"I have held up a light in the obscurity of Philosophy, which will be seen centuries after I am dead. It will be seen amidst the erection of Tombs, Theatres, Foundations, Temples, Orders and Fraternities for nobility and obedience — the establishment of good laws as an example to the World. For I am not raising a Capitol or Pyramid to the Pride of men, but laying a foundation in the human understanding for a holy Temple after he model of the World. For my memory I leave it to Men's charitable speeches, to foreign Nations and the next Ages, and to my own Country after some Time has elapsed." -- Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk II.

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Join me to explore the hidden tenets of arranged alignments of architecture and art. Structures as diverse as the Great Pyramid, Baalbek, The Tower of the Winds, Hagia Sopia, Basilica San Vitale, The Dome of the Rock, St. Peter's Square, Gisors, The Newport Tower, Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest, and the Georgia Guidestones all may have a common origin.

Three reproductions of the Tower of the Winds in England help to display how this age old value is viewed through time. Along the way many legends and myths associated with the Holy Grail and other relics are examined.

Treasure myths such as the Oak Island Legend and The Beale Treasure Legend may have a common origin and hidden meaning. The tale of The Bruton Parish Church Vault (a.k.a. "Bacon's Vault) may also be a copy of an already existent mystery at Stirling Castle.

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Part II: Don Quixote and Sir Francis Bacon; The Stewart Family and Christopher Columbus. Archer Reliquary and Kensington Rune Part II

Interesting connections between Spain, England, Ireland, and Scotland. A possible explanation for strange lost treasure myths and rune stones.

What if there was a scheme or way to tell what all this really meant? Identifying a group of people who have connections to all the cultures involved so far my lead us to a conclusion.

To be fair here we should examine any possible links between Spain and other places like Scotland and Scandinavia that may display why the X rune is present on the Kensington Rune and possibly on the Archer Reliquary, Columbus’ signature, and the flyleaf of “Don Quixote.” Is it possible that these similar symbols all have a common origin? Of the three examples that have ties to Spain only one of the symbols looks similar to the one on the Kensington Rune. The signature of Columbus in his hand writing appears to be the same. The other two are very similar as discussed above with some variance. Also discussed above is the Larson Papers, Copiale Cipher, and how this symbol seemed to have been used by a young men’s agricultural society in Sweden at around the same time the Kensington Rune was found.

The occurrence of this symbol in the text of the Copiale Ciphers is interesting and may display one link that distantly relates the X rune to both the ciphers and Kensington Rune via the same source. There are many links between Spanish and Scottish culture including intermarriages between nobles of both countries. One large example of this may be seen in the Spanish Dukes of Alba. During the turmoil of the exile of James II in 1688 we see the Stewart family of the King being exiled at the St. Germaine en Laye summer palace of Louis XV of France.

Interestingly this household was managed or stewarded by the d’Abbadie St. Germaine branch of the same d’Abbadie family of the previously discussed Jean Vincent d’Abbadie Baron St. Castin was from. In James II escape from England most sources state that he was assisted by his back stairs page “Abbadie.” In this way it appears that James II had somewhat of a relationship to the French King via this person and family prior to his exile.

If not we may consider that it is at least possible and quite a coincidence that his page had this name. It also appears that the granddaughter of Jean Vincent d’Abbadie Baron St. Castin would also later marry into the family of first Acadian Governor Charles de La Tour. The de La Tour family also has close family ties to the Stewart family via the Dukes of Albany Alexander and John who both married women named Anne de La Tour in the early sixteenth century.

Eventually James II illegitimate son James Fitz-James Stuart married a direct descendant of Christopher Columbus himself named Catalina Ventura Colón de Portugal y Ayala-Toledo, 9th Duchess of Veragua. This marriage gained him the titles of Duke of Alba and Duke of Veragua. The Dukedom of Veragua was included in part of the territory in Panama that was originally awarded to the family of Christopher Columbus. Here we have a direct link to the Stewart family of exiled Kings that included Charles I, Charles II, James II, James III, and Bonnie Prince Charlie sometimes referred to as Charles III and the family of Christopher Columbus himself. All of these kings had descended directly from Mary Queen of Scots directly through her son James I of England, Ireland, and Scotland. Though the Stewarts were known as English kings they were from a Scottish family connected to many of the previous Scottish Kings.

Along with James Fitz-James Stuart’s marriage to the Duchess of Veragua came some documents that had personally belonged to Christopher Columbus including one of his journals and a letter he had written. Over time the Dukes of Alba had also collected a large amount of antique art and literature. They even owned a first edition copy of “Don Quixote.” Though the Stewarts did not gain these titles until the early eighteenth century (1700’s) it is clear their family was in a position to know many hidden tenets of history that applied directly to their family.

