The Strange Tale of the Heart of Robert the Bruce. 2/15/2020
When examining history sometimes even the standard story may
suggest some hidden or misunderstood aspects of the tale at hand. The story of
the heart of famous Scots King Robert the Bruce may include some mysterious
overtones that could help to unfold a spectacular story. The saga surrounding the
Heart of the Bruce is spectacular in many ways yet there are some
inconsistencies that may suggest an even more interesting story that has yet to
be told.
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| A small leaden casket said to contain the Heart of Robert the Bruce as recovered at Melrose Abbey. |
Robert the Bruce passed from what is now thought to have
been a form of leprosy on June, 7 1329. As was the custom of many monarchs
including Holy Roman Emperors different parts of Bruce’s remains were interred
in different locations. The King’s viscera or organs were interred at the Saint
Serf Abbey near Cardross where the king had passed. The main portion of his
body was embalmed and interred in a tomb at the famous Dunfermine Abbey that
had been built by the Seton family of Scotland.
Of course. the most well know aspect of the death of the
great King includes the story of what happened to his embalmed or preserved
heart after his death. Most sources agree that his good friend Sir James
Douglas had the heart removed and preserved in a small metal casket which he
sometimes wore on a chain around his neck. Douglas was a close friend and
military fellow of the Kings and undoubtedly Douglas had a great amount of
respect for the King.
One of the last requests of Robert the Bruce was that his
heart be taken to the Holy Land in battle against the Moors or Muslims that
occupied that region when he passed. His death came in the era just after the
Crusades and famous exploits of the Knights Templar and other orders that had
fought in the Holy Land. As the saga of Bruce’s heart unfolds there are many
different versions of what happened when James Douglas, Simon Locard, John St.
Claire, and William St. Claire, William de Keith, and Kenneth Moir set out with
a band of followers to fulfill the kings last wish.
Many versions of this story also include the fact that these
men were supposed to also take the Bruce’s heart to the Holy Sepulcher in
Jerusalem. During the era in question this wish may have been hard to fulfill
for political reasons. The Muslims now controlled Jerusalem and today it is not
clear if a band of Scottish Knights would have been welcome there. This is
where the story then leads to Spain.
Many accounts of the travels of Douglas and company include
them visiting the sepulcher of St. James or Santiago in Santiagod de Compostela
in Galicia, Spain. James Douglas was even named for Santiago after his uncle
who had also been named for St. James. During periods when the Holy Land
including Jerusalem was not accessible to pilgrims many Scottish and other
pilgrims would visit Santiago de Compostela which had been a place of
pilgrimage for Christians since the ninth century. In fact there are scant
suggestions that James Douglas was a member of what was called the “Order of
the Tomb.” This may indicate he was a Knight of Santiago or possibly of the
Order of the Holy Sepulcher.
Both orders had maintained close ties with the Latin Church
after the time the Knights Templar had been disbanded for example. Many
Scottish Pilgrims would first sail to the Galician port of A Coruna and then
make their way to Santiago de Compostela. Coincidentally A Coruna was also said
to have been the home of the legendary Queen Scota prior to her making her way
to Scotland. In this way there is a strong link between Santiago de Compostela
and the land of Scotland.
It is also interesting that Sir William Sinclair and Sir
John Sinclair of Rosslyn were both included on this mission. There are equally
scant references that suggest the later builder of Rosslyn Chapel the later
William Sinclair was also a Knight of Santiago. Given this value of St. James
and his sepulcher it is no surprise that many narratives of the Heart of the
Bruce include this band of warriors visiting Santiago de Compostela instead of
Jerusalem at that time. This period of history in Spain also afforded these men
the possibility of taking Bruce’s heart into battle against the Moors as per
the King’s wishes.
It is this part of the story that is difficult to interpret
as surprisingly there is very little information about what actually happened.
Eventually our band of Knights led by Sir James Douglas were slain in the
Battle of Teba in central Spain. At this time it is said that Douglas threw the
“braveheart” into the advancing column of Moors where he and his companions
eventually met an untimely death. The only survivor was said to be Sir Simon
Locard (Lochheart) who in turn was said to have prepared these men’s remains
for return to Scotland after the battle. It is also said that the Moors
returned the heart of Robert the Bruce to Locard at that time and had also
expressed regret for slaying the men whom they would have usually kept for
ransom.
Later in history William Sinclair and Douglas’ graves were
exhumed resulting in nothing being found there. No remains were recovered at
that time. This may not be unusual for a grave that old yet it is odd that no
trace of their remains was noted. There is a memorial stone to William Sinclair
at Rosslyn Chapel as well that many people mistake for his grave.
After this time folklore and legends stated that the Heart
of Robert the Bruce was then interred at Melrose Abbey near the altar of the
Church there. This was the standard story of the Heart of the Bruce until 1921
when an leaden casket was found by archaeologists on the grounds of Melrose.
Again this part of the story is ripe with inconsistencies as some versions have
the heart being found near the main altar and others stating it was found in
the Chapter House where the heart was subsequently re-interred after its
discovery at that time. It would have been somewhat unusual for his heart to
have originally been buried in the Chapter House as this location was commonly
reserved for the remains of those that had been monks at the Abbey.
There are records of other hearts and remains being interred
in the Chapter House of Melrose Abbey. Among them was a forebear of the Seton
family a man named Robert Avenel de Saye. The moniker de Saye would eventually
give us the famous Seton family of Scotland who had built Dunfermine Abbey
where the body of Robert the Bruce had been buried. Though he was a wealthy
member of the nobility in the 12th century Avenel had become a monk
at Melrose for the last few years of his life resulting in his heart and
remains being interred in the Chapter House of the Abbey.
Is it possible the heart found at Melrose was that of Robert
Avenel and not that of Robert the Bruce? Many different historians speculate
that the heart found was possibly not that of the valued King Robert. So in the
end we are faced with the fact that there is still a grey area as to the
conclusion of this story. It is possible that the heart found was that of
Robert Avenel instead?
Why would this author guess that it was Robert Avenel’s
heart as opposed to that of Robert the Bruce? As it turns out one of the most
famous and accomplished antiquarians of Scotland may have left us all a “clewe”
as to the truth of this story over one hundred years prior to any archaeologist
finding a heart reliquary at Melrose Abbey.
In his book “The Monastery” first published in 1821 Sir
Walter Scott may have been dropping some clues as to his thoughts about what
had happened to the Heart of Robert the Bruce. Though a fictional tale the main
story in “The Monastery” involves the Avenel family as the main characters in
his book. The book also includes a strange preamble termed an “epistle introduction
that may indeed give the entire story away and suggests the heart of the Bruce
was taken to far off lands during a period of history in which others may have
appreciated him and his legacy more than the people who now ruled Scotland.
In turn this story may also link to another specific
character in Scott’s work of fiction that literary historians have connected to
the image of none other than Thomas Jefferson third President of the United
States of America. It is also suggested that the Declaration of Arboath had
influenced Jefferson in his penning of the Declaration of Independence.
How had Sir Walter Scott predicted all this one hundred
years prior to the discovery of what is said to be the Heart of the Bruce at
Melrose Abbey. In the following story it is obvious that Sir Walter Scott was
also very aware of who Robert Avenel was.
Avenel House and Wilton House; The Key to Heart
of the Bruce and other lost treasures?
The famous Beale Treasure in Virginia uses
ciphers to tell you things about where the Treasure was hidden, how it was
hidden, and people who were supposed to have received part of the treasure once
recovered. The only cipher that has been broken to date is the one that uses
the Declaration of Independence to break the code. Each letter of each word of
the Declaration is broken down to a corresponding number in order starting at
the beginning of the Document. The deciphered part of the Beale Papers includes
a description of the treasure vault and what is in it. There are still two other
keys to the two additional ciphers which have not been solved to date. The
remaining two comprise information that gives you the location of the treasure
with a third giving one the names of the people that the treasure belongs to.
