One of the most fascinating characters in history is also one of the least known — Prince Henry St. Clair. I will do some blogs on him when we get around to the Templars. For now, you need to know that Henry was an exceptionally powerful figure in Scotland. When the Templars were banned and persecuted throughout Europe, they had a safe haven in Scotland. Why? Scotland had separated itself from Rome more than a hundred years earlier when Robert the Bruce became king. The Bruce had killed his chief rival for the throne of Scotland in a church and that marked him for excommunication. Scotland could have escaped Papal condemnation if they had handed Bruce over, but they didn’t. They were still in a state of estrangement from the Vatican when some of the Templars made their way there to find refuge. Prince Henry gave them that refuge and brought them into his private circle.

And what a circle that was! Prince Henry was a great explorer. He had maps that had been made more than a thousand years before that showed a great land to the west of Europe. The northern parts of the maps were mainly blank for the makers of the maps — Phoenicians, Turks, Berbers — had done relatively little exploration in the far north of that New World. Henry had Albans in his retinue who knew of Thule (Iceland) and Greenland but couldn’t give him any information on the mainland of what would become known as North America. They knew of the copper mines in present day Michigan but they didn’t know where to place it on the map. When the rescued sailor we described in the last blog made it to Prince Henry, Henry got all the information he could from the man about the tribes, rivers, landmarks, currents, etc. Sadly, the rescued sailor died three days later of a fever so he could not personally lead Prince Henry to the New World. That didn’t stop Henry.

He amassed an exploration force of thirteen vessels and three hundred men, most of them Norse but with a smattering of Albans (picked up on Thule) and Kelts. They sailed on April 1st, 1398. Two Venetian sailors went with them, Antonio and Nicolo. They left a detailed record of the voyage. Later, one of their great grandsons built a map out of their notes and it became the famous Zeno Narrative and Map. [a little trivia here. Henry took 13 ships for a reason. He considered the number 13 to be lucky in a rather perverse way. Why? It was on Friday the 13th that the Templars came under an arrest and excommunication order. While the rest of Europe would forever consider the date unlucky, Henry reveled in it, rubbing the Pope's nose in it. That is why he took 13 ships. He took the Zeno brothers as captains of two of his ships for the same reason: there was no love lost between the Zenos and the Pope]

They made it to Newfoundland a hundred years before Columbus sailed, but they were not the first Europeans there by a long, long stretch. Albans were already there, living alongside the Tunit and Beothuks. Interesting point here: Henry and his chroniclers considered all native Indian tribes as savages and referred to them that way constantly. However, they never referred to the Albans, Tunit, or Beothuks that way. They weren’t sure what the Albans and their allies were, but they weren’t savages.

When Henry landed on the southern coast of Newfoundland (he called it Estotiland), the Albans thought they were slavers and pirates. They attacked Henry and drove his men back to the ships. After the threat was over, the Albans sent a delegation to Henry to make him an offer. They would accept one member of the St. Clair expedition into their tribe and give him an honorable position. Why? They said they wanted to learn his language and find out about the customs of his people. Zeno writes this as a quote from the leader of the Albans. “They had already received people from ten different countries, who had come to their island and thereby they had linguists among them who could speak ten languages.”

Some of you learned about the incredible explorations of John Cabot. What you might not have heard was that Cabot (and Cartier, later) reported that upon landing in Newfoundland they found natives able to speak — at least somewhat — twelve languages including the old Alban tongues called Basque and Beothuk. They could speak Breton, Catalan, English, Old French, Gascon, Irish, Italian, Norse, Portuguese, and Provencal. They told Cabot and Cartier that men from those lands had been landing on Newfoundland for hundreds of years, fishing the open bays and enjoying the hospitality of local tribes during the long, harsh winters.

Henry then went to Nova Scotia where they spent the winter. He traveled on but to where, exactly, we don’t know. It is clear that they spent another year and a half in the area and we have tantalizing clues such as legends from the Micmac Indians, a buried Venetian cannon found on a beach in Nova Scotia, and the burial stone and cairn of the Scottish knight and Templar, James Gunn, found in Massachusetts. It is clear that Prince Henry wanted this part of his travels to be kept secret. His chronicler obeyed his orders and detailed day to day life, diet, and morale — and delivered that record to the Zenos upon their return — but not direction or landmarks during that year. Some men were left behind in New England and Nova Scotia (along with the one left at Newfoundland) but they were never recovered for Prince Henry was killed by an English raiding party shortly after his return to the Orkney Islands in 1401.

What happened during that year is a matter of great interest because of the few things we know about it. We know that he sent the Zeno brothers and all his ships home three weeks after landing on Nova Scotia. He kept only a number of warriors and engineers and a few oared boats. When it was time for him to come home, his men built their own ship. They weren’t in an open, empty land. It was already well populated. The Norse had abandoned their foothold on North America by this time but others were using the settlements they had established at L’Anse aux Meadows and elsewhere in southeastern Canada and New England. We know that the Tunit disappeared sometime after Prince Henry left Nova Scotia and before the Spanish slave ships found the area. It is assumed that most of them died due to war or illness and the rest were assimilated. The Albans, however, were still there. I have some information on Prince Henry’s year in America but I’ll hold that until we get to the Templars.

For now, notice this ship’s log entry by a Spanish captain of a slave ship. He was raiding around Newfoundland in 1502 and described the people he had captured, stressing that they were not Indians but rather “They resemble Gypsies in color, features, stature, and aspect. They are very shy and gentle but well formed… They will be excellent for labor and the best slaves that have hither to been obtained.” We also have a written account of Basque sailors who traveled to the area to hunt whales. They got along with the Albans and called them “Jainko tar,” meaning “the followers of the Christian God.” That area is still called Jakatars today.

Somewhat like the tribes on Tasmania, the Albans didn’t continue to thrive but, instead, they regressed from solid, knowledgeable communities into illiteracy and lawlessness. By the time Anglican missionaries got to the area (as early as 1800 but this account is from 1857) the “Jack a Tars” were considered lazy and lawless. Surviving members of this tribe fiercely dispute the way they were described by the missionaries. And they might be right. It wouldn’t be the first time missionaries assumed that “different” meant “savage.” The Jakatar people explain their dwindling numbers by saying that intermarriage has never been an issue among them. Their culture is based on sharing and hospitality. In looks and in character, they share a lot with the Melungeons of Appalachia.

Next — the Irish take to the sea…