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Do you have any info oh Sinclair as bodyguards to the King of
France? I do belive 911 is correct for thr Treaty and 912 for baptism.
Clair is only spelling I found. Robert is a very French pronounced
Rowbear
Sinclair
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 1999 12:13
AM
Subject: St Clair sur Epte
If you will be good enough to let me have your address, I will
send you the relevant information on St Clair sur Epte.
It would appear
to be quite simple: Forest - Hermit - Hut - Death 884 - Chapel - Church -
Village - Town - Rollo - Treaty of
St Clair-sur-Epte 912 some 28 years
after the death of Clair (which is the spelling which is used on
the three feet high altar
in the shrine to the hermit).
The only
name which could have existed before the death of the hermit would have been
the name of the forest itself.
Another account of Clair states that he
was born in Scotland (where else?) and wrote the "Ritual of Divine Duty" and
lived
about 600 A.D
In the Dictionary of Christian Biography, Vol I (London
1877) there are notices of nine saints named Clarus. The
account
there states that the Clarus, after whom St Clair-sur-Epte was
named, was a personage of the ixth century and hailed from
Rochester in
Kent. This is the generally accepted version. It is of little
consequence because there is no suggestion that
the Sinclairs had any blood
connection with any of the Saints. When surnames came into vogue people
simply adopted the
name of the area in which they lived or, in other
cases, the name of their trade or profession.
There is another
interesting territorial connection because the Sinclairs became the Governors
of Rochester, Dover and Colchester castles after the Conquest - protecting the
gateways to London just as they protected the gateway to Edinburgh (Rosslyn
and Hermandston Castles) and the gateway to Tunsberg (the then Royal Palace of
Norway) by being Governors of Bergen Castle.
The Sinclairs had a strategy
which transcended national boundaries. They were, according to a
Professor at Moscow State
University, one of the two most important
families in Europe.
Thankfully, there is evidence of a resurgence of
interest in our lineage and in our heritage which can only augur well for the
future.
We are nothing without our roots. It is knowing our roots
which gives us stability; which allows us to realise and then release
the
true potential which lies within each one of us and, with that
knowledge, to forge a better future for all Mankind. "We are too
few"
I hear people say. Well it has always been the few
who have changed history. Our forefathers did. We may not be able
to do so
on the same scale but I'm reminded that "If every man
could mend a man, the whole World would soon be mended" which
brings us
back to St Clair who was a great healer.
Niven
Sinclair
P.S.
Rollo (as the French know him) or Hrolf 'the
Ganger' (which was the epithet by which he was generally known) which
means
Hrolf 'the Walker' because he was so big that no horse could carry
him!!
If surnames had not come into vogue I wonder what nick-names we
would have? Bill 'the Prophet''? Louisa 'the Torment'?
-
perhaps I'd better stop there before people begin identifying themselves with
my suggestions. I'd prefer to be known as Niven
'the Mediator' rather than
Niven 'the trouble maker' (Actually Niven means "little saint" in Gaelic
so I am a "little saint St Clair"
which may have been what my parents were
hoping for but which, alas, they didn't get).
[ This is the Sinclair
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