Henry Sinclair (Orkney)

Coat of arms of Henry Sinclair, Jarl of Orkney

Henry Sinclair († 1400 ) was a Norwegian-Scottish nobleman and Jarl of Orkney .

Origin and heritage

Henry Sinclair came from his father's side of the Scottish family Sinclair . He was the eldest son of William Sinclair and his wife Isabelle . His mother was the eldest daughter from Malise's second marriage , 8th Earl of Strathearn to Marjorie . When Malise died around 1350 without male descendants, his inheritance was divided among his five daughters from his two marriages. The lengthy division of inheritance was made more difficult by the different inheritance laws that still applied in northern Scotland at the time. Scottish law applied in Caithness , and although the lands were divided, the title Earl of Caithness went to Alexander de Ard († around 1376), son of Maud , Malise's eldest daughter from his first marriage. In Orkney , which was still essentially Scandinavian and under Norwegian sovereignty , the rights of a jarl , but not this title, also went to Alexander de Ard, while Henry Sinclair, the eldest grandson of Malise, received part of the land from his second marriage. However, the reign of Alexander de Ard was unfortunate, so that King Håkon VI. of Norway after a meeting with Henry Sinclair in the then Norwegian Marstrand awarded this on August 2, 1379 the title of Jarl of Orkney with extensive rights. In a letter dated September 1379, Sinclair promised the king not to sell or mortgage any lands or islands in the Jarltum of Orkney.

Memorial stone in Nova Scotia at the alleged landing site of Henry Sinclair

Jarl from Orkney

Sinclair took office with energy and determination. He led a power struggle with his cousin Malise Sperra , presumably by Håkon VI. had been installed as Lord of the Shetland Islands . This only ended when Malise was killed in 1391. Perhaps Sinclair had even greater ambitions. According to the so-called Zeno Narrative , two Venetian sailors are said to have advanced far into the North Atlantic together with Zichmni , a local magnate. This Zichmni is considered a Sinclair, but the trips described are considered controversial and unoccupied. However, it is also not considered completely impossible that Sinclair tried to subjugate the Faroe Islands and even discovered North America and ended up in what is now Nova Scotia . According to the Zeno Narrative, Zichmni was enemies with the Norwegian king. Jarl Henry, on the other hand, was in either Norway or Denmark in 1389 to recognize Erich von Pommern's claim to the Norwegian throne. According to a letter from the English King Richard II to Queen Margarethe of Denmark , which was written between February 1389 and April 1391, Sinclair also had good relations with Margarethe. Richard II's letter is primarily a response to Sinclair's complaints that he was being persecuted and attacked by the British. Richard II, for his part, accuses Sinclair of waging war against England with the French and Scots and that he therefore refuses to allow him safe conduct. However, before 1392 Richard II finally granted Sinclair and 24 companions safe conduct, apparently so that they could travel via England to France and on to Denmark. It is not known to what extent there had actually been fighting between the British and followers of Sinclair, but it is likely that there had been conflicts between fishermen from both countries near the northern Scottish islands. Sinclair likely died a violent death. He was allegedly killed in a battle on Orkney while fighting against Englishmen who had landed on the archipelago with a fleet.

Marriage and offspring

Sinclair had married Jean , a daughter of John Haliburton, Lord of Dirleton . He had at least ten children with her, including:

• Henry II. Sinclair , Jarl of Orkney (around 1375-1420);
• John Sinclair († after 1416).

His heir became his eldest son, Henry. When he died, however, his mother Isabelle, who had survived her sisters and their children, took control of Orkney. This may have been done in accordance with Norwegian law. It was not until 1416 that the younger Henry was able to take control of Orkney.

Web links

• Barbara E. Crawford: Henry Sinclair (d.1400). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
• Henry Sinclair, 1st Earl of Orkney, on thepeerage.com , accessed February 14, 2019.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ranald Nicholson: Scotland. The Later Middle Ages (The Edinburgh History of Scotland, Vol. II. ) Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh 1974, ISBN 0-05-002038-2 , p. 192.
2. ↑ James Balfour Paul : The Scots Peerage. Volume 4, David Douglas, Edinburgh 1907, p. 333.

predecessor	Office	successor
Title vacant (until approx. 1376: Alexander de Ard )	Jarl of Orkney 1379-1400	Henry Sinclair