At 10:39 26/10/00 +1000, you wrote:
>To All,
>Can anyone answer Kathleen's question below?
>
>I understand the Sinclairs were unable to rule without the Gunns
>consent..what was this all about ???
>
>Regards
>Bruce
There is no truth in this. The Gunns were never landowners in the sense that
the Sinclairs were (who owned 80% of Caithness) and held lands throughout
the rest of Scotland.
True, we used them to do our dirty work. The Gunns, like ourselves, were of
Viking descent so they were always spoiling for trouble but, in reality,
the real
challenge to Sinclair authority came from the Campbells, the Gordons and the
Sutherlands - not from the Gunns who didn't have a single Castle to their name.
They occupied Buchollie Castle for a time but that had been built by the Mowats
and, before the Mowats, had been used by Sweyn Asliefsson, the greatest
pillager of his day and the avowed enemy of Earl Harald Maddadsson, the 'jarl'
of Orkney and, ipso facto, of Caithness (1176-1198). It was this Earl who
'lost'
Shetland from the Orcadian 'jarldom' because he had supported the claim of
Sigurd
the son of King Magnus of Sweden rather than King Sverre of Norway*and,
although
King Svere eventually granted Harald a pardon, he took away Shetland from him
and it remained divided from Orkney until re-granted to Prince Henry
Sinclair in 1379.
Sweyn was related to the Gunns.
The belief that the Sinclairs could not rule Caithness without the consent
or the help
of the Gunns may have arisen from the name by which the "Chief" of the Clan
Gunn is
known. It is "crowner" but it has nothing to do with 'crowning'. The
Gunns don't have
a "Chief" as such. At the moment, there are three contestants for the
"crowner"
position. The Gunns cannot even agree amongst themselves far less with their
neighbours. (My great-grandmother was a Gunn which may account for my own
disputatious nature).
* The Scandinavian Royal families were inter-related which gave rise to
conflicting
claims.
Niven Sinclair
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