This suggests that there are still two remaining sources of documents or
literature that may be used to decipher the last two components of the mystery.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of
Independence. It is possible that his involvement along with the famous
document he penned are also associated with the Bruton Vault in Williamsburg
sometimes referred to as “Bacon’s Vault.” This may also infer that President
Jefferson may have been involved in supplying us with the Beale Ciphers even
though he only lived for a short span of time involved in the chronology of the
Beale Treasure story. He was still alive in 1820 when the original story of how
and where the Beale Treasure was found as related in the deciphered first
cipher that used his writing the Declaration of Independence to interpret. This
could be a hint that he was involved in the creation of this entire story.
Thomas Jefferson was an adept of creating codes and even had a device similar
to the cryptex similar to the one seen in the movie “The Da Vinci Code” that is
part of the plot of the Book and Movie. Jefferson was also an accomplished land
surveyor and cartographer.
It may be that two other pieces of literature
that decipher the remaining two coded portions of the Beale Ciphers could be
decoded using works that the President appreciated or in which he himself was
referred to in metaphor. There are two distinct pieces of literature which seem
to refer to President Jefferson as characters in fictional stories. Both are by
very famous authors. This may also represent a similar phenomenon with regard
to how Philip Sidney’s literary work “Arcadia” contains both the last words of
King Charles I and another passage that is very similar to the original
folklore of Oak Island which describes the Money Pit. All of these lost
treasures may be associated with works of fiction or documents like the
Declaration of Independence that will lead one to the treasure vaults that all
of these legends include. In turn many of these vault legends have Enochian
overtones that are still appreciated by Freemason’s and members of other
similar groups to this day.
In my studies, I have described in depth how
I believe Monticello and Poplar Forest were designed in part as what may be
described as “Personal Meridians” that were valued by the President. Both of
his octagonal estates had sundials of his own design associated. Jefferson had
personally corresponded with Dominique Cassini as to how to create Meridians to
help establish time and spatial attributes to the United States that could be
compared to ones already established in Europe. This would be needed to
accurately spatially and temporally compare places in the United States to
those of the rest of the globe. Dominique Cassini was of course part of the
same Cassini family that had created the Paris Meridian and had also produced a
very early and accurate map of France. The Cassini’s may be associated by many
with landscape mysteries in France such as the famous Rennes le Chateau and
Perillos lost treasure myths. Many researchers speculate that the famous
Knights Templar had used a system of prime meridians that they had created
associated with major ports at which their ships were based. It may be that the
Knights Templar had used such as system somewhat in the same way a pirate’s map
leads one to treasure in fictional stories. Thus
far the stories we have seen involving Oak Island and the Newport tower
utilized all the same concepts in the manner in which they were analyzed here.
What Jefferson is displaying is a concept
that goes all the way back to Heliopolis Egypt but was also appreciated as
being part of the Greek cultural sphere. The Greek association infers that the
Tower of the Winds of Athens was the inspiration for the design of Poplar
Forest, Monticello, and Barboursville Mansion also designed by the President.
Jefferson was likely also exposed to this concept in the form of the Powder
Magazine in Williamsburg which is also a copy of the Tower of the Winds of
Athens. Coupled with this value Jefferson was also aware of the use of Star
Castle and the Newport Tower and their true meaning as relating to Sidney’s
“Arcadia.”
The Tower of the Winds was used by the Greeks
to fix time and their position on the globe. Many copies of the Tower of the
Winds were constructed on English estates of Jefferson’s era that conform to
exactly the same tradition that he was displaying in the plans of the
structures he designed including the Rotunda at the University of Virginia.
This includes Tower of the Winds reproductions at Shugborough Hall and the West
Wycombe Estate of Sir Francis Dashwood who was a friend of Benjamin Franklin.
The Shepherds Monument of Shugborough Hall is what led this author to the
assumption that Philip Sidney’s “Arcadia” was referring to Oak Island and the
Newport Tower.
In short Jefferson valued the directions his
octagons pointed to on the globe. This would have created what in Greek terms
is known of as a “Templum” or region controlled and defined by the position of
the “Temple” which in turn defined the “Temporal Fabric” of the Cosmos from
that point on earth. This is a tradition later valued by Astronomers who form a
meridian from which to measure all angular associations they observe with regard to the Pole
Star or the North Pole of the earth. In a remote way this could also be
representative of Templars creating Temples that defined Templum defining in
turn the Temporal fabric of time
and space. Jefferson is showing us that an octagonal template must be used in
association with Poplar Forest and Monticello and possibly Barboursville
Mansion.
Is it possible Jefferson had created a
Templum using his octagonal home Poplar Forest as the Temple or place from
which time and space is measured that may apply to the Beale Treasure? This may
actually be true. Jefferson had attended
William and Mary during the heyday of the Jacobite movement in the American
colonies. Part of his education at William and Mary likely included the works
of Sidney and Shakespeare. He undoubtedly was a huge fan of Sir Francis Bacon
and may have known how Williamsburg was designed by earlier Virginia Governor
Francis Nicholson as a “New Atlantis.”
As stated above Jefferson wrote the
Declaration of Independence and this was used to decipher one part of three of
the Beale Ciphers. Jefferson also built Poplar Forest in the very region where
the Beale Treasure was later said to have been hidden. An examination of the
places that Poplar Forest “points to” on the globe may help us to expose the
specific pieces of literature that may be used to decipher the other two
unbroken codes that are part of the Beale Ciphers. Jefferson lived in a time
when navigational technology would make his assumptions even relatively
accurate using a modern tool like Google Earth. Sounds outrageous? Read on.
The easterly trending azimuth or arc on the
globe that is inferred by the plan view of Poplar Forest leads to the estate of
one of Jefferson’s direct forebears from his mother’s Randolph family. On the
James River between Williamsburg and Richmond, Virginia is the Wilton Estate of
William Randolph II who was Jefferson’s grand uncle. William Randolph named his
home Wilton House after the home in England of Philip Sidney and Mary Sidney
Countess of Pembroke.
We have discussed Philip Sidney and his work
“Arcadia” in relation to the Oak Island treasure story and Newport Tower
earlier here. This is an amazing correlation that may even serve to link the
two famous treasure stories together if only via complex metaphor and allegory.
William Randolph II would not have named his home Wilton for no reason as his
naming of his home in this manner displays a kind of not so hidden regard for
Philip Sidney and his sister the Countess of Pembroke. Is it possible that
William Randolph was aware of the hidden meanings of Sidney’s work entitled
“Arcadia?” He may have valued it also because “Arcadia” contained the last
words of Charles I. William Randolph lived in an era of Virginia History during
which many exiled Cavaliers of Charles I such as Thomas Beale had come to
Virginia. Is it possible that people in Virginia were aware of the truth of Oak
Island as well?
William did live in colonial Virginia in an
era just after Charles I was beheaded but prior to the discovery of the Money
Pit on Oak Island by roughly one hundred years. It is interesting that he is
showing a value of Philip and Mary Sidney in this manner. It does reflect the
fact that he was appreciative of their literary accomplishments or was there
more to it? We may be seeing Jefferson inferring this same association in how
his home points to the estate of his forebear who had openly displayed what may
be hidden knowledge with regard to the importance of Sidney’s “Arcadia.”
It is clear that the theme or notion of
Arcadia was appreciated in Virginia but how does this then connect to any
treasure? All’s we know so far is that Jefferson’s octagonal Poplar Forest
points an arc on the globe to Wilton Plantation. Still this reference to Wilton
House in England owned by the Countess of Pembroke and home to Philip Sidney is
interesting. It is clear that Philip Sidney wrote “Arcadia” at Wilton House in
England which coincidentally is not far from Stonehenge. Could all of this be chalked up to a period
appreciation for the literary works of Philip Sidney or is there more to the
story?