These things may not necessarily have been intentionally hidden but they had been overlooked in the history written by their Hanoverian cousins who now ruled England. Is it possible the Stuart’s are the one’s who actually valued these strange symbols seen in the signature of Columbus and in the Copiale Ciphers? Beginning in the early eighteenth century the Stuart Dukes of Veragua could have easily been aware of the Greek signature of Columbus. If there was a secret as to why Columbus used the strange X in his signature the Stuart’s were now in a position to have know why and what it may have meant if anything.

It is also clear that the original Stewart family of Scotland had been involved in patronizing the original order of Knights Templar during their existence. Though none of them are recorded as being members it was not normal for such a noble family to have contributed members to the order though a few other nobles like William Marshall were made Knights Templar on their death beds. Families such as the Stewart’s may have also paid what is known of as Knight’s Fees to pay the costs of a Knight and his retinue to go on Crusade. In Scotland, they had donated property to the Order. The Stewarts were one of the families responsible for the Knights Templar coming to Scotland.

There is in fact a direct family link between the Dukes of Alba and the Stewart family to a man who owned the Red River Colony and Hudson’s Bay Company both in Canada during the early to mid nineteenth century not long after the American Revolution. The site of the discovery of the Kensington Rune marks the border between property owned or that was part of the Red River Colony and French Louisiana. This property in addition to defining the territory of the Red River colony had once also been part of the domain of Charles II, James II. It was the property of the Kings before any other in many ways. At this time members of the family of the Dukes of Alba and Veragua where considered by many to be the Jacobite claimants to the exiled crown as well.

Lord Selkirk Thomas Douglas may have had been in the right place at the right time to have influenced the placement of a rune that included a symbol used by Columbus on his Greek signature. Lord Selkirk owned the Hudson’s Bay Company and ran the Red River Colony and was a known as staunch Jacobite even though he lived slightly later than the heyday of the Jacobites. Even so the exiled remainder of the family as well as their exiled Order of the Garter were still active and looking for ways to benefit from their family history via what they may have thought of as their right.

It may be even possible that Lord Selkirk was aware of the Copiale Ciphers. The Ciphers did indeed detail aspects of a Jacobite form of Freemasonry that had been created by the exiled Stewart court to aid them in their attempt to regain their lost crowns. We may at least assume that Lord Selkirk was a member of this form of Freemasonry that also had adapted the imagery of the original Order of Knights Templar. It may be that this Templar based form of Freemasonry had been responsible for many of the concepts we see in the current era that some attempt to ascribe to the original Order of Templars. It was this form of Freemasonry that first brought the concept of the Knights Templar to Sweden where they had never existed during the time of the original order.

Concepts like attempting to convince American’s that they owed some sort of historical respect to Henry Sinclair was precisely the kind of propaganda that had been generated by European exiled Jacobites. It was not only the Stewart’s who had been exiled but all their supporters and many of their soldiers had also been exiled to the American Colonies as well as other parts of Europe and especially Scandinavia. It is likely that some Jacobite sentiments dictated that they still believed the American colonies were their domain as they felt they had been cheated out of them.

It is likely that their Hanoverian cousins who ruled Great Britain and had replaced them as the monarchy felt the same way. Interestingly in the era of the Jacobites the Sinclair family had remained loyal to the power that be of the time and were not Jacobites. There is one prominent member who was a Jacobite and he was somewhat punished for this in the end. The first land surveyor to visit the site of the discovery of the Kensington Rune may have even been related to Lord Charlton.

In fact Lord Selkirk’s distant cousins included the Swedish Counts of Hamilton and the Swedish Counts of Douglas. Selkirk himself came from a family of Douglas whose mother was a Hamilton. It is documented that Lord Selkirk was closely associated and had visited his Swedish cousins while some sources even have them involved in the Red River Colony. Thus, various directly related family members sometimes used Douglas or Hamilton as their name. For instance, George Hamilton was the Governor of Virginia in 1715. He was Lord Selkirk’s grand uncle and he had chosen to use his mother’s titled name instead of his father’s Douglas name. George Hamilton interestingly was also the Earl of Orkney at that time. Later in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century many Scotsmen and especially those from Orkney worked for Lord Selkirk and his Hudson’s Bay Company and some of them were even colonists of the Red River Colony.

Selkirk’s Swedish cousins of Douglas and Hamilton had become Swedish nobility due to their military prowess. Their original members had been exiled there after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion of Bonnie Prince Charlie in Scotland and had come to be employed in the Swedish army. This is a common story with Jacobite exiles being part of the armies and navies of many Baltic Rim countries as well as France and Russia. This concept ties to why the Scottish are known of as fearless fighters along with their earlier history.

