The Sword and the Grail

A Sinclair

ISBN 10: 0517586185 / ISBN 13: 9780517586181

Published by Random House USA Inc, 1992

About this Item

More than ninety years before Columbus, Prince Henry St. Clair of Orkney reached North America with a Venetian captain and three hundred colonists. Based on stunning new archaeological evidence, The Sword and the Grail confirms Prince Henry's voyage and reveals the role played by the outlawed Order of the Knights Templar, who later evolved into the Masons of Scotland. This book is both an important revision of the history of the discovery of America and a fascinating revelation of the origins of the Masons. Some of the Templars carried their treasure to the St. Clair castle, where the knights' relics are still buried. The tomb of their St. Clair Grand Master, with the Grail carved on his stone, lies in Rosslyn, the core chapel of the Masonic movement. With the help of the sea skills and wealth of the Templars, Prince Henry tried to found with them a new Jerusalem in the New World, landing first in what is now Nova Scotia and then in New England. Written by a descendant of Prince Henry, The Sword and the Grail reveals startling evidence of the pre-Columbian European settlement of North America. It unveils secrets about the Knights Templar, the Grail, and the Masons that will fascinate the untold numbers of readers whose interest was stimulated by books like Foucault's Pendulum and Holy Blood, Holy Grail. All the research is original, and profound hidden mysteries of the Middle Ages are revealed at last.

Seller Inventory # CIN0517586185G

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Sword and the Grail
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0517586185
• ISBN 13: 9780517586181
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Draws on new archaeological evidence to argue that, years before Columbus, Prince Henry St. Clair of Orkney arrived in North America with the intention of establishing a colony and discusses the role of the Knights Templar in the expedition. 20,000 first printing.

Reviews

Historian and novelist Sinclair (War Like a Wasp: The Last Decade of the Forties) presents a daunting amount of research to support two controversial theses. First, he postulates that members of the Knights Templar, a medieval ascetic order that sought the Holy Grail and maintained a standing army in Jerusalem, fled to St. Clair Castle in Scotland after they were outlawed in the early 1300s and served as a direct connection to later Masonic orders. Second, drawing on the Templars' wealth and knowledge, Prince Henry St. Clair, aided by Venetian brothers Antonio and Nicolo Zen, also led an expedition to the New World, founding colonies in Nova Scotia and New England years before Columbus set sail. A direct descendant of Prince Henry, Sinclair has used primary sources and legends uncovered at Rosslyn Chapel, near Edinburgh in Scotland, to support these theories. They will be of interest mainly to history buffs and medievalists. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In 1398, Prince Henry St. Clair of Scotland is said to have sailed to North America with 300 colonists. This voyage was purportedly made with the aid of two Venetian sea captains and driven by the questing zeal of the outlawed Knights Templars. The details of this entertaining but often bewildering history are largely based upon secondary sources and the author's speculations on the meaning of Templar symbols found in the St. Clair's ancestral chapel. Moreover, the author's major documentary source is widely regarded as fraudulent. The case for this pre-Columbian discovery is also made in Frederick J. Pohl's Prince Henry Sinclair: His Expedition to the New World ( LJ 3/1/75. o.p.). Sinclair's work is compelling but questionable as history.
- William F. Young, SUNY at Albany Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.