Is Jefferson telling us that we must use an
unknown portion of Philip Sidney’s “Acadia” or other works as a cipher key in
the Beale Treasure? If so this method would also match methods used later in
history in the Civil War by a group known of as the Knights of the Golden
Circle. Sidney was an accomplished author who did produce many other works of
prose and poetry. It would be amazing if Sidney’s “Arcadia” was one of the
Cipher Keys to the mystery in Virginia. Could
Jefferson in addition to his appreciation of the Tower of the Winds also be
referring to the two aligned octagonal star shaped lodges present in the plot
of Sidney’s “Arcadia?”
Interestingly a later member of the Sidney
family whose name is spelled “Sydney” in Virginia and Nova Scotia may also be
the source of the cipher key. Sydney Nova Scotia is named for Lord Sydney a
distant descendant of the same Sidney family. In fact Harry Lee accused Thomas
Jefferson of plagiarizing portions of a work by a man named Algernon Sydney to
write the Declaration of Independence! Algernon Sidney as his name was
originally spelled was a great writer similar to John Locke who espoused
personal freedom and constitutional forms of government that had inspired
Jefferson. Along with Locke Sir Francis Bacon was one of Jefferson’s three most
admired people. Algernon was the grandnephew
of Philip Sidney himself!
Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia is in part
named for Algernon Sydney. These associations may also supply us with a dynamic
that suggests something Algernon Sydney had written could also be used as a
cipher key. The fact that Jefferson may have used ideas developed by Algernon
Sidney in relation to the Declaration may lead any searcher in this direction. Algernon
Sidney is also somewhat of a martyr to freedom in that in the end his beliefs
led to him being beheaded. None of this would be exposed without the
directional qualities of Poplar Forest’s octagonal form.
Could it be true that Philip Sidney’s grandnephew
had written one of the cipher keys for the Beale Treasure after Philip himself
had written his work “Acadia” that seems to apply to the Oak Island Treasure? Jefferson or the designer of the Beale
Ciphers may have also used this a ploy that relates both to “Arcadia” and the
Declaration of Independence as related to two members of the Sidney family. As
Jefferson may have believed he was of Welsh descent he may have also been aware
that he was distantly related to the Sidney family. There are other documents
that scholars point to as having influenced Jefferson that may come into play
as part of this story.
For the sake of this argument let’s assume
that Jefferson had oriented his home this way as a kind of clue to mysteries he
knew existed such as the Bruton Vault legend in Williamsburg. He may have
learned the secrets of the Powder Magazine and Bruton Vault as a student at
William and Mary where he studied land surveying among many other subjects. We
should not forget that Thomas Jefferson was alive for 29 years after the Oak
Island Money Pit had been found and was known of far and wide. Again, we may be
forced to ask ourselves why anyone would have done something like this. The
answers may include hidden items or simply an allegorical way to lead the
seeker to history that was neglected or not included in the standard narrative.
We should also note that it that Jefferson
was fully aware of the fact that Continental Army General William Alexander had
been awarded the titles of Baron of Nova Scotia and Earl of Stirling by the
Scottish Peerage. Thomas Jefferson would have also been aware of the many
colonists that had been given land and lived in Nova Scotia including John
Allan a distant relative of Edgar Allan Poe who had actually plead with General
Washington to invade Nova Scotia during the war. Edgar Allan Poe actually
attended the University of Virginia when Jefferson was still alive. Poe had penned his story “The Gold Bug” which
also seems to reference Jefferson as the character Le Grand in the story which
also has some of the same overtones as the Oak Island treasure legend as well
as the mystery of Rennes le Chateau. The real French architect LeGrand was said
to have been one of the Presidents favorite archtitects and Jefferson had
designed the rotunda or dome of Monticello using LeGrand as an inspiration.
Jefferson would later hold the title of
Surveyor General of Albemarle County where Charlottesville and Monticello are
located. So, concepts such as this would have been easy for the President to
envision while difficult for much of the public at large to understand. That is
still the case today with cartography and geodesy.
Many people will dismiss the notion that a
structure like Poplar Forest infers the center of a map as they have never been
taught how cartography and land surveying really work. These concepts
themselves contribute to encoding any locations were things have been hidden
similar to the classic notion of a pirate’s map. This author has encountered
many people including treasure hunters and other people interested in the Beale
and Bruton vaults that dismiss this notion out of hand because they are
ignorant of how easy this really is to accomplish thus making this technique
even more effective in keeping things like these treasures hidden. Still others believe that the Knights of the
Golden Circle from the Civil War used this exact technique of employing
octagonal templates to hide items of importance.
What is true is that in my studies I have
found a string of cartographers and land surveyors involved in the background
of many lost treasure stories. This would include Joseph Wallet des Barres of
Nova Scotia who was one of the premier cartographers of his day and had
produced a maritime pilot’s guide of all the ports on the East Coast entitled
“Atlantic Neptune.” Joseph des Barres may have also been descendant of Knights
Templar Grand Commander Everard des Barres. Joseph Wallet des Barres is
responsible for naming Sydney, Nova Scotia in honor of Lord Sydney and he also
designed the plan of that city we still see today.
Joseph Wallet des Barres is entombed within
the Halifax Round Church that is a Palladian copy of the Temple Church of
London. Prince Edward of the Royal family, father of Queen Victoria had been
responsible for the construction of the Halifax Round Church. Prince Edward was
of course from the Hanoverian German branch of the Stewart family. The legacy of des Barres will surface again
later in this saga in a big way.
If it were true that Jefferson had known of
the literary secrets of “Arcadia” what other directions on the globe may have
he pointed his octagon to if he indeed had? Critically this would be difficult
to do but part of what we may be seeing here is how other later people
intentionally arranged things to occur on arcs or azimuths on the globe
suggested by the orientation of Jefferson’s octagon at Poplar Forest. This
would have represented people who had known of and valued what Jefferson had
done in this scheme and had seen fit to add to it later. This may also be true
of more ancient structures of this design. Building another temple or place of
significance in relation to an older axis may be part of this tradition. It
seems that in the case of Poplar Forest we may be seeing exactly that because
the next association is completely amazing. Those
that had arranged the Beale Treasure story may have indeed used Jefferson’s
octagon at Poplar Forest to hide something!
In 1836 the son of Jefferson’s personal
secretary named William M. Burwell built what is known of as Avenel House in
Bedford Virginia. His father William A. Burwell had served as Jefferson’s
secretary for a number of years and had developed a strong friendship and
correspondence with the President that lasted the rest of Jefferson’s life.
There are records of their correspondence that discussed some items which may
be considered “National Treasures.” William
M. Burwell the builder of Avenel house had also been friends with and had
written about the life of Edgar Allan Poe. They met while both students at
Jefferson’s University of Virginia when Jefferson was still alive.
Correspondence between Jefferson and William
A. Burwell discussed among other things commemorative coins, medals and swords
that were to be awarded to members of the Society of the Cincinnati which was
comprised of French and American military officers from the Revolutionary War.
These items had been designed by Pierre L’Enfant who had also designed the
famous street plan of Washington D.C. William M. Burwell, William A. Burwell’s
son had built Avenel House situated at a point on earth that is pointed in the
exact opposite direction in which Jefferson had oriented his octagon of Poplar
Forest to “point to” Wilton Plantation the home of his forebear William
Randolph II. Avenel House of Bedford, Virginia is also smack-dab in the middle
of the area where the Beale Treasure is supposed to be located.
The possible inclusion of the Burwell family
is interesting beyond the fact that William A. Burwell was President
Jefferson’s personal secretary. The Burwell family had descended directly from
the progeny of Nathaniel Bacon the elder who was the cousin of Nathaniel Bacon
the famous colonial Rebel. The Burwell’s in fact also hold some very impressive
family relations in England and Scotland that had taken part in the Crusades
and had an impact on the political mores of the old country. They hold direct
associations with the famous Lusignan family of France that includes as
subdivisions the Rochefoucauld and de La Tour families that have been possibly
associated with the history surrounding the Money Pit on Oak Island. Of
interest is that the Burwell’s had also descended from the Avenel de Saye
family of Scotland.