Here in the form of Lord Selkirk Thomas Douglas we have an individual that is a Jacobite from Scotland who is directly related to the Swedish Counts in his family as well as the Dukes of Alba and Veragua including direct descendants of Christopher Columbus that also included his relatives who were directly descendant of Mary Queen of Scots via James II. From a broad perspective, we may now be able to see how all of this would lead Selkirk to be behind or the inspiration for the placement of a Viking Rune Stone in Minnesota that included the strange X font seen in the signature of Christopher Columbus. Lord Selkirk had connections to all the right people and cultures for this story to be true.

The Stewarts and related families had all the right cultural connections to be associated with the strange X shaped font on the Kensington Rune. Even if it wasn’t Jacobites who put the Kensington stone where it was found whomever did certainly could have been aware of all these connections. It would be quite a coincidence if a a local farmer had dreamed all this up himself. There seems to be a story with a much broader scope than Olof Ohman, the discoverer of the Kensington Rune having faked this all by himself if at all. Still it is clear that Ohman was an intelligent person who may have simply been exposed to the X rune in the cipher that was part of a young men’s agricultural society.

The point of view here involving the Stuarts may be exactly what those who later made and placed the Kensington Rune were trying to say. In addition, a great deal of groundwork had already gone into the effort to convince the American public of the ninetieth century that Vikings had been the first to “discover” North America long before Columbus at a time L’Anse Aux Meadows had not even been discovered yet. In effect if this version of the rune story if true meant no one in the family had even had to lie or mislead anyone. The public did the rest. Add rune stone and wait.

The mere suggestion that the Newport Tower was of Norse origins by Carl Christian Rafn in 1839 would have been enough to kick the entire ploy off in grand fashion. Next the creation of the Cremona Document and Kensington Rune would have been child’s play to such powerful people who were among the great art and relic collectors of Europe. All of these things would have simply had to have been done with no further promotions on their part. Families like those discussed here patronized a wide variety of sculptors, painters, and writers who were all employed in part in preserving the legacy of the family in words and symbols. Families like the exiled Stewart’s also had access to an extensive genealogy and historical documents that the public at large weren’t exposed to or even inclined to be interested in.

Though by today’s standards the Cremona Document story reads like a comic book or fairy tale it would have been in many ways hard to debunk in the late nineteenth century up until the time the internet was available to look into such things. Previous to that it would have cost a great deal of money to travel to several different museums and libraries just to begin to understand the real parts of history included. The document had included some real events and phenomena as part of its story. Some of these elements don’t make sense in a a medieval document such as the use of a Prime Meridian that was created by the Cassini family in the early eighteenth century. (More on that later).

In reality, we see Selkirk related to the Dukes of Veragua that also included a direct lineal descendant of Christopher Columbus. In effect this means even Selkirk himself was now related to Christopher Columbus via some very powerful and intelligent family members. Many people consider the Dukes of Veragua’s progeny today as the claimants to the Jacobite Scottish crowns and they may indeed be correct in this assumption as they all descend from the son of James II. Lord Selkirk’s Jabobite sympathies would have made him aware of these exact people while he was alive.

With regard to the family of the Dukes of Veragua they all descend from Christopher Columbus and James II. Part of Lord Selkirk’s efforts to establish the Red River Colony may have also involved creating a domain for the exiled Stuart or Stewart family in Canada. His Jacobite sentiments may also hint that the Hudson’s Bay Company was also of benefit to the family at large.

Concepts like many of the theories of Henry Sinclair actually having been a member of the Knights Templar go hand in hand with a broader view held by many that the Knights Templar continued to operate after the time their charter had been nullified by the Vatican. If this is true then it was done in complete secrecy as the only evidence suggesting any of this is true again comes to us via the found manuscripts that many point to such as the Zeno Narrative and Cremona Document. This misconception may have also been magnified when in the early to late eighteenth century the exiled Jacobites had recreated the Knights Templar at a date many people in the current era would misinterpret as being the original Order. Illustrative of this concept is the fact that no member of the fabled Sinclair family is recorded as having been a Knights Templar.

It is noted that between thirteen to fifteen members of the Bannerman family that was a splinter of the famous MacDonald Jacobite family of Scotland were colonists of the Red River Colony. It is even noted that some of the Bannerman’s were among the colonists that had inspected the boundaries of the colony that include the site of discovery of the Kensington Rune. Further of note is how a man named Francis Bannerman also plays a role in what is known of as the “Cremona Document.” The fact that Bannerman’s were a large part of the Red River Colony is another coincidence that supports the notion that Francis Bannerman had been involved in creating this entire scheme somehow.

