Cynthia Du Pont
'''Madame du Pont'''''''''
1560's, Paris, France''''
I have been involved with the SCA and the new Shire of Tymberhavene (Coos Bay, OR) since 2006.
I have received: 1. Baronial Brownie Points from Adiantum January 2007, 2. My Award of Arms (AoA) May 2008. 3. My hound, Pluto, won the Hunt Guild Costume Contest at the May Crown 2008. 4. Arts & Science Scholar of the Summits, November 2009 5. Grael of the Summits for Arts March 2010
Offices Held: Chatelaine from 2007 to March 2009; Herald March 2009 to March 2011; Silver Lark of the Summits (Help coordinate Summits Town Cry at events) August 2010 to present; Pied Piper March 2011 to present.
My name and device have been approved by Laurel, 2008. My device is, "A swan naiant within a bordure argent."
I have taught a class on banner making and many have come to my home to make a banner. I have taught a class on "Rosaries", "Newcomer's 101 Class", "How to Develop Your Persona", and "Queen Elizabeth: A Love Story and a Poem".
I won an award for poems I recited at a bardic competition at Tymberhavene's Birthday Bash in 2007. I also belly dance, play the recorder, and recently learned how to make silk standards (banners). Since learning to make banners, I have made over 40 and have made for people who's device inspired me or I gave them away at events. Since Oct 2009 I have found period music and can now play around 15 songs on my flute.
My Persona: Madame Cynthia du Pont, 1560's Paris, SCA age: 40 years old My Papa, an aristocrat, fell in love with my mother, a gypsy woman on the outskirts of Paris in 1522. When going to town from his country home, he passed by a caravan of gypsies. Sitting in the back of a wagon he saw a lovely girl. When in town, he ran into her again and they were taken with each other. They were married, but it was annulled by his parents. My Papa never remarried and occasionally saw my Mama when her clan came to Paris. They were very much in love.
At 5 years of age, after being with my Mama's caravan, I was put in a nunnery where I learned to read and write. At 12 years old, I was taken in by a noble's family to read to their children and write correspondences. At 14 years old, I was married to an older man, who treated me kindly, Monsieur Henri du Pont. Upon his death, when I was 22 years old, I rented out his chateau and moved back into the noble's home. I had a beautiful chamber on the southern side of the manor for which to read and stayn standards.
Following in my parents footsteps, I fell in love with a man out my station in life. We had to be content with casual meetings in Paris and writing letters and love poems to each other."
I never knew my Papa, but he paid for my care in the nunnery, which is why I was well cared for. I often wondered, when I passed men on the street of Paris, if one of them was my Papa. He had a small portrait of my Mama painted and had it delivered to me. My Mama has passed on, and I carry the picture everywhere with me. I still meet with my mother's clan on occasion, and do Persian dances around the campfire and listen to wonderful stories of their travels when they pass through the outskirts of Pairs. For a woman of the 1560's I live a very content life.
Madame du Pont and her hound Pluto strolling the palace grounds