Who is Prince Henry Sinclair and did he visit North America before Columbus?
Henry Sinclair, 1st Earl of Orkney, Baron of Roslin, and Lord of Shetland (c.1345-c.1400), was a Scottish nobleman. He is sometimes identified by the alternate spelling Henry St. Clair. He is also noted for being the subject of speculation that he undertook early explorations of Greenland and North America in about the year 1398. According to a biography published many years after his death, he died in battle against the English around the year 1400. Little is known about Sinclair’s life. Much has been written through conjecture, however, about his possible career as an explorer. In particular, starting in the 19th century, he was identified by one historian as possibly being the prince Zichmni described in letters allegedly written around the year 1400 by the Zeno brothers of Venice, in which they describe a voyage throughout the North Atlantic under the command of Zichmni. The authenticity of the letters (which were not discovered and published until the 16th century), the exact cour
