My Re-enactment Life
MY MEDIEVAL PERSONA - MY PERSONA HISTORY
THE HISTORY of the GILBERT FAMILY at COMPTON CASTLE - LADY ROSAMUND'S COAT OF ARMS

I have been involved in historical re-enactment since 2002 with The Guild of the Lily, 15th Century group, Sable Rose and 14th Century group Eslite d'Corp and 14th century group Company of Lion Rampant. I'm involved as a volunteer with the ABBEY MUSEUM OF ART & ARCHAEOLOGY's ABBEY MEDIEVAL FESTIVAL whenever I can.

Historical re-enactment tends to be a hobby which demands more research and historical accuracy the longer you do it. Shown above is Sir Rod Walker and his mighty Apollo at the Abbey Medieval Tournament 2009 where Lady Rosamund was honoured to lead them both on a gold chain into the jousting lists- recreating an age-old medieval spectacle and a personal re-enactment highlight!

My medieval persona: the Lady Rosamund Gylberte
Every re-enactor needs a persona and choosing one needs much deliberation. I started with what kind of person I wished to portray and worked backwards from there. Here is how I came to the decisions my background history. Where possible, I wanted to include actual bits of my family history or history of people sharing my family name in the Middle Ages. My coat-of-arms is based on one of the actual Gilbert family coat-of-arms and uses the motifs of the red chevron and the three roses. I also use the family squirrel motif which is carved into stairwells and furniture and on the iron entrance gates of Compton Castle.

I decided to base myself around the late 14th century equivalent of Margherita Datini, a 14th century wife of a successful businessman. She was able to read, write and although not noble, was aware of the niceties and etiquette of her station- that of a woman of a certain social standing. Since my own Gilbert name provides me with a knight, castle and lands at the right period in the right country, I shall be using those as my personal history, even though I am but a twig on the tree. However, I wish to be unmarried, so now I am 'Wealthy English Widow'. There are a few options as to how this could have come about and I am going with the ever popular "everyone died and left me the money" scenario. But how did this happen?

My persona history
I shall step back for a moment and start at the beginning. Born of wealthy parents, I learnt to read and write from our resident clergyman as my mother felt, quite rightly, that such a woman would increase her marriage prospects substantially if she was also a good businesswoman and able to check her household accounts and manage her household efficiently. I was but 13 when my parents and elder brother Andrew tragically died in an accident where the carriage in which they were traveling was upturned when the horses bolted. So at a tender age I was left a large dowry and became a Ward of the King where I was promptly married off to a wealthy Noble , a common enough practice for a young lady with a large dowry and huge tracts of land.

Fortunately, John Gilbert (named from my family tree, who was a cousin of the Compton Gilberts, and did many cool things) was amongst my suitors and on my nineteenth birthday, we were wed. Many years of happy marriage saw me living in COMPTON CASTLE (pictured at right from the National Trust) with my beloved husband. Rather unfortunately, my husband has been recently killed in a crusade or Holy war leaving me a widow and Lady of the Castle and all the surrounding lands.

As did happen.

The history of the Gilbert family at Compton Castle
Compton Castle is the Gilbert family castle in the town of Marldon, in Paignton, Devon, England and was originally built in 1320. It is the oldest building in the parish of Marldon, coming into the possession of the Geoffrey Gilbert family in 1329 when he married into the Compton family. It is now recognised as one of the best examples of a fortified manor house in the country. Apart from a gap of 146 years when the estate went out of the family, it has remained with the Gilberts until handed to the National Trust in 1951. It is still occupied by the Gilbert family today.

Compton Castle is a fortified Manor House but can be found in the National Trust listings under 'castle'. The blurb on the Trust website reads:

With portcullis entrances and buttressed walls pierced by arrow-slits and chutes through which intruders could be pelted with stones, Compton Castle has retained much of its medieval character. It was built around 1329 and enlarged during the 15th and 16th centuries by the Gilbert family, whose home it still is. The solar, or medieval living room and 15th century withdrawing room both have small windows through which the family could watch services in the chapel. In the kitchen, a cavernous hearth has ancient bread ovens on either side.

It appears that the original plan for the castle was to extend to complete the square floorplan, but this did not eventuate.

Marldon’s Church of St. John the Baptist was built by the Gilbert family of Compton. The first recorded mention of a church or chapel is in 1348, and the present tower was built by William Gilbert in about 1400, whose son Otto built the church we see today, replacing the earlier building referred to in 1348. The church is a fine building of local limestone in the late Perpendicular style, the font being contemporary with the 1450 rebuilding. The church has six bells, the oldest being contemporary with the tower and four others dating from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Lady Rosamund's family coat-of-arms
The red chevron and the three double roses, shown at left, have long been one of the Gilbert family coat of arms heraldic devices, although there are a few others for the Gilbert family as well. Because this would have been the heraldry of my father and I am a post-married woman, I halve this device on my own coat of arms, as seen at the right.

This is the one I have chosen to use for my re-enactment persona although some of my household chests retain the arms of my father.

I include the family squirrel as part of my encampment devices as the squirrel is used at Compton Castle carved in stairwells, on bedposts, cast in the iron gates of the main entrance and on the tomb effigy of Sir John Gilbert.

Copyright © Rosalie Gilbert
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Photograph of Rosalie ©De Groot Photography 2011.
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