Henry Lincoln

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Henry Lincoln (born 1930) is the most popular pseudonym of Henry Soskin, an English writer and actor. He co-wrote three Doctor Who multi-part serials in the 1960s, and —starting in the 1970s— authored a series of books and inspired documentaries for the British Television Channel BBC2, on the alleged "mysteries" surrounding the French village of Rennes-le-Château.

Henry Lincoln currently lives in the Cotswolds of England, as well as in the village of Rennes-le-Château.

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[edit] Early career

Lincoln was born in London in 1930, and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Under his original name of Henry Soskin, he appeared in 1960s television series such as The Avengers and The Champions, and then moved on to writing. He was the co-writer, with Mervyn Haisman, of three Doctor Who stories starring Patrick Troughton: The Abominable Snowmen, The Web of Fear and The Dominators.

Henry Lincoln was also a Faith Healer. His son, Rupert Soskin describes himself as a "qualified healer" who has been "focusing particularly on energies and communication in nature" - his wife is Julie Soskin who in 1996 founded The School of Insight and Intuitions - Spiritual and Consciousness Studies.

[edit] Rennes-le-Château

Le Trésor Maudit de Rennes-le-Château, Gérard de Sède, 1967
Le Trésor Maudit de Rennes-le-Château, Gérard de Sède, 1967

In 1969, Lincoln visited a small village in southwestern France called Rennes-le-Château, and read Le Trésor Maudit de Rennes-le-Château (trans: The Accursed Treasure of Rennes-le-Château)[1], a book by Gérard de Sède about an alleged hidden treasure. The book reproduced copies of Latin parchments that had allegedly been found by a priest within a pillar of a local church. Inspired by what appeared to be secret codes hidden in the Latin text, Lincoln did some research about the parchments and a possible treasure, writing several books presenting his theories about the area, as well as inspiring a series of three BBC Two documentaries in the 1970s. He has also written and presented documentaries on other subjects such as The Man in the Iron Mask, Nostradamus, and The Curse of the Pharoahs.

The alleged parchments (which were later shown to be forgeries) contained an encoded message which involved a series of raised letters throughout one of the Latin texts, spelling out a message in modern French: "A Dagobert II Roi et a Sion est ce tresor, et il est la mort" (trans: This treasure belongs to King Dagobert II and to Sion, and he is there dead). Supposedly this referred to the last active King of the Merovingian line, who had been assassinated without a direct heir in the 7th Century, thereby ending his branch of the dynasty. Later research, however, showed that de Sède's book had actually been written at the instigation of Pierre Plantard as part of an elaborate hoax to promote a society known as the Priory of Sion.

[edit] The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

Henry Lincoln is best-known for being one of the co-authors of the controversial 1982 bestseller The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. During the mid 1970s, while Lincoln was lecturing at a summer school, he met Richard Leigh, an American fiction writer. Leigh introduced him to Michael Baigent, a New Zealand photo-journalist who had been working on a project about the Knights Templar. The three discovered that they shared a common interest in the Knights Templar, and between them later developed a theory that Jesus Christ had started a bloodline that had later intermarried with the Frankish Merovingian royal dynasty. The three of them took their theory on the road during the 1970s in a series of lectures that later developed into the 1982 book, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, which became a bestseller and popularised the theory that Jesus had fathered a still extant and powerful bloodline (the true Holy Grail), and was all tied together by a secret society known as the Priory of Sion. These ideas were later used as the basis of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code.

[edit] Dan Brown lawsuit

Some of the ideas presented in Baigent's earlier book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, were incorporated in the bestselling American novel The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown.[2]

In March 2006, Baigent and Leigh filed a lawsuit in a British court against Brown's publisher, Random House, claiming copyright infringement. [3] In April 7, High Court judge Peter Smith rejected the copyright-infringement claim, and Dan Brown won the court case.

Lincoln was not involved in the proceedings, reputedly because of illness; however, in the Channel Five documentary, Revealed... The Man behind the Da Vinci Code, [4] Lincoln stated that he did not wish to take part in the proceedings because the ideas brought forth in Holy Blood were not even original themselves, and Brown's actions could only be described as, "a bit naughty." An earlier novel had already used the theme of a Jesus bloodline: The Dreamer of the Vine, by Liz Greene, published in 1980 [5] (Richard Leigh's sister and Michael Baigent's girlfriend at that time); Liz Greene was not sued for plagiarism.

[edit] Bornholm

Les Bergers d'Arcadie, Nicolas Poussin
Les Bergers d'Arcadie, Nicolas Poussin

In 1994, Lincoln wrote and presented the four-episode TV-series The Secret of the Templars which was produced and directed by Erling Haagensen. The series presented elements of Lincoln's lifelong research on Rennes-le-Château, such as an alleged link between the area and the painting Les Bergers d'Arcadie by 17th century painter Nicolas Poussin. In 2000, Lincoln collaborated with Haagensen to write The Templar's Secret Island, linking their mutual hypotheses about geometry being observed in the placement of medieval churches around both Rennes-le-Château and the Danish island of Bornholm. These speculative findings led them to speculate that the Knights Templar had built the churches on Bornholm in a specific pattern, to use them as a series of medieval astronomical observatories. Serious historians, however, have found nothing of merit in the hypotheses, and have pointed out several factors which make the ideas implausible (See the article on Bornholm for more information).


[edit] Militi Templi Scotia

On November 8, 2003, Lincoln was given an Honorary Knighthood in the Militi Templi Scotia order, at Newbattle Abbey in Scotland, in recognition of his work in the fields of Sacred geometry and Templar history. [1] A description of Lincoln's knighting ceremony can be found in Rat Scabies And The Holy Grail by Christopher Dawes, a gonzo-style book about the Rennes-le-Château mystery in which Lincoln appears as a central character.

[edit] Works

Note: Lincoln is sometimes credited as Henry Soskin or Norman Ashby
  • Co-writer, with Mervyn Haisman, of the Boris Karloff film, Curse of the Crimson Altar, 1968
  • Three BBC2 documentaries about Rennes-le-Château, written and narrated by Henry Lincoln.
    • Chronicle: The Lost Treasure of Jerusalem?", March 31, 1971
    • The Priest, the Painter, and the Devil, 1974
    • The Shadow of the Templars, 1979 (with Baigent & Leigh)
  • 1982: The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (with Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh)
  • 1987: The Messianic Legacy (with Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh)
  • 1991: The Holy Place: Discovering the Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World (or The Holy Place: Decoding the Mystery of Rennes-Le-Château or The Holy Place: Saunière and the Decoding of the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château)
  • 1992: The Secret: 4-part documentary written and presented for Tv2 Danmark
  • 2002: Key to the Sacred Pattern: The Untold Story of Rennes-le-Château
  • 2002: The Templars' Secret Island: The Knights, The Priest and The Treasure (with Erling Haagensen)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Gerard de Sede, The Accursed Treasure of Rennes-le-Château, 1967, ISBN 0-9541527-0-0
  2. ^ NZ author claims copyright breach in Da Vinci Code, February 28, 2006
  3. ^ Kiwi author takes on Dan Brown, March 1, 2006
  4. ^ Transmitted on 10 May 2006.
  5. ^ Liz Greene, The Dreamer of the Vine (London: Bodley Head, 1980).

[edit] References