The Burwell family were part of the same
Bacon family that Sir Francis Bacon had come from! Of course, Sir Francis Bacon
never had any children but their association with his family at large may have
been a point of pride to them and possibly had been valued by other colonists
such as Thomas Jefferson. The early days of Virginia were still and era in
which the works of Shakespeare and writings of Sir Francis Bacon were popular
reading especially at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg.
This is amazing in that Jefferson’s
association in employing William A. Burwell would mark his employment of three
members of the Bacon family of Virginia who worked directly for him. Two men
named William and Edmund Bacon who were also descendant of Nathaniel Bacon the
elder were employed in managing his Monticello estate for a long period of
time. It is clear that Jefferson was a huge fan of Sir Francis Bacon and it
would reason that he may have included this imagery or the imagery of Bacon’s
Vault in Williamsburg into any kind of arranged mystery or treasure hunt he had
played a hand in designing. We may be looking at a sort of mystery that had
been added to by subsequent people who had been initiated into the truth of
these legends and myths.
As we will see Avenel is named from a
specific piece of literature that even refers to the Heart of Robert the Bruce,
Mary Queen of Scots, The Declaration of Arbroath, the Declaration of
Independence, and the character of Thomas Jefferson himself. The location and
name of Avenel House is also possibly supplying us with the third cipher key
used in the Beale Ciphers!! So far it is
possible that the work of Philip Sidney, Algernon Sidney, and now Sir Walter
Scott could be two of the remaining cipher keys with regard to the Beale
Treasure. As the story unfolds we will also examine the Burwell’s direct
lineage including the de Saye Avenel family of Northumbria, the de Clare family
of England and France, the Marshall family of Knights Templar William Marshall,
in addition to the de Ros family.
1820 is the year the Beale Treasure was
supposedly found in what is today Colorado. 1820 is also the year that famous
Scottish author Sir Walter Scott had published his novel “The Monastery.”
Within the pages of “The Monastery” is an amazing story that has many
references to Mary Queen of Scots and Thomas Jefferson. The portion of the book
referred to as the “epistle introduction” is a fictional part of the book that
was included in an odd way. This portion of the book tells the story of what
happened much later in history than the time frame in which the story takes
place in the text of the book. This portion of the book tells the story of how an
enigmatic figure termed “the monk” returns to Scotland after the Revolutionary
War to recover what is termed a “treasure.” It
is bizarre that Scott chose to include this strange “epistle introduction” in
his book as the rest of the story does not really allude to what he is
communicating. Or does it? There may be a hidden reason Scott chose to include
this strange introduction to the entire story.
“The Monastery”
also includes many direct references to Philip Sidney and his work “Astrophel
and Stella.” In fact one of the characters in the book named Piercy Shafton
seems to even be based on the character of Sidney. Shafton enters the story as
an English Catholic exile who came to Scotland and becomes part of the story of
“The White Lady of Avenel.” Sidney’s name is mentioned in the book several
times.
The epistle introduction to Scott’s “The
Monastery” includes a character Captain Clutterbuck that becomes kind of an
expert on the ruins of an old Monastery where he lives. He is a well-educated
man who is a military veteran. One day a man whom he refers to as both “the
monk” and the “Benedictine” arrives in town and asks to be taken on a tour of
the ruins of the monastery. Ultimately “the monk” is an allegory for Thomas
Jefferson.
The epistle introduction seems to be
temporally placed at a point in time after the American Revolution at a point
in history when the Catholic Church was not welcome in Scotland. Most literary
scholars agree that the monastery in question in the book is a metaphor for
Melrose Abbey in Scotland. Sir Walter Scott is famous for his work that gives
an impression of Scottish history in a positive way. Note that the temporal setting of the epistle
introduction seems to be in the late eighteenth century just after the American
Revolution while the main story of the book takes place in the era of Mary
Queen of Scots in the sixteenth century.
As this portion of the story develops “the
monk” makes it clear to the caretaker who is his tour guide that he is looking
for a treasure that he knows is stashed in a specific spot in the ruins of the
monastery. In his discussion with the caretaker he states that the item he is
looking for may be valued more by people “who live along the Susquehanna and
Potomac Rivers.” This is referring to the United States.
The Monk goes onto say that people in
Scotland may not value this item as much as some people in America do. The Monk
seems to know all of these details even though he states he has never been to
the Monastery before. Here even at this
early stage of the book we are being presented with a “treasure” in league with
the imagery of “Avenel” possibly related to the Avenel House in Bedford,
Virginia that had been built by a descendant of the de Saye Avenel family! None
of this is told but if the reader cared to research the characters involved in
this strange story many interesting connections become obvious.
The epistle introduction then goes on to
describe a moonlit search of the Abbey resulting in the discovery of a leaden
box that the Monk insists holds the heart of a historical figure valued in U.S.
history. The owner of the heart is never named. This portion of the book even
infers that the leaden box was found in association with a cornerstone of the
altar of the Abbey. This is a reference to the heart of Robert the Bruce that
was taken by Sir James Douglas to Spain and into the Battle of Teba where he
and Sir William Sinclair lost their lives in combat with the Moors. Even given
the history of the Heart of the Bruce at Melrose Sir Walter Scott never names
Bruce as the source of the heart in question.
After the Battle of Teba the remains of Sir
James Douglas and Sir William Sinclair were never seen again by anyone though
they were said to have been returned to Scotland and buried along with the
Heart of the Bruce. Excavations of both men’s graves revealed no remains being
found at that time later in history. Later
in history many people insist that a strange enameled lead casket found at
Melrose Abbey contains the heart of Robert the Bruce King of Scotland. The
casket in question was reinterred at Melrose along with a small memorial to
Robert the Bruce after its rediscovery in 1996. It was rediscovered after
having been found and then hidden again in a noted 1921 excavation by
archaeologists at Melrose Abbey. Given the discovery of the heart no one is
sure if the one found was that of Robert
the Bruce as there are records of other hearts being buried there in a similar
manner.
The unfolding of this saga in “The Monastery”
then includes the Monk even opening the box to prove to his host that it only
contains the embalmed remains of a human heart. The Monk then leaves presumably
to return to America. This story does indeed have some connections between the
Declaration of Independence that even other literary scholars have written of
even in comparison to Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. This story also counters the later narrative
of the leaden casket later being found at Melrose Abbey in reality.
Further
along in this tale we may see that the embalmed heart in a leaden casket was
actually that of a man named Robert Avenel. Robert Avenel is a real historical
character whose descendant family are the main characters in Sir Walter Scott’s
“The Monastery” being discussed here.
The achievements of Robert the Bruce among
many includes the production of a document known of as the Declaration of
Arbroath. The Declaration of Arbroath was composed by the Abbot of Arbroath
also known of as Bernard of Kilwinning. Bernard of Kilwinning was used to write
the Declaration of Arbroath in Latin as it was an appeal on the part of Robert
the Bruce and all of the Scottish Earls for help in defending themselves
against the intrusion of the English from the south who did not adhere to the
Catholic faith at that time. Since Bernard of Kilwinning was adept at writing
and speaking Latin he was chosen as scribe for the document.
The Declaration of Arbroath is also said to
be one of the historical documents along with the work of Algernon Sidney and
John Locke that had inspired Thomas Jefferson in his writing of the Declaration
of Independence. Indeed, the Declaration of Arbroath is a statement of
Scotland’s independence from England that also includes references to their
origins in “Scythian Kings” and from “Queen Scota” who was from Egypt. The
Declaration of Arbroath was signed and sealed by all of the Scottish Earls at
that time including Earl of Clan Sutherland that my grandmother was a part of.
There are literary analytical references that
note the similarity of the Declaration of Arbroath to the Declaration of
Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. Some of these analyses even compare
Jefferson to “the Monk” Bernard of Kilwinning. Both men had penned Declarations
of Independence. This in turn infers that Sir Walter Scott was telling us
something about American history, Thomas Jefferson, and the Declaration of
Independence. Thomas Jefferson is “The Monk” from Sir Walter Scott’s “The Monastery.”
