Re: Prince & Jarl

[Lena A Löfström <lal@algonet.se>]

Sinclair wrote:
> 
> Henry  in 1358, was proclaimed the Lord of Rosslyn.
> 
> Henry's first marriage was to the granddaughter of the King of Norway and
> Sweden.
> 

As he did marry the granddaughter of the King of Norway and Sweden he
might have, note that I say "might", received the title prince at that
point (as the title Jarl was "out of fashion" in Sweden at that time,
see bellow). If the granddaughter was a princess (of which I am not 
certain) and he was, as you stated above, Lord, a noble man, he might
very well had been "named" prince. Nowadays we do not apply that but we
did for many hundred of years years.

I also want to add that the word "jarl" actually was the title of a
kings "right hand" or rather the person who in reality had the power. It
become more and more common that the jarl in one way or an other was
related to the king, son in law, brother in law or one of the kings
younger sons, exactly what we today call a prince! The title was - in
Sweden - replaced in 1266, when Birger Jarl died, by the title duke (in
Swedish=hertig, also see the german word hertzog)allthough a more proper
translation would be Earl. In Norway they kept the title until the
beginning of the 14ths century, which makes me wonder about the year
Henry received the title Jarl (when it comes to written sources most of
them are in Latin and Jarl in Latin = dux).

And a happy new year to you all!

Best regards
Lena
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