by Steven Sora
Bruce now had two choices—retreat and live as an outlaw as a result of the excommunication that would surely follow or seize the moment, and the power that might be his, even if only for a brief time. He decided he had only one choice, to finish what he had started. His men were instructed to seize Dumfries Castle while he rode to Bishop Wishart for absolution. Five weeks later this bishop crowned Robert the Bruce king at the ancient Stone of Scone, a sacred unifying symbol of Scotland. The approval of the bishop was a calculated move on Bruce’s part to divide the Scottish Church and the Church in Rome, as well as draw a line separating the English in the south and the Scots in the north. The murder at Grey Friars served to make the cause of Bruce the cause of Scotland.
His problems were far from over despite the nationalistic feeling he mounted in his support. Edward of England marched against Bruce and Scotland, and Bruce and his close family were forced into hiding. As his wife had commented, Bruce was “king” in name only, and the early days after his crowning would support her prediction. Bruce traveled from island to island in the west, often going hungry, and dressing in peasant clothes. One fateful night he was trying to sleep in a cave. The war against England was going badly; Bruce had seen friends and family captured and killed. Lying awake in the dark cave was for Bruce a dark moment. He was not sure whether he could go on.
Looking up, he watched a spider swinging from his web. The spider kept trying to make it to the wall, but each time his momentum brought him close, only to stop him short of his goal. As the king of Scotland lay underneath, the spider went on trying. Eventually the spider swung wide enough to grab on to the wall. Robert the Bruce decided at that moment that he, too, would keep trying. He emerged from hiding only to encounter the English in small skirmishes that he usually won, but an open battle would be fatal. Frustrated by his inability to draw Bruce into open combat, the king himself actually came to Scotland to fight beside his men. The aging Edward did not survive the hard traveling and died en route to meet the Scots. This gave the forces of Bruce and Scottish nationalism breathing room, and he capitalized on the time.
Bruce used the next few years to avenge his enemies in Scotland and to seize their estates and castles. In 1314 the English returned under the son of King Edward II to reclaim Scotland. Their army has been estimated to have been one hundred thousand men strong. Although their numbers could have been an exaggeration, they were better armed. The Scots were outmanned at least three to one and were believed to be outgunned.24 The English army was made up of powerfully armed and trained knights and experienced infantry. The Scottish forces were poorly financed and poorly armed. They were forced to rely on Gallgaels from the west, who carried only spears; Picts from the far north, who had barely emerged from the Stone Age; and hardy island warriors from the Orkneys, who often used homemade weapons. The best that they brought to the field were lightly armed horsemen.
When the English arrived it was in a column that stretched for two miles. Fearing such a show of power would cause his own forces to flee the battlefield, Bruce took a famous calculated risk. He accepted the taunting challenge made to the Scots by one heavily armed knight to send their best man into battle alone, to face the knight. Against the pleas of his horrified brother, Robert the Bruce rode out into the field. Described as a small figure on a small horse, he appeared to be no challenge to the opposing knight, who immediately charged him. To Bruce’s men, watching the larger knight on a larger horse, fully armored and wielding a battle lance, the fight appeared to be lost before it even began. Bruce, however, understood that he could use his size to his advantage. As the knight charged, Bruce stood his ground, only to make a quick sidestep as the English knight reached him. He deftly avoided the weapon thrust at him and turned to swing his own ax into the skull of his challenger. The knight, Henri de Bohun, fell to the ground dead.