The references to the “Susquehanna and Potomac rivers” also give this away as
well. Eventually the son of Jefferson’s
secretary William M. Burwell builds a house named for a family in Scott’s novel
“The Monastery” that he is even related to or descendant of.
This is amazing in that Jefferson may have
even thought himself descendant of one Thomas Randolph one of the right-hand
men of Robert the Bruce himself along with Sir James Douglas and Sir William
Sinclair who had perished at the battle of Teba while carrying the Heart of the
Bruce into the Battle of Teba in Spain. There
are also many curious things about the Battle of Teba and how Sir James
Douglas, William Sinclair and others first visited Santiago de Compostela and
the crypt of St. James prior the battle. Randolph was of course Jefferson’s
Mother’s maiden name.
The name Avenel is a name that originates in
the main text of Sir Walter Scott’s book “The Monastery.” Avenel Plantation and
House in Bedford, Virginia is named for the “White Lady of Avenel” which is a
ghost in Scott’s book. Coincidentally Avenel House in Bedford is today home to
many ghost stories and suggestions of paranormal activity. It appears that
William M. Burwell the son of Thomas Jefferson’s secretary was telling us
secrets simply in the name he chose for his estate house.
The name “Avenel” inevitably leads one to Sir
Walter Scott’s “The Monastery.” This may be the reason that Jefferson’s Poplar
Forest “points to” Avenel House in Bedford. The entire story includes the
origins of the Declaration of Independence that also serves as the only solved
cipher key in the Beale Treasure story to date. It may be that William M.
Burwell had situated the location of his house to reflect that fact that the
opposite direction pointed to William Randolph II’s home Wilton whose name also
includes the same hidden overtones and other links to people and writing that
had also been associated with Jefferson’s inspiration in penning the
Declaration of Independence. It is
possible Mr. Burwell built his house at a specific point on earth in
association with Poplar Forest. Was Sir Walter Scott attempting to relate the
Declaration of Independence to Scottish culture?
It appears that President Jefferson had
designed his summer home as a template in which the octagonal plan of the
structure could indicate up to sixteen directions on the globe using the
building as a center or Axis Mundi in the Greek tradition. It appears that the
President may have oriented his home to point to Wilton Plantation of his ancestor
William Randolph II. But is that the only “targets” that had been envisioned by
the President himself? It does appear that the Burwell family may have arranged
the position of Avenal House to fit into the templum or template defined by
Poplar Forest but had Jefferson intended any other places in his scheme himself?
In fact Poplar Forest points the way to
Wilton House and Avenel House in opposite directions creating a single arc on
the globe that links all three places together via Jefferson’s home. If this is true then as this story unfolds it
may be obvious that the Burwell family and their associates in the Beale and
Lee families were also aware of what the President had done in building Poplar
Forest.
One of the octagonal divisions of Poplar Forest
points an arc on the globe to Jefferson’s other estate Monticello. As this arc
on the globe continues it transects the northeastern United States and
continues across the North Atlantic reaching Melrose Abbey in Scotland. Another
grand coincidence. Melrose is of course the place featured in the Sir Walter
Scott’s book “The Monastery” that includes the name Avenel as well as plot
elements that seem to refer to Thomas Jefferson. It does appear also as if
Jefferson had intended Poplar Forest and Monticello’s octagon’s to “point to”
each other as Monticello also seems to “point back” to Poplar Forest. So the
fact that Monticello and Melrose Abbey are included in Jefferson’s Templum as
defined by Poplar Forest is simply amazing given what we have learned about how
all of this may apply to the Beale Treasure. Thomas Jefferson was still alive
when Sir Walter Scott published “The Monastery.”
Is it
possible that Jefferson is showing us along with his friends and family the
Burwell’s that specific pieces of literature here being referred to may also be
used as cipher keys to solve the Beale Ciphers? This could be true whether
Jefferson or later people who were aware of what he had originally done had
used this concept to hide something. The Knights of the Golden Circle of the
Confederacy were known to use such techniques to hide things. This may also
indicate that the same technique had been used earlier in history to do the
same thing.
None of this really supplies a smoking gun
saying Thomas Jefferson planned or even knew of a scheme to hide something in
Central Virginia that was later defined as the “Beale Treasure.” What we do
know is that the later Burwell family of William M. Burwell the son of the
Presidents secretary had built Avenel House as a kind of homage to his heritage
and possibly Jefferson at a time that indicates it could very well be either a
clue or hiding place with regard to the Beale Treasure or the “treasure” that
Sir Walter Scott had referred to. Who better to suspect of possibly having
owned a collection of President Jefferson’s personal effects or papers than his
own secretary? It is clear that William A. Burwell and Thomas Jefferson were
also close friends in addition to Burwell’s duties as secretary.
Given
this information it is entirely possible that all of this has absolutely
nothing to do with the Beale Treasure or Bruton Vault mysteries. Given the
surrounding information and other clues it does seem that all of these
“mysteries” used a similar template to manifest themselves. This tradition
could be a form of memento mori that leads the seeker through a path of places
and information that expose intimate details about Jefferson, the Burwell’s,
Robert E. Lee and many other people subsequent researchers have associated with
the Beale Treasure and Bruton Vault conundrums. William M. Burwell was also
telling us about Scottish history by naming his house Avenel.
More research is ongoing to discern whether
any of the literature or documents inferred by this possible geographic scheme
are intended to have been used as cipher keys in solving the remaining unbroken
ciphers in this story. Beale treasure researchers have always complained that
almost anything could be the cipher key and many different documents and other
books and writing have been tested to see if they work in tandem with the
remaining codes associated. Here we may have real clues as to the which
specific pieces of writing may be used to accomplish this. Barring that Avenel
House itself could be a place of repository as it is now owned by the City of
Bedford, Virginia and is maintained as a public building of historical note. Public meetings, weddings, and other events
are held at Avenel House.
If true this entire scheme may narrow the
field of possible cipher keys related to the Beale Treasure to works by Philip
Sidney, Algernon Sidney, as well as Sir Walter Scott’s “The Monastery” or “The
Abbot.” It may not also be out of the realm of possibility that the Declaration
of Arbroath serves as one of the remaining cipher keys. And finally, it would
be simply amazing if Philip Sidney’s “Arcadia” was the cipher key for the Beale
Treasure. This would make two legendary treasures that had possibly been associated
with the work of Philip Sidney. This association may also infer that the work
of Algeron Sidney is where we are supposed to be looking as well.
At this
point we see that Jefferson and the Burwell’s were telling us about a specific
work by Philip Sidney and another by Sir Walter Scott. This is being told to
you in the names of these people’s homes. Whether something is hidden at Avenel
House is one thing. Avenel exists in its original form where it was originally
built. Amazingly Wilton House was disassembled and moved to Richmond Virginia
where it still stands today as a museum. The original site of Wilton House is
of course adjacent to the original Curles Neck Plantation of Nathaniel Bacon
the Colonial Rebel and member of the same Bacon family that Sir Francis was
related to.
What of Avenel House? It is clear that we are
being told that this home is central to whatever “mystery” had been developed.
Had the entire scheme been devised by the Burwell family or had President
Jefferson himself been involved in planning all this? Had Edgar Allan Poe been
involved? What if anything was hidden? Was
something hidden there valued by “people along the Susquehanna and Potomac
Rivers” in Scott’s words? Here we are starting to see some similarities between
the famous Oak Island treasure and happenings in Virginia that indeed may have
all been planned by the same people.
What is clear is that the Burwell family was
also closely related to the Lee family of Virginia. Robert E. Lee even made a
strange visit to Avenel House after the war. Some aspects of his visit also
infer that he was attempting to keep this visit to Bedford, Virginia a secret.
Included in Burwell’s correspondence with Jefferson is a plea to make sure that
Lighthorse Harry Lee received his commemorative Society of the Cincinnati
medallions and sword. The Lee’s were known to be proud members of the Society
and after the Civil War they demanded and received their coveted Society of the
Cincinnati dinnerware from Arlington after it was confiscated by the Federal
Government after the war.
