Gilles Estram

Sir Gilles Estram was a French knight who lived in the 13th century.

He served the general Simon de Montfort and often provided lessons in swordplay to de Montfort's son, Philippe de Montfort, to whom he was a mentor. Shortly before the signing of the Magna Carta (PROSE: Sanctuary) in 1215, (TV: The King's Demons) Estram was loaned to King John of England for the proceedings. De Montfort also intended that his man serve as a spy. Instead, he disappeared without a trace, and the de Montforts suspected he had been caught spying or murdered, though his true fate remained a mystery to them for decades. Unbeknownst to them, Estram never reached his destination of Fitzwilliam Castle, and he was impersonated by, a renegade Time Lord.

In 1242, when Philippe de Montfort met the Seventh Doctor, who mentioned his presence at Fitzwilliam Castle during a previous incarnation, Louis de Citeaux asked the Doctor if he knew what had happened to Estram. The Doctor explained his belief that the real Gilles Estram had never arrived and that one of his own people had taken his place. Philippe was initially galled by the way the foreign Doctor had quickly dismissed the apparent murder of his mentor. However, the Doctor's quick change of subject to a seemingly absurd claim about an encounter with Richard the Lionheart and his sister Joanna in Jaffa seemed so humorous to Philippe that he almost forgave the transgression of his comments regarding Estram. (PROSE: Sanctuary)

Behind the scenes
Although the 1995 novel Sanctuary established Gilles Estram as a real individual separate from the Master, in the original context of the 1983 television story The King's Demons, the surname was simply an acronym of Master.