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A quick reminder:
Chief's Birthday Celebration
Venue: 133 Major Street, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada.
Date:November 3, 2000 7:30 to 11:00 or
whenever.
Menu: finger foods and cheer both metaphorical and
liquid
Agenda: good times and good memories of the past
year.
ALL WELCOME!
Rory
Although Professor Champy's book
(which is essentially on the de Courcy family)
is not going to be
published until next year, he has kindly sent me a copy of the
Chapter on
the St Clairs of France which, understandably enough, is in
French.
However, I will be pleased to send a copy to anyone who
wishes to read a Frenchman's
views on the origins of the St Clairs.
His opinions have not always tallied with my own
but, after some
correspondence, he agreed (and I quote) "...the curious
transmission
of the Saint Clair fief between the three families* is a
little astonishing".
Previously, Professor Champy had
maintained that Walderne*, Hamon* and Hubert* were
NOT brothers but it is
my intention that, if they were not brothers german (i.e. of the
same
parents - both mother and father) they were certainly brothers
natural (i.e. with the same
father but not necessarily with the same
mother) otherwise it was extremely unlikely that
there would have been a
transmission of the fiefdom i.e. land holdings between the
families
because the possession and transmission of land was invariably
from father to son(s).
Professor Champy also believes that the Henri
de Saint Clair, who took part in the 1st
Crusade was of Norman stock
rather than the son of William 'the Seemly' St Clair who had been granted
Rosslyn by Malcolm Canmore. I think he is splitting hairs because, at
the material time and for generations afterwards, the St Clairs would be
speaking Norman French (the language of the Court). In any event, they
hadn't been in Scotland for long enough to lose their Norman culture.
His sister, Richelde, who was also born at Rosslyn, returned to Normandy to
marry her cousin, Robert of Chaumont. This, too, was customary in
order to maintain the bloodline. The Sinclairs had a strategy which
transcended national
boundaries. France was always a happy hunting
ground for the Scots because of the
'auld alliance' or the 'entente
cordiale'. The number of French words which are still a part of the
Scottish vocabulary is evidence of this.
Niven Sinclair
Niven
Sinclair
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