In fact
Robert E. Lee had built the hexagonal shaped Ft. Carroll in Baltimore Harbor
during the 1850’s when he was still a part of the American Army. Lee was of
course a West Point graduate that had learned engineering skills while
attending that storied institution. The hexagonal form of Ft. Carroll may have
been intended to function much in the way Poplar Forest’s octagon had as
described above. The hexagon of Ft. Carroll may be used to infer an arc on the
globe that extends to the southwest first to Lee’s Arlington estate near
Washington D.C. Ft. Carroll points to Lee’s home! As this arc on the globe
continues to the southwest it then “points to” Avenel House in Bedford Virginia
which had been built by his direct kin the Burwell family. This may in part
explain why Lee was known to have visited there several times after the Civil
War. Or is there more to that story as well?
Interestingly
there are also a few other interesting associations in what Lee may have
accomplished by establishing Ft. Carroll in the tradition of the Axis Mundi.
The opposite direction on the globe from Ft. Caroll to Avenel House extends to
the northeast crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the site of Omaha Beach in
Normandy. Omaha Beach was one of the deadliest landing sites of D-day during
WWII. As this arc extends further across the globe it reaches the Dome of the
Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem! The Temple Mount of course was the home
to the Knights Templar and Knights of St. John during the early phases of the
Crusades.
Amazingly
Bedford, Virginia is home to the National D-day memorial. Several young men
from Bedford Virginia lost their lives as part of the D-day invasion. So not
only does Ft. Carroll point to Omaha Beach and the Dome of the rock in its
northeasterly trending azimuth but in the opposite direction Ft. Carroll
“points to” both Avenel House and the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford
Virginia! Could this all be a coincidence or are we being told something in the
architecture that Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jefferson, William Randolph II, and
William M. Burwell had created?
It appears
that the all may have been aware of the directional qualities of Jefferson’s
Poplar Forest in turn indicating they were also aware of the tradition of
ancient cartography utilizing a copy of the Tower of the Winds of Athens to
create a temple that was the center of a templum of a kind of crude map
projection. Remember that the Powder Magazine in Williamsburg appears to have
been built in the same tradition and we do know Jefferson attended the College
of William and Mary in Williamsburg Virginia where the Powder Magazine is
located.
What may
be revealed by Avenel House?
So far we
may be able to discern that William M. Burwell had been exposed to these
concepts via he and his father’s association with Thomas Jefferson. As the
story continues to unfold it may be obvious that the Burwell’s were working in
league with something the President had designed but had also encompassed some
of their own amazing family history.
There are
indications that Jefferson had been aware of the original version of the “Bruton
Vault” treasure or mystery in Williamsburg. The original mystery may have been
a kind of quest or initiation set up by any one of the secret clubs at the
College of William and Mary. It was only later people like Marie Bauer Hall who
suggested the New Age overtones of this concept. Jefferson may have chosen to
extend this type of quest mystery in association with his octagonal country
estate Poplar Forest. It may also be speculated that Burwell and Lee had known
of this and had chosen to add to the templum of Poplar Forest with additions to
the mystery of their own. Given the associations seen with Ft. Carroll it may
even be that Lee had made his own axis and templum using its hexagonal plan.
Does
Lee’s visits to Avenel House indicate more than him simply visiting his close
kin there? It may be that Lee knew something was hidden in or near Avenel House
that was of great symbolic or monetary value. Avenel House’s proximity the
region that has traditionally been associated as the resting place of the Beale
Treasure may come into play in this story. As we may discern Burwell and Lee
had a similar pedigree and standing to that of Thomas Jefferson and that they
had been taught all of these concepts as young men just as Jefferson had.
It is
also clear that early twentieth century wife of Masonic Mystic Manly P. Hall,
Marie Bauer Hall had made many mistakes in her original analysis of the Bruton
Vault in Williamsburg in the 1930’s. Ms. Hall’s erroneous thoughts with regard
to the Bruton Vault have left kind of a New Age pall of misinformation over the
entire phenomenon in which acolytes of her ideas have even attempted at various
times to dig up the Bruton Parish Churchyard in search of Bacon’s Vault.
Ms.
Hall’s version of the story dictates that the vault contains a collection of
Sir Francis Bacon’s papers they insist were brought to Jamestown originally by
the famous Colonial Rebel Nathaniel Bacon (the younger). These types of faiths
as associated with the character of Sir Francis Bacon also promote the fact that
Bacon was an “Ascended Master” or a kind of Christ like figure that was worthy
of their veneration. In the end the story of the Bruton Vault sometimes
referred to as “Bacon’s Vault” is just a Rosicrucian tale meant to convey the
fact that the missing remains of Nathaniel Bacon the Rebel had been secretly
buried in the Bruton Parish Churchyard.
(Hint: If
one wishes an easy solution to the mystery of “Bacon’s Vault” go sit on the
south side of the Bruton Parish Church belltower and look at what you see just
across the room from you to the north)
If one
takes a practical and research based view of such things it is clear that Sir
Francis Bacon was a champion of rational thought who would not consider any
spiritual movements that did not include that point of view. It is clear that
Thomas Jefferson viewed Bacon as a practical and rational individual whom he
admired while still promoting ideas that urged people to reject all the
fairytale like qualities of the world’s religions.
With this
in mind it is easy to see the mistakes or misconceptions that led Ms. Hall
astray in her analysis of the Bruton Vault. In fact Hall was given the straight
information or clues about the vault from a mysterious Mr. Cunningham who did
seem to have the correct approach to solving any historical mystery. Perhaps it
was the Hall’s misconceptions about what they were being presented with that
eventually led to Mr. Cunningham not having anything further to do with the
Bruton Vault.
Amazingly
we may be led to some startling similarities and even family connections
between the Burwell, Lee, and Randolph families and the famous Oak Island Money
Pit. This author’s analysis of Oak Island, The Bruton, Vault and Beale treasure
did not include any thoughts as to these places being connected together
somehow. As time went on similar names and associations began to manifest
themselves including a value of Philip Sidney and Sir Walter Scott. In addition
as we may see all of these sagas may reach back in time to tell us something about
the Latin Kings of Jerusalem, Armenia, and Cyprus while at the same time
associating the entire scheme of lost treasure sagas with the legendary Knights
Templar of the age of the Crusades. There are also some strange correlations
between a medieval piece of literature entitled “Amdis de Gaula.” Cervantes’
famous work “Don Quixote” is said to be a parody of “Amadis de Gaula.”
Many
people have speculated that the Knights Templar had made their way to North
America at a date during their original existence between the 12th
and 14th centuries. Some speculate the order had continued past the
early fourteenth century date of their dissolution at the hands of Pope Clement
IV and Philip le Bel King of France These theories range from the possible to
the idiotic in many ways. None of these ideas are backed up with enough
rational information or sources to compel this author to believe any of them.
Rather; Did the Knights Templar have the maritime technology or capability to
have come to the East Coast of America? The answer to that question is of
course yes but did they actually do this as evidence that may be considered
legitimate is sorely lacking. Somewhere in this labyrinth of clues given in
literature and family history may exist the key to the truth of this concept
either true or false.
In many
ways the theories that involve Templars could be true. In the mid nineteenth
century many people believed Vikings had come to America in antiquity with
nothing but the Norse Sagas to back up their beliefs. This in an era of history
prior to the discovery of L’ Anse Aux Meadows Viking site in Newfoundland. Some
people’s desire to detract from the so called accomplishments of Columbus
unfortunately led them to concoct wild theories backed up by shaky evidence. Many
times these anti Columbus arguments became lost in a maze of nationalistic and
culturally specific ideas meant to bolster one countries accomplishments over
another. A kind of silent war if you will.