To see the heavily outfitted knight fall so quickly before their lightly armored leader inspired the men, as Bruce had hoped it would. Bruce had counted on much more than inspiration. Once the battle started in earnest, their cunning plans were put into action. First the mounted knights were steered onto a field prepared with booby traps such as potholes and spiked balls. As the knights’ horses fell to the ground, primitive Highlanders were there to finish the job with their spears. Still the English had forces to spare and several attacking at the same time. At one point all the Scottish forces were engaged when a new flank of English knights appeared on the scene. Just as this fresh force appeared, one that could turn the tide against the Scots, their own secret weapon rode out. The English were opposed and then beaten by three hundred knights who had been previously held off the field. This superior force was commanded by Thomas Randolph. Legend says Randolph lost only one man in his attack that sent the English running and saved Scotland.25
The tide had truly turned in favor of the Scots. The next day, the Feast of John the Baptist, Bruce’s force caught up to the retreating army of Edward II. Bruce had been against chasing the English, since he felt his soldiers were not strong enough to engage the enemy again, but one of his knights, Alexander Seton, whom history describes as a deserter but who was more likely a spy, told Bruce that the English would surrender. Some did surrender, others fought and were defeated. The result of the defeat for the English was that Scotland had achieved its independence.
After the Battle of Bannockburn, many Scottish families allied themselves to Bruce and to each other. Setons, Grahams, and the Sinclairs were the most prominent. They united under the banner of nationalism. The same nationalism served to divide the bishops of Scotland, who were forced to stand on the side of the papacy or the side of their countrymen. Bishop Wishart, who crowned Bruce at the Stone of Scone, and Bishop William Sinclair were two who stood fast despite their resulting separation from the Church.
The cause of Scotland became the cause of the Sinclairs, and the history of the Sinclair family would now be tied firmly to the unfolding history of a revolutionary Scotland. The Sinclair and Bruce families were related through various marriages that furthered their alliance. The alliance would also bring Sinclair more wealth. William Sinclair was rewarded for his stand with Robert the Bruce with additional lands near Edinburgh and in Pentland. His son William married Isabel, the daughter of Malise, the earl of Orkney, bringing even more land to this powerful family. William’s second son was Henry, who became the first Sinclair to bear the title earl of Orkney and the Sinclair who would sail with Zeno to Nova Scotia. It was the inaccurate genealogist Father Hay who later called Henry’s grandson a prince, although there is no recorded reason for this designation outside Zeno’s letters.26 Did the rushed Father Hay genealogy have another source to which Zeno was also privy?
The revolution in Scotland gave the Sinclair family little time to enjoy their new prosperity, since conflict with England, opposing Norman families, and Highland clans were a constant threat. After Bannockburn, England did not launch a major attack on Scotland but did harass the Norman families in the border lands. This harassment led several families to change alliances. The Norman clans were normally allied only to the cause of their clan, much in the way that Highland clans recognized only their own clan as the proper object of their allegiance. It was not an act of treason to switch from one side to another—as the family and clan always came before any nation. In Italy, the Norman sons of Tancred repeated this same pattern, with brother fighting brother on occasion in the attempt to gain control of that divided land.27 Only when faced with an outside force did the Normans unite. In the British Isles, where allegiance to the king of England and allegiance to Robert the Bruce divided the isle, the confrontation would place Sinclairs on opposing sides, even at Bannockburn. The Roslin branch had no problem fighting their English cousins.
The war for independence took its toll on the Sinclair family, but it also brought the family wealth. For the standards of Scotland in their day, the early knights of the Roslin Sinclairs lived in a splendor not typical of their country. William, grandso
n of Henry the seafaring explorer, as earl of Orkney and Caithness, lived in unheard wealth.28 Among the members of his court were Lord Dirleton, Lord Borthwick, Lord Fleming, and other prominent landowners. William had married into the Douglas clan, and his wife, Elizabeth (whom biographer Hay called a princess), had seventy-five servants—fifty-three “of noble birth”—and two hundred “riding women” attending to her needs. Vessels of gold, clothes of silk, and an entourage more suitable to an Oriental khan hardly seemed possible in a land that visiting Pope Pius II described as a wild place where people ate the bark of trees.
