again of
£13.6.8d, £20 and £10 respectively
at St Martin's
term.
In 1331 Sir Henry St Clair received £13.6.8d and
£27.13.4d whilst those of the late
Sir William St Clair, Knight,
and of the late John St Clair are received by the heir
to
whom John St Clair was uncle* i.e. William St Clair the son of Sir
William St Clair.
As the names William and John were always bracketed
together there can be
little doubt that they both
travelled with the heart of Bruce; that they both
took
part in the Battle of Theba; and that they were
both killed in that battle. If not,
why the
post mortem payments to the recognised heir?
* It is
obviously phrased in this way to indicate that the younger
brother, John
St Clair had not been married at the time of the Battle of
Theba so his payment
had to go to his nephew, who was his
next-of-kin. There can be no other interpretation.
On the other hand, his older brother, William, was married with two
sons, namely
(yet another) William and Thomas.
The son, William de
St Clair, inherited Rosslyn directly from his grandfather.
Thomas
became ballivus of Orkney in 1364 and he, in turn, had a son, Alexander who
received
lands in Aberdeenshire and in Banffshire as confirmed by
King David on 1st
November, 1371
Earlier King David (who had a
fondness for awarding lands to men who had taken part
in Crusades) had
granted the lands of Merton and Merchamyston to '"our worthy
and
faithful William St Clair" bearing the date 11th February, 1358
and signed at Edinburgh.
It will be seen from the foregoing that the
Sinclair connection with Orkney pre-dated
the 'jarldom' being given to
Prince Henry Sinclair in 1379. Indeed, as Thomas's grandfather
had
also been ballivus of Orkney with effect from 1321, it predated Henry's
arrival by two
generations.
Niven Sinclair
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