Unfortunately,
in 2019 many of these bizarre theories have again manifested themselves in
relation to places like Oak Island where there is absolutely no evidence at all
that the original Knights Templar were ever involved in anything there at all. That
is to say much of what is being discovered here may indicate it is possible the
Knights Templar or Latin Kings mounted an expedition to the New World but no
evidence of this has surfaced as of yet.
It is
clear that many of the existing stories such as that of Henry Sinclair having
come to Nova Scotia were concocted for Nationalistic reasons having nothing to
do with the truth. What is true and may be proven is the involvement of
descendants of the original Knights Templar and Latin Kings in these odd
treasure quests. In addition it is clear that the first encampment of Masonic
Knights Templar in North America was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1784.
What may
become obvious is that a sort of family tradition that descendants of original
Knights Templar and Latin Kings had used this secret information and symbology to
craft mysteries that only their initiates could have understood. This in an era
long before modern scholarship and the internet both of which have made these
mysteries easier to understand in their correct context. In other words, there
is a great deal of evidence in several “man in the mountain” mysteries that
suggest families or individuals that held a unique lineage similar to royalty
had crafted these stories and in some cases, had attempted to change the
standard cannon of history in the minds of the public to benefit themselves and
the legacies of their families in the new land. This is especially evident in
the epistle introduction of Sir Walter Scott’s “The Monastery.”
The
original reason for Charlemagne using a technique of an intentionally contrived
mystery may have had more to do with him assuring that subsequent Holy Roman
Emperors that were his progeny fully understood what he had done and for them
to emulate the template he had established. Along the way Charlemagne had left
clues as to his influences that included similar activity on the part of
specific Byzantine rulers who had also crafted octagonal structures as he had
done in the form of Aachen Cathedral.
Later in
more recent times we have seen a cadre of idealistic authors and pundits
distort and profit from these ideas to the point it is difficult to change the
mind of the public with regard to historical oddities such as Oak Island and
its famous Money Pit. Here we may find some “clewes” left for us at places like
Avenel House that may lead us to the truth. In the process, we may discover
certain historical attributes and trends that may be applied to many different
historical questions such as the true origins of the Newport Tower and fabled
Kensington Rune.
In order
to fully understand what is going on we will go back into to history to attempt
to understand any family legacies that may be involved in these fabled treasure
stories. The legacy or family relations of the Avenel family is very revealing.
The Burwell family was related in antiquity to this specific group of families
that included the de Saye Avenel family sometimes referred to as the Avenel
family. This may suggest that Burwell’s naming of his home may have included
the fact that he was aware that he was related to the Avenel family of old
England and Normandy.
“Avenel, a surname scarcely known, except in
the pages of romance. Like Umfraville, de orville, and others, it was once
borne by high and powerful barons, whose descendants, if any now exist, have
long ceased to be called by the name of their progenitors. Among the
Anglo-Norman knights introduced into Scotland by David I, was Robert Avenel,
who in reward of military services, received Upper and Lower Eskdale, and
flourished during the reigns of Malcolm the IV and William the Lion of Scotland
whose charters he witnessed………His later years were spent in the Abbey of
Melrose, to which he granted a large portion of his estates, and where he died
in 1185.” (https://www.electricscotland.com/history/nation/avenel.htm)
The above is very interesting in relation to what Sir
Walter Scott wrote about “The White Lady of Avenel” in his book “The
Monastery.” Of course, four members of the Avenel family are also characters in
the book. Here we have Sir Walter Scott relating a story that many scholars
insist is referring to Thomas Jefferson and the relationship between the
Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Arbroath of Robert the Bruce
whose heart is apparently recovered in the book by a character that seems to be
a metaphor for Thomas Jefferson! In the story and in reality, Scott is telling
us that the Heart of Robert the Bruce had been hidden at Melrose Abbey years
before any such thing was said to have been discovered in the remains of
Melrose Abbey! Scott’s fiction had predicted reality in many ways all using the
imagery of Avenel to tell this story. Of course as a premier antiquarian of the
day Scott was likely privy to real history that stated Bruce’s heart had been
buried at Melrose so long prior to its actual discovery.
Amazingly we see that even a U.S. Senate Bill was
presented: “US Senate Resolution 155 of 10 November 1997
states that the Declaration of Arbroath, the Scottish Declaration of
Independence [sic], was signed on 6 April 1320 and the American Declaration of
Independence was modelled on that inspirational document.”
It appears that others have noted the
similarities here that lend to an air of credibility to the theory about Avenel
House being presented here also in tandem with the theme of Sir Walter Scott’s
“The Monastery” which had been first published in 1820.
(https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/1997/11/10/senate-section/article/s124781?q=%257B%2522search%2522%253A%255B%2522resolution+155+tartan%2522%255D%257D&resultIndex=1)
The fact that Robert the Bruce’s heart was
buried at Melrose Abbey may have been known to Sir Walter Scott as part of a
legend or myth that this was true. In reality in 1921 a heart in a conical lead
casket was recovered from beneath the Chapter House floor of Melrose Abbey. At
that time the casket was reburied where it had been found. The casket had been
rediscovered in a 1996 excavation of the Chapter House by professional
archaeologists. At that time, they noted that it was unusual for such a thing
to have been recovered from the Chapter House as a high status person like
Bruce and his heart would have been interred next to the altar of the Church.
Interestingly the scene in Scott’s “The
Monastery” that has the character representative of Thomas Jefferson recovering
the heart finds it next to the altar of the main church and not in the Chapter
House. Is it possible that the conical casket found in 1921 held the heart of
someone else like Robert Avenel for instance? Robert Avenel in his old age had
entered the monastery as a brother and the burial of his heart in the Chapter
House of the monastery may make more sense in this context.
Is it possible that the heart of Robert
Avenel had been recovered and brought to Avenel House in Bedford Virginia by
his descendants? Or possibly Sir James Douglas? Did Sir Walter Scott have some
inside information as to the true location of this storied artifact long before
it was discovered? Or was the heart discovered in the Chapter House of Melrose
that of Avenel and we are being told it is the Heart of the Bruce? This would
mean the Heart of Robert the Bruce is still missing…………
Either way it is amazing that Sir Walter knew
of this over one hundred years prior to the casket’s discovery in the Chapter
House of the Monastery. Some people speculate that the heart found in the
Chapter House was not that of Robert the Bruce due to the location where it was
found though many scholars accept that this was indeed the Heart of the Bruce
that had been found. In allegory, the only doubts cast here are that Sir Walter
Scott had told us in the same story where he deftly predicted the discovery of
the heart that someone had come to Scotland and had recovered the heart and
taken it back to the United States! “Along the Susquehanna and Potomac
Rivers….”
Sir Walter Scott also refers to Philip Sidney
several times in the book and the character of Sir Piercy Shafton may have even
been meant as a metaphor for Philip Sidney as Shafton was a courtier of Queen
Elizabeth who had fled in exile to Scotland in part due to his Catholic faith.
Though Sidney was not Catholic that we know of the parallels are obvious. These
references to Sidney are also of importance when we see how much William
Randolph II had valued Sidney in naming his home “Wilton House.” Two subsequent
members of the Randolph family were later named Philip Sidney Randolph and
Algernon Sidney Randolph thus displaying their respect for the Sidney family
and the concept of “Arcadia.” In the book it is also clear that Scott is poking
fun at Sidney and the romantic lifestyle of the court of Elizabeth I compared
to the culture of the Scottish Borders.
Here is yet another similarity between what
Scott wrote in his book and the actual values of Thomas Jefferson via Philip
Sidney and Sir Francis Bacon. Note that Sidney was directly descendant of what
would become two important Virginia families in the form of the Wingfield and
West families. The West’s are also known as the titled name of de La Waar of
Lord de La Waar (West) an early important resident of Jamestown that was known
for his exploration of what would become the great State of Delaware which is
named for him. Given these relations it is possible that even the Randolph
family, President Jefferson, and the Burwell family were somehow related to
Philip Sidney.
How did Sir Walter Scott know all of this?
