Re: Sinclair Dates

[Niven Sinclair <niven@niven.co.uk>]

At 23:00 18/05/00 +1000, you wrote:
>Dear List
>Can anyone tell me what was the Battle of Somersdale in 1529 all about?
>To lose 500 men it doesn't seem to be a mere skirmish.
>I would think that this loss on top of the 600 lost at Flodden would have
>had a serious impact on the the clan.
>Regards
>Donald Sinclair

The Sinclairs have been involved in many "lost causes" and in many battles
where the odds were stacked against them but perhaps the greatest tragedy
to befall the Clan was at the Battle of Summerdale (1529) in which the
Sinclairs of Caithness fought against the Sinclairs of Orkney at the connivance
of the James V, King of Scotland.  The Sinclairs of Caithness were slaughtered
to a man.  Only one Orcadian boy was killed - and that my cruel circumstance.
He had dressed himself in the fine clothes of one of the slaughtered 
Caithnessians
and was returning to this own house in the evening when he was met by his 
mother
who, not recognising him and believing him to be one of the 'enemy'  who 
had managed
to escape the general carnage, struck him a fatal blow on the head with a 
stone which
she had put in the foot of one of his own stockings and was carrying in her 
hand as
a defensive weapon.

John III, the 43rd Earl of Caithness, had never forgotten that the 
Sinclairs were
entitled to the Earldom of Orkney and, in 1529, he made an abortive attempt to
separate Orkney from the Crown so that he could declare himself to be an 
independent
Prince.  Strangely, in this open act of rebellion, he was abetted by James 
V  who,
once the Sinclairs of Caithness had been defeated, immediately appointed 
James Sinclair,
the leader of the Orcadian Sinclairs, as Governor General of Orkney.

It was the old question of 'dividing and ruling'.

It wasn't the first time the Stuarts tried to destroy the power of the 
Sinclairs because Earl
William Sinclair was commanded by James III to divide his huge Estates into 
three.  It
was this division which led to three distinct groups of  Sinclairs , 
namely: those of the Islands,
those of Caithness and those of Rosslyn.

Later on, I will be writing a full account of the Battle of Summerdale 
which, coming so soon
after the Battle of  Flodden Field (1513), took a swathe out of the 
Sinclair ranks and this was
to be followed by Kringellen in Norway (1612) when another 600 fell in an 
ambush.  If
we add the Battle of Altimarlach (1679) when the Campbells defeated us on 
our home
territory, it is little wonder that our power diminished.  In less than two 
centuries, we had
lost over 2,000 of our fittest and finest men.  The cream of the Sinclair 
Clan had been skimmed
off.

I am always reminded of the following words which appeared in the preface 
of a book about
the futility of war:

                                 "The Notice says:
                                   'Do not pluck these blossoms'
                                   But it is useless
                                   Against a wind that cannot read".



Niven Sinclair
>-----Original Message-----
>From: John S. Quarterman <jsq@matrix.net>
>To: sinclair@matrix.net <sinclair@matrix.net>
>Date: Wednesday, May 17, 2000 5:32 PM
>Subject: Sinclair Dates
>
>
> >
> >   [1]Sinclair Dates:  May 17.
> >   In 1756: French and Indian War,
> >   [2]Britain declared war on France, which in America became known as
> >   the French and Indian War..
> >   [3]Tomorrow:  May 18.
> >   In 1699: Darien Council prepares to abandon, Colony hears of the
> >   English Proclamations against the Colony. The Council prepares to
> >   abandon the settlement.
> >   In 1529: Battle of Somersdale,
> >   [4]John Sinclair, 3rd Earl of Caithness dies in battle with 500
> >   between Sinclairs of Caithness and Sinclairs of Orkney led by James
> >   Sinclair.
> >   In 1529: Battle of Summerdale, Sinclairs of Caithness v. Sinclairs of
> >   Orkney; John Sinclair, third Earl of Caithness, dies.
> >
> >References
> >
> >   1. http://www.mids.org/sinclair/timeline.html
> >   2. http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/tdgh-may/may17.htm
> >   3. http://www.mids.org/sinclair/timeline.html
> >   4. http://www.clansinclair.org/hist1.htm
> >[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@mids.org
> >[ To get off or on the list, see http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html
> >
>
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