Isabel de la Roche
Persona History
Isabel is a 16th century noblewoman from Normandy. Born in 1540, she married in 1556 to a rich merchantman twice her age. They were married three years, whereupon he died of a fever. She has since spent her adult life as a merry widow. Isabel inherited her husband's cloth and luxury goods company and she continues to run it. Her brother is a monk at the Abbey of St Pierre near Caen, who is an advocat (lawyer). Annually Isabel donates to the Abbey, and he defends her right to continue as a 'seule femme' in business.
Whereabouts
Isabel has a country manor in Normandy near Caen, and a townhouse in Paris along with warehouses and ships. The main trading routes her company follows are between France and England, France and the Papal States. Isabel was in Paris during the St Bartholemew's Massacre in 1572. Isabel fled Paris and went to the south of France, then to Rome.
SCA History
3.1
3.2 Interests:
Recognitions
Teaching
In Class format:
Looking at art Self-supporting cotehardies Late sixteenth century corsets Courtesy and Etiquette Shirts for rapier fighters
Knowledge passed on:
Taught rectangular garment design and construction; Baroness Tangwystl ferch Glen (Glynis) has taught this course extensively over the last 20 years.
Personal Supports Selecting fabrics and trims for late period costuming Identifying and selecting fabrics and items from Thrift Stores for SCA use Fitting sessions for garment refinement: male and female costumes, all time periods.
Contests
As entrant
Daffodil 12th Night Costuming Guild Court wear
As Sponsor/Creator of Contest
Tools Your Persona Would Have Made or Used notable entries: a wooden bucket, a broom, shaped sticks as clothes hangars, a stick, a grain grinding quern. Prize: a linen undergarment layer made to go with the winning contestant's persona/garb. Winner Dr Carus of Lionsgate. Delivered a linen shirt, and a wool scholar's robe for him.
As Judge
As course schedule organizer
Other Creative Endeavours
Providing an air conditioned Ladies Solar at an interior event.
Events as organizer
1990's:
Inn of the Afghan Horseman (potluck tavern night) after an Ithra Yule, decorator and autocrat
Offices held
She has been involved in the SCA from 1986 to 1991, 2003 to 2009, and sporadically since. She has served on royal and baronial retinues, and as a branch and principality officer.
She holds an M.A. in History from the University of Victoria, where she studied renaissance and modern history, historiography and English.
- Notable Endeavours -
In 2024, Isabel researched deeply to create a Hungarian set of clothing for Jadwiga (details needed here); ask her about it to get an excellent info-dump on it.