Since the wealth of William Sinclair was not just made up of his lands near Edinburgh, but encompassed lands in the north of Scotland and in the islands off the mainland, he was often traveling with his fleet. When Sinclair was not at sea, he lived at his castle at Roslin, surrounded by his lands outside Edinburgh. He is given credit for designing and at least starting the construction of the Roslin chapel. The complex underground tunnel and vault system that is part of William’s design has, like Oak Island, stubbornly clung to its secrets. In this century tombs that were rumored to be below ground were finally uncovered, but excavators are still baffled by such features as a stairway descending to nowhere.29
William was appointed grand admiral of Scotland by the king in 1436, following the tradition of his grandfather. In inheriting the traditional role of earl of Orkney, William likely also inherited the charts of his grandfather’s exploits in America. The Sinclairs wanted to keep these lands secret, since they would serve a very important purpose. And they did preserve their secrets. What happened to their records in the form of maps and charts is unknown. In the eighteenth century the Sinclair estate suffered a massive fire, and records could have been lost at that time. In the fifteenth century, however, scarcely forty years after Henry’s voyage, the records were probably available to the admiral.
By the time that Grand Admiral William Sinclair became the head of the family, the Sinclairs were protecting a treasure vastly more valuable than their own wealth. Sinclair had constructed the chapel of Roslin in such a way that its hidden tunnels could secure an important treasure and William’s private army from their ever present enemies. The impending English invasion, however, led William to believe even his underground warren of passageways and vaults was not secure enough. The sacred treasure entrusted to the Sinclairs needed an even more complex hiding place and in a much more secure location. William Sinclair, admiral of Scotland and sea king of the Orkneys, had the means and the motive to construct the most massive treasure vault since King Solomon’s temple. And he was one of very few Europeans who had accurate knowledge of the location of the new world.
Chapter 6
THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR AND SCOTLAND
History’s greatest and oldest author on the subject of war is Sun Tzu. His classic work, The Art of War, was written two thousand five hundred years ago in his native Chinese dialect, but it is still published and widely read today. It has one general principle, that the battle is won well before it is fought, by superior intelligence and planning. The decisive battle of Bannockburn is one powerful example of such superior intelligence and planning enabling a smaller outnumbered, outgunned force to become victorious over a superior force. Throughout the history of Scotland, the Scottish forces have been defeated by the English. Images of spear-hurling Highlanders and naked Welshmen facing legions of well-armed, uniform-clad English are not simply images. Even in the eighteenth century a desperate, hungry army of Scots was reduced to throwing stones against sixteen battalions of foot soldiers, three regiments of cavalry, and an armored division of the British at Culloden.1
Bannockburn, however, had been different. As usual, the Scots forces were inferior, but through superior planning and intelligence they won the battle. One deciding factor was the fresh force that had appeared seemingly from nowhere to save the day. The Scots had always thrown everything into desperate battle, but at Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce had saved this force in a gamble that paid off well for Scotland.2 Had knowledge of this army held in the wings kept the Scots from deserting the battlefield when first greeted with the massive ranks of the enemy?
In the last chapter, the story of Robert the Bruce’s personal courage in facing and defeating the heavily armed Norman knight is retold as the impetus for the courage of the Scots. Before the famous David and Goliath battle, were his own spear-carrying Highlanders aware that they were backed by a modern European force every bit as able and trained as the English and mercenary Normans? More than one modern historian claims that it was knowledge of this hidden ally that acted as the glue that held the smaller Scottish force intact in the face of the enemy.3 That it was on Saint John the Baptist’s feast day that this secret force turned the tide for Scotland was also a key factor. Where had the Scottish force found such a well-trained ally that it was able to win a decisive victory against the English? The secret weapon of the Scottish was the Knights Templar. And June 24 was a date considered sacred to these knights.