In previous writing this author has presented evidence that it was more likely relic collector and seller Francis Bannerman who had played a hand in the creation of the Cremona Document along with possibly famous Italian explorer Constantino Beltrami. Beltrami was close friends with the Duchess of Albany who was the wife of Bonnie Prince Charlie in Italy. Coincidentally there is a county in Minnesota named for Beltrami. Beltrami had even accompanied the American survey party that established the border of Canada and the U.S. at the 49th parallel for the first time.

In so doing the survey party passed very close to the discovery site of the Kensington Rune. Later in the trip Beltrami would go off alone with two Native guides and again travel close to the discovery site of the Kensington Rune. One painting of Beltrami depicts him in frontier buckskin garb with a Cross pattee of the Grand Orient of Italy displayed on his sleeve. Beltrami had also hobknobbed with people like James Fennimore Cooper the famous author and is said to have inspired part of the plots of his books about Native Americans. Again it was somewhat a coincidence that Beltrami held a close personal relationship with Duchess of Albany who was the defacto Jacobite Queen.

Other contemporary members of the Bannerman’s were also baronets of Nova Scotia and members of Parliament in England. Lady Bannerman notes in her journal that she and her husband were present at Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Newport Rhode Island mansion as he was actually penning his famous poem “Song of Hiawatha” which is incidentally about Minnesota. The poem documents how Europeans had supposedly come to Minnesota long ago. Longfellow was also close friends with two gentlemen who may have been adherents to what is known of as the Norwegian Romantic Nationalist movement.

This included Carl Christian Rafn who had been the first to speculate that the Newport Tower was of Norse origins. The second being famous concert violinist Ole Bull. Bull had also attempted to establish a Scandinavian colony in Pennsylvania in the nineteenth century. Though not known it is also possible that Ole Bull was related to the Bull family of onetime governor of Rhode Island Henry Bull. Longfellow was personally associated with both men. The coincidences certainly are piling up here.

Longfellow’s name seems to surface in each phase of this story and he himself is likely responsible for popularizing the notion that the Newport Tower was of Norse origins. This may have been because he knew the true origins of the Tower were linked to the original Rhode Island Charter awarded by Charles II to first Rhode Island governor Benedict Arnold the elder not to be confused with his later progeny the famous Revolutionary War traitor. In fact the Norse lore of the Newport Tower came to light during an era in which the true origins of the Newport Tower would be associated with Arnold and Charles II. This would not have been appreciated by many American’s in the era just after the Revolution.

Other Bannerman’s were members of the Onteora Club along with Mark Twain that is located on Onteora Mountain adjacent to Hunter Mountain in upstate New York where proponents of the authenticity of the “Cremona Document” insist a Hebrew Priesthood had met with Knights Templar from Europe in the fourteenth century. The site of the Onteora Club had also been an established camp for the Hudson River School of Painting artists who painted the surrounding landscape while camping there. Other members of the Hudson River School had actually travelled the world and had visited many of the places mentioned in the “Cremona Document.” The word “Onteora” had in fact been the invention of Henry Schoolcraft a historian who had a habit of making up Native names and words out of thin air. “Onteora” is not even a real Native American word.

Francis Bannerman had built his Scottish Castle folly on Polipel Island in the Hudson River. Coincidentally the castle is directly due west or 270 degrees true north in relation to the famous Newport Tower. This spatial relationship between the two places is also present on a map that is part of the Cremona Document that even includes an azimuth or line extending from the location of the Newport Tower directly west to the location of Bannerman’s Castle. The fact that Bannerman built his castle there at that point on earth shows how he may have known about and helped to create the Cremona Document. Who better than an international relic and arms dealer to have cooked up such an idea? Another coincidence? It appears Bannerman had placed his castle in this position in relation to the Newport Tower intentionally.

The castle also plays a part in how some other more recent authors and interested parties discovered “clues” that led them to believe that Knights Templar had visited a Hebrew Priesthood in New York in the fourteenth century. Bannerman’s Castle is said to be the site of discovery of some items that led these people to believe such a thing. In reality one of the most interesting items at Bannerman’s Castle appears to have been destroyed by unknown individuals who were hunting for treasure.