Are we really being told that somehow that the Heart of the Bruce had been
hidden somewhere in Virginia? At Avenel House perhaps? Had it actually been
returned to Scotland or was the heart discovered at Melrose in 1921 that of
someone else? Had the Heart of the Bruce been a real part of what the Bruton
Vault was supposed to have been? Or was
this all simply a story meant to draw us to Avenel House for some reason having
more to do with American history and Thomas Jefferson? There are many
possibilities. Either way it is interesting and intriguing that Sir Walter
Scott seems to have been aware of what was going on.
It is interesting again that a ghost story
exists today at Avenel House that matches the story of the “White Lady of
Avenel” ghost from Sir Walter Scott’s novel which involves members of the
Avenel family. Then we find that in real history Robert Avenel became a monk at
Melrose Abbey in his final years as many prominent Scottish men had done in
that era. Incidentally the era of the Crusades, Latin Kingdoms, and the
original Knights Templar. This also infers that it is possible Robert Avenel
became a Knights Templar later in life as some other Scots nobles like William
Marshal had done though there is no record of this being true.
There were family relations between the
Avenel family of Scotland and some Knights Templar of note. Isabel Avenel for
instance was married to Robert de Ros who was said to have been an actual
Knights Templar. Of interest is the fact that Robert de Ros is also one of the
Knights represented in effigy at the Temple Church of London that was built by
the original Knights Templar. De Ros and other de Avenel and de Clare family
relations also include the famous right-hand man of Robert the Bruce William
Marshall who is the forebear of Thomas Jefferson’s cousin Chief Justice John
Marshal of Virginia!
William Marshall was also represented in
effigy at the Temple Church of London. Here we are seeing direct connections
between original Knights Templar and the Avenel family also known of as the de
Saye Avenel’s. If perhaps Jefferson’s Randolph family is the same as the
Scottish Randolph’s we may see that Thomas Randolph still another close friend
and ally of Robert the Bruce may be Thomas Jefferson’s forebear.
This study of the relations of the original
Avenel family may also link us to some of the families that may have been
involved in the Oak Island legend as well. Joan de Clare was the daughter of
Gilbert de Clare the 7th Earl of Gloucester and his wife Alix
Lusignan also known as Alice de Valence. She married Gervaise Avenel in 1299
thus linking to the Burwell family who held several family relations with the
de Clare family as well as other powerful Norman and Scottish families. In
reality the de Clare’s owned and lived in Burwell Castle in Burwell,
Lincolnshire England for many generations.
Our cartographer Joseph Wallet des Barres of
Nova Scotia discussed earlier had been the first person to name Oak Island. He
dubbed it Gloucester Island as part of the maps he had produced for his famous
pilot’s guide to east coast ports entitled “Atlantic Neptune.” Des Barres was
related to third Knights Templar Grand Master Everard de Barres who in turn was
directly related to the de Saye Avenel family as well as the very same de Clare
family of Gilbert de Clare the 7th Earl of Gloucester. All of the
people potentially involved here have direct links to the Knights Templar or
Latin Kings of Jerusalem, Armenia, and Cyprus. Still further they also have
extended family members that were part of the Latin Kingdoms that existed in
Greece including the de La Roche family that included members of the Knights
Templar. This in turn links us to the de La Tour and Rochefoucauld families who
hold prominent places in Nova Scotia history.
Here we may also note the direct family
relations between the Berkeley family of Virginia to this family group. There
are at least three significant intermarriages between the Berkeley family of
England who begat the Berkeley family of Virginia and the de Clare family of
Gilbert de Clare the 7th Earl of Gloucester. The Berkeley’s family
seat in Somerset is the Bruton Priory which was given to them after the
dissolution of the monasteries in England.
In turn, it was Virginia Governor William
Berkeley who had named the home of the Bruton Vault mystery or the Bruton
Parish Church. Later Norborne Berkeley Lord Botetourt was also the governor of
Virginia. Norborne owned a large estate in what is now Botetourt County
Virginia that includes some of the region where the Beale Treasure is supposed
to be hidden adjacent to Bedford Virginia where Avenel House is located. It is
interesting that the armorial bearings of the Berkeley family include an array
of ten Cross Pattee similar to that used by the Knights Templar. Note also that
Lewis Burwell I and Lewis Burwell II were also crown governors of Virginia at
various times.
The Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg is
named for the Bruton Priory in England that was the estate of the Berkeley
family. Historical records indicate that a Knights Templar infirmary for
elderly members of the order was once located at the Bruton Priory. There are
also the graves of several Knights Templar at the Bruton Priory in England.
This may also make sense including the Berkeley family relations to the de
Clare and Lusignan families. The Berkeley family does hold a direct relation to
the fabled Knights Templar.
This fact and all the Knights Templar
relations may be the real reason people seem to sense or want to believe the
Knights Templar were involved in the history of Oak Island. What we may be
seeing here is the real reason des Barres chose to name what would later be
known of as Oak Island as “Gloucester Island.” Here we have a family group that
includes the Burwell’s, Berkeley’s, Jefferson’s, Randolph’s, Marshall’s, de
Clare’s, de Ros’, Avenel’s, Lusignan, Rochefoucauld, de La Tour and others
whose descendants seem to be involved in some of these lost treasure legends. This
value may have also contributed to the naming of Gloucester County Virginia
where the Burwell family began their legacy in colonial Virginia. Was des
Barre’s naming of Gloucester Island a clue that may indicate the era of the
true origins of the Money Pit folklore or reality?
This connection between the Burwell, Avenel,
and Lusignan family is very interesting when one considers the French
involvement in the Oak Island Money Pit Story. As part of the development of
French Acadia i.e. Nova Scotia the Rochefoucauld and de La Tour families seemed
to have had some involvement via the d’Anville expedition of Jean Baptiste
Rochefoucauld and the fact that Charles de La Tour was the first Acadian
Governor who later switched sides and became a Baronet of Nova Scotia. Both the
de La Tour and Rochefoucauld families are septs or associated to the Lusignan
family via many direct family relations. This line of reasoning may dictate
that it was no accident that Charles de La Tour and his father Claude became
original Baronets of Nova Scotia as they were related to all the French and
Scottish families mentioned in this history.
This in turn may link to our story in
Virginia due to a direct descendant of Charles de La Tour, Louis de La Tour
being present in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1885 the same year the Beale Ciphers or
Papers were released to the public. Though Louis is documented as being present
in the same town where this occurred there is no evidence to date he was
involved beyond the inference that his family had a tradition of being involved
in such things.
It may also be of value to note again that
Thomas Jefferson had a close association and correspondence with two members of
the Rochefoucauld family of France. While Minister to France Jefferson had
attended a literary salon and other social gatherings with Louis Alexandre
Rochfoucauld who had been the first to reproduce the Declaration of
Independence in French. Jefferson would often attend literary salons with the
elite of France along with Benjamin Franklin and the Marquis de Lafayette. A
later descendant family member of Louis Alexandre, François Rochefoucauld
actually visited Jefferson at Monticello. The Rochefoucauld and de La Tour
family names also surface in various aspects of a famous treasure story in
France known of as Rennes le Chateau. The Marquis de Lafayette also holds close
family relations to the Rochefoucauld family.
Here in the Piedmont region of Virginia where
Bedford and Lynchburg are located we have members of two storied Scottish and
French families whose members were Knights Templar or Latin Kings. The Lusignan
family had been at various times the Latin Kings of Jerusalem, Armenia, and
Cyprus. In turn, all of these same family names have surfaced in relation to
the Bruton Vault, Beale Treasure, and Oak Island treasure stories. Is this a
coincidence or could it really be that all these storied treasure legends are
indeed one? Or had they all been perpetrated by the same family group using the
“man in the mountain” legends of Charlemagne and the concept of the Axis Mundi
as a way to conceal things that were important to them? Is this simply a
memento mori or way of preserving the memory of fallen kings and Knights
Templar that would have otherwise been forgotten? Or is there a real treasure
afoot?
One thing is for sure. The curious are forced
to learn all of this in order to understand it fully.
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