The Knights Templar
The Templars were an order of warrior-monks who once fought courageously for the Church against the Saracen enemy that had occupied the Holy Lands. As a group they were regarded as arrogant, as individuals, haughty. Their wealth attracted criticism, but as long as they held the Holy Lands they were considered heroes wih a mission. After being forced to abandon the Holy Lands to the Saracens, they lost their raison d’être. They had been betrayed both by the French king and the leader of the Christian Church, the pope. In 1307 they had been ordered arrested by King Philip of France. Over the course of the next few years they were imprisoned, tortured, and often put to the stake. Their order was disbanded and their lands and estates confiscated. Three months before the famous battle at Bannockburn, the grand master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, the order’s highest ranking leader, was roasted alive on the orders of the French king.4 It was the final chapter in his decade-long campaign to break the power of the Templars and to seize their wealth. It wasn’t the final chapter for the Templars themselves.
The history of the Templars begins with the Crusades. The Muslim rulers whom Europe called the Saracens had captured Jerusalem, and the Church aroused the populace of Europe to fight to regain the Holy Lands. When Jerusalem was recaptured, the Templars were organized. On the surface, the mission of the first Knights Templar was to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land.5 It was a journey replete with danger from pickpockets, pirates, con artists, and highwaymen. Once Jerusalem had been rescued from the Saracens, all of Europe wanted to make this most sacred pilgrimage, but few were ready for the difficulties that lay ahead. Often, dishonest shipowners sold their entire cargo of Christian pilgrims into slavery in northern Africa. If pilgrims were fortunate enough to be aboard the ship of an honest man, they still had to contend with disease, seasickness, and Mediterranean pirates.
It appeared that the Knights Templar had created for themselves a truly noble undertaking. They styled themselves as warrior-monks, dedicating their lives to self-sacrifice. They cropped their hair and let their beards grow. They vowed personal poverty and chastity. Pledged to a celibate state and a sinless life, they slept clothed to avoid temptation. They gave away their own goods, and many had come from wealthy families and had much wealth to turn over to their order.
Their founder was Hugues de Payens.6 Historians of the Templars and the Crusades always point out that de Payens was the son of a minor nobleman, from Champagne in France, indicating a less-than-powerful origin. The founder of the Templars, even though he had been born from a “minor” noble family, rose in status in his lifetime. He was related by marriage to the Norman St. Clair family.7 He christened his order of warrior-monks the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. In 1118 when he reached Jerusalem for the first time, his order was at its full force of eight men strong, besides de Payens himself. He presented his force to Baldwin I, the crusader who held the title king of Jerusalem. Hugues de Payens told the crusad
er of his mission, although it is not recorded just how these knights intended to defend Christians along thousands of miles of highway with a force of nine. And he made the request that they be allowed to house their small force in the ruins of the Temple of Solomon. It was granted. The knights took up residence in the Temple of Solomon.8 For nine years they stayed there, admitting no new knights to their order.
After this lengthy stay the knights returned home to France to receive praise from the abbot of Clairvaux, who came to be known to history as the crusading Saint Bernard. Bernard convened the Council of Troyes in 1128 to recognize their merit and to make their order “official.” Later, Pope Innocent II declared the order autonomous, answerable to no one except to the pope himself. In effect, a military order without borders was created.
Bernard was the spokesman for the Crusades.9 His oratory was said to enflame anyone present. His speeches would cause husbands and sons to flock to join both the Crusades and the Templar organization. It is said that when he came into a town, wives would hide their husbands or lose them to the war. Bernard’s backing of the Knights Templar was no small endorsement.
Bernard’s concept of just what it meant to be a Christian soldier was radical even in his own time. He declared that the soldier of Christ serves “his own interests in dying, Christ’s interests in killing.” He said such a Christian soldier must serve as “Christ’s legal executioner.” Bernard had formed a military order out of the Templars, Christian soldiers willing to kill for peace. Young nobles from all over Europe rushed to join in the adventure. Along with the size of the order, its wealth grew as a result of monies and lands pledged by the knights. When the order returned to Jerusalem it held lands all over Europe and was a noble fighting army of three hundred knights. The Templars became a superior fighting force in terms of strength and courage and a superior moral force in a holy war that was very often unholy.