When Bannerman built the castle, he had included a foundation stone from a house that was included in the famous Glen Coe Massacre in Scotland. The massacre had included the deaths of a Jacobite faction of the MacDonald family who are the same family as the Bannerman’s. The Bannerman name came from a MacDonald that had been the standard bearer of Jacobite armies and earlier in history another had also been said to have been the standard bearer of Robert the Bruce during his many martial conflicts. Flora MacDonald is famous for aiding Bonnie Prince Charlie’s escape from Scotland after the failed ’45 Jacobite rebellion.

The stone Bannerman had included was inscribed with information that told of where the stone came from. The stone has since been destroyed by those looking for treasure or clues that they believed was behind the stone and was replaced with a replica of the original. It would be interesting to know who had destroyed this stone as it is a part of the history of Bannerman’s Castle.

It appears that specific other individuals had removed architectural elements of Bannerman’s Castle in which they later found material clues. These men are a Mr. Jackson and Mr. Ruh. Of course, this is only the story as told by these people and is not documented anywhere else by anyone else.

An important artifact from the Glen Coe Massacre that had made its way to America under the auspices of Francis Bannerman had been intentionally destroyed by someone looking for treasure. Had they been inspired to do this by the “Cremona Document” itself? Whomever destroyed that stone destroyed an important artifact of Scottish history that would have been appreciated by many people in America and Scotland.

Bannerman would not have created this memorial at his home if he was not a staunch Jacobite himself. He came to maturity or adulthood right around the time Lord Selkirk passed away. His vocation as a relic dealer and collector also put him in association with other collectors such as J.P. Morgan and John Rockefeller and possibly William Randolph Hearst. Bannerman had once owned a cannon from the Battle of Yorktown as well as two of George Washington’s pistols which he eventually donated to the museum at the West Point Military Academy. Bannerman was incredibly wealthy and had the resources to have taken part in such a ploy. Alternately he was wealthy enough to have been approached by scam arists who wanted to take advantage of his. The fact that he built his castle in relation to the Newport Tower as seen on a map that is part of the Cremona Document seems to indicate that he was involved in creating the entire story.

It appears that all the players in this grand pageant had been present in obscure American history. Their legacies including that of Scandinavia and Spain may have played a role in how they designed both the Cremona Document and possibly the phenomena that is the Kensington Rune. The background of this family does link to Christopher Columbus, Scottish History, and Jacobite individuals of the highest order including the family of the exiled King himself. Even the notion that the Archer Reliquary of Jamestown was related to Captain Archer who may have been a “hidden Catholic” in Jamestown may presage some of the problems the exiled Stewart family had in association. The signature of the Jacobites can also be seen in several other noted “mysteries” of history including Shugborough Hall and Rennes le Chateau to name two. These lost treasure and relic tales may have been crafted in part so the seeker finds all the hidden history of these people that had in many ways been intentionally left out of the common narratives.

One of the largest reasons for the persecution of Mary Queen of Scots and her progeny had been their allegiance to the Catholic Church. In association were many protestants who simply felt that the primogeniture of the monarchy was legitimate no matter what faith they were. Additionally, many Protestant Jacobites had benefitted via their businesses by providing goods and services to the regime of the Stewart family.

As in the case of other persecuted groups through history we see that the Jacobites had created a secret society or mystery school that enabled them to do things in secret. Their secret society included the imagery and history of the original Order of Knights Templar. At each turn with regard to the strange symbols discussed here there is a rationale that links them all together via the most powerful and cunning people in the world. All of this thread of evidence points to the fact that the Newport Tower and Kensington Rune were part of the history of these families that they had attempted to portray in a manner that resembles propaganda that would fit their world view while still ingratiating themselves to the American public. After the Revolution they saw the need to present themselves in a different manner and promoting their Templar and Viking connections would have been more accepted by the public at large in this era.

Via this effort the Jacobites had created a trail of intrigue and mystery that included Oak Island, the Newport Tower, and finally the Kensington Rune. There is actually more verifiable evidence that suggests this is true than any of the other theories involving the Norse or original Knights Templar. An effort had even been made to convince Native factions that all of this was true.

During this nineteenth century era after the revolution the public at large may have not had much sympathy for any royal interests including those of the Jacobites who had played a real role in the development of the colonies from the time of James I to well past the time of the American Revolution including the Civil War. In some ways, they may have calculated that it was easier to take the information they knew and present it in a way relating it to Knights Templar and Vikings because they had real historical ties to both of these groups of interesting historical factions. It is interesting they chose to do this knowing full well their family also included the legacy of Christopher Columbus.

Here we are left to either believe the above narrative or put our faith in documents and theories that have many large gaping holes in them with regard to logic and reason. As it turns out in this case a great deal of common history that is available to everyone is many times ignored in favor of gross speculation. In the end, the possibilities presented above are more mysterious and insightful than the story as told by many others.



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