Re: Hugh and Catherine

["Sinclair" <labehotierre@wanadoo.fr>]

The earliest that I can find St Clair in Scotland around Rosslyn is 1071.
In 1162  Henry de St Clair of Roslin was granted lands in Lothian. His
descendant Sir William became guardian to the heir of Alexander III and
gained the Barony of Rosslyn in 1280. There was an earlier grant to another
Henry.


Pope Honarius II in 1128 granted rule to the Templars.  Bernard of Clairvaux
gained the support of many influential landowners and began to receive
generous donations of money and property. Hughues de Payens received
property from Burgundy, Provence, Languedoc and Flanders in France and
Estates in England, Spain and Portugal.

Payen oversaw the building of the first Templar Preceptory outside the Holy
Land in Scotland. The Preceptory was constructed near to the site of the
later built Rosslyn Chapel. It was built on land owned by his wife Catherine
de St Clair. The nearby town of Temple takes its name from this Preceptory.


 Malcolm III or Ceann Morr `big head' raided Northumbria. Causing a Norman
invasion of Scotland in 1071,  Malcolm was obliged to pay homage to William
the Conqueror at Abernethy.  William left Norman knights in Scotland among
them St Clairs. He granted his knights lands.  Ceann Moor was bothered not
stopped in his fifth raid on England he was killed in 1093

"William the Conqueror's raid on Scotland in 1071 was not a serious attempt
at conquest, but it stamped  Norman influence firmly in Scotland.  In 1093,
Malcolm III was succeeded by his brother, Donald Ban, who had spent his his
childhood with the Vikings in the Hebrides and who immediately reversed many
of Malcolm's policies. William Rufus of England  backed Malcolm's son by his
first marriage, Duncan, who had been held as a hostage in England, against
Donald Ban. Donald Ban was first overthrown, then restored to the throne
when Duncan was murdered, then overthrown again by Edgar, Duncan's
half-brother. Edgar, the first of the three sons of Malcolm and Margaret
sons to reign in Scotland, had, like his brothers, Alexander and David,
received a Norman education at the English court. He  rewarded  those
Normans who had helped him against Donald, with grants of land in the
Lowlands (a process already begun by Malcolm Ceann Morr). Alexander, whose
sister married Henry I of England and who himself married Henry's daughter,
continued this policy, as did David who reigned from 1124-1153. Indeed, it
was David who brought to Scotland such famous families as the Bruces, the
Comyns and the Fitzalans. (Walter Fitzalan was made High Steward of
Scotland, and his descendants were to form the Stewart dynasty. The name was
changed in the 16th century to Stuart, the French spelling, that language
having no W.) David, however, was a much stronger king than his brothers,
who had effectively been clients of Henry I. Although he established an
Anglo-Norman aristocracy in Scotland, it was with a view to asserting the
country's independence, and the feudalism he fostered was tempered with the
strong emphasis on the extended family which was the hallmark of the Celtic
clan tradition."


Sinclair

REF Baigent and Leigh, The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail
Sir John Bernard Burke, Vicissitudes of Families and Other Essays
William T. Still, New World Order
Desmond Seward, The Monks of War
Tim Wallace-Murphy & Marilyn Hopkins Rosslyn
Laurence Gardner Genesis of the Grail Kings - The Pendragon Legacy of Adam
and Eve




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