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Re: Blow the Trumpet loudly. Louder




>I take umbrage with some of your points I have internoted them

Didn't seem to me any of them were worth umbrage, but whatever.

My main point about Douglas was that I don't know much about that family.
I merely posted some shreds of text that might provoke some replies; they
did.  If you (or John Duguid or somebody else) has better information,
and it looks like you do, great!

>>Probably so, although there were plenty of instances of Sinclairs
>>failing to win the day, as at Altimarlach, and as when Oliver Sinclair lost
>>one against the English (I know some people on this list know that latter
>>story; does somebody want to tell it?).
>
>Failing to win the day as Oliver at Solway Moss did is a hell of a lot
>different than being a tratior

Of course it's different.  Nobody said it was the same.

My main point in that paragraph was that Sinclairs weren't always
successful everywhere.  If we're going to blow the trumpet for
Sinclairs, we need to remember to play the minor notes as well as the
major ones.

For why this is important, see for example Nigel Tranter's popular
history The Story of Scotland.  The *only* place he mentions Sinclairs
is in his description of Oliver Sinclair's incompetence at the Battle
of Solway Moss, 24 November 1542.  If we are to toot the Sinclair
trumpet we must be prepared to hear that sour note blown back at us.
The best way to counter such a thing is to give our own version of it,
which doesn't have to be any more positive than anybody else's version,
merely a version that acknowledges that we know about it.  Even better
if we can weave this minor theme into the larger sonata.  Who was this
Oliver?  Why was he the king's favorite?  Why did he so greatly
misjudge his capabilities?  One version I've seen refers to him as "the
hated king's favorite."  Maybe the problem wasn't Oliver at all; maybe
James V really was hated and the reason the nobles wouldn't follow
Oliver was because he represented James.  I don't know.  Maybe somebody
does.

Dealing with such events shouldn't be much of a problem, judging by how
everyone has been quite chatty about the other most famous Sinclair
debacle, the Battle of Altimarlach.

Maybe the clan organizations can coordinate research on more definitive
versions of both those and many other events.

John S. Quarterman <jsq@mids.org>
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