John Blanke and the other trumpeters herald the beginning of the Westminster Tournament, held in February 1511 to celebrate the birth of a short-lived son to Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon.
The trumpeters signal the end of the day’s jousting and the assembled company proceed to the banquet. In the Westminster Tournament Roll, Blanke has large eyes and he wears a turban – could these be clues to his ethnic and cultural identity?
African musicians were present at courts across Europe: this group appears in a Lisbon altarpiece, The Engagement of St. Ursula and Prince Etherius, commissioned in 1522 by Eleanor, Queen of Portugal.
A black trumpeter performs in this French tapestry depicting a wrestling match during the meeting of Henry VIII and Francis I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.
The German artist Christoph Weiditz observed this African drummer playing at the ceremonial entrance of Katherine of Aragon’s nephew, Emperor Charles V, into a city during his Spanish progress of 1529.
This portrait of an anonymous member of the Habsburg court of Margaret of Austria, the ruler of the Spanish Netherlands, not only reflects the extent of the black presence there, but shows not all Africans in Renaissance Europe were enslaved.
An African groom holds the Queen’s horse in this 1617 portrait of James I’s wife, Anne of Denmark, who had performed in Ben Jonson’s The Masque of Blackness a dozen years before. Could he be the African servant recorded in her Edinburgh household in the 1590s?
By the time Charles I and Henrietta Maria are depicted embarking on a hunting expedition in the early 1630s, the African groom figure has become so exoticised that one wonders if this was a real person at the Stuart court.
The masts of the Mary Rose sink beneath the waves as Henry VIII watches from Southsea Castle in the foreground. Unlike the sailors we see drowning here, Jacques Francis, the African diver later sent to salvage the wreck, could swim. (Courtesy of Kester Keighley and the Mary Rose Trust)
African diving for pearls by the Caribbean island of Margarita, off the north coast of Venezuela, in 1586.
Does this jewel given to Sir Francis Drake by Queen Elizabeth I in the wake of the Armada victory of 1588 symbolise the desire for an English–African alliance against Spain?
Sir Francis proudly wears the Drake Jewel around his waist in this 1591 portrait, which also features a globe in reference to his successful circumnavigation voyage of 1577–80.
Maroon communities of Africans who had escaped Spanish captivity, like the ones Drake found in Panama, were in existence across the Spanish Empire. Here, a Maroon leader from Esmeraldas in Ecuador visits Quito with his father and brother to sign a peace treaty in 1599.
Africans joined the English at each of the ports Drake raided on his West Indian voyage of 1585–6.
Drake’s attack on Cartagena in February 1586. The English soldiers can be seen marching along the beach towards a weak point in the city’s defences as recommended by a pair of African men they found fishing in the bay.
Edward Swarthye was one of several Africans serving in Tudor gentry households, like this page portrayed c. 1601 with his master Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby de Eresby.
An African child appears in the centre foreground of this c. 1575 image of a village festival by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, a visual echo of the various African children who appear in contemporary baptism records.
Painted in 1580s Bologna, Carracci’s portrait of an unidentified woman later belonged to Philip V of Spain and was given to the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular War. The needles in her bodice suggest that she, like Mary Fillis, was a seamstress.
Mary Fillis’s countryman Abd-al-Wahid bin Masoud bin Muhammad al-Annuri led an embassy from Morocco to the court of Elizabeth I in 1600. Two of his entourage were later rumoured to have been poisoned.
Bibliography
These are some of the key sources I consulted for this work. The full bibliography can be downloaded as a pdf from http://oneworld-publications.com/black-tudors-hb.html or http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/black-tudors-bibliography.html
Manuscript and archival sources
I found evidence of the African presence in Tudor and Stuart England in a wide range of the original documents that survive from that time: parish registers (which record baptisms, marriages and burials) and other church records, tax returns, household accounts, legal records, wills and inventories, diaries, letters, State papers and voyage accounts.
I visited record offices and archives across England, from Devon and Cornwall to Yorkshire, with a particular focus on ports such as Bristol, Plymouth and Southampton, to find my sources.
Many of the most fascinating documents I pored over are held in London. The British Library is home to Thomas More’s letter describing Katherine of Aragon’s arrival in London, the anonymous (and slanderous) account of Drake’s 1577–80 circumnavigation voyage and Lord Zouche’s correspondence with William Warde, Jacob Braems and Henry Mainwaring regarding the Silver Falcon. The Westminster Quarter Sessions records, held at the London Metropolitan Archives, contain the case against John and Jane Bankes for keeping a bawdy house detailed in Chapter Nine.
At The National Archives, Kew, I delved into a wealth of state papers, legal records and other miscellaneous documents. Amongst the Letters and Papers of Henry VII and Henry VIII was proof of John Blanke being paid his wages from December 1507 onwards, as well as his petition for a pay rise. The High Court of Admiralty provided the documents that allowed me to piece together the case brought against Peter Paulo Corsi, while the Bucke vs Wynter case before the Court of Star Chamber held the key to Edward Swarthye’s story. Searching through the Elizabethan State Papers, I uncovered intriguing details about relations between the English state and Morocco, a proposal for a voyage to Guinea, an inquiry into Hawkins’s attack on San Jan d’Ulloa and John Anthony’s petition to Lord Zouche.
For further details, see the full bibliography available online, and the Appendix to my 2012 Oxford DPhil thesis ‘Africans in Britain, 1500-1640’, cited below, which contains more than four hundred archival references to Africans in Tudor and early Stuart England.
Printed primary sources
The Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, eds. Thomas Dickson, Sir James Balfour Paul, C.T. McInnes, and Athol L. Murray (Edinburgh: HM General Register House, 1877–1978), 13 vols.
Acts of the Privy Council of England, ed. John Roche Dasent (London: HM Stationery Office, 1890–1964), 46 vols.
Adams, Simon, ed. The Household Accounts and Disbursement Books of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1558–1561, 1584–1586 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
Africanus, Leo, The History and Description of Africa, trans. John Pory, ed. Robert Brown, Hakluyt Society, 1st ser. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1896), 3 vols.
Alvarez, Francisco, The Prester John of the Indies: A True Relation of the Lands of the Prester John, Being the Narrative of the Portuguese Embassy to Ethiopia in 1520, trans. Lord Stanley of Alderley, eds. Charles Fraser Beckingham and George Wynn Brereton Huntingford, Haklyut Society 2nd ser., 114 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961).
Ames, Richard, The Female Fire–Ships; A Satyr Against Whoring: In A Letter to a Friend, Just Come to Town (London: Printed for E. Richardson, 1691).
Andrews, Kenneth R., ed. The Last Voyage of Drake and Hawkins, Hakluyt Society 2nd ser., 142 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972).
Anglo, Sydney, ed., The Great Tournament Roll of Westminster (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), 2 vols.
Annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners for England and Wales, (London: HM Stationery Office, 1837), vol 3.
Anon., Lust’s Dominion, prep. Mary Ellen Cacheado (Sheffield: Sheffield Hallam University, 2007), http://www.marlowe-society.org/docs/LustsDominionText.pdf.
Anon., Sir Thomas More, A Play; Now First Printed, ed. Alexander Dyce (London: Royal Shakespeare Society, 1844).
Aubrey, John, Aubrey’s Brief Lives ed. R. Barber, (Wood
ridge, Suff.: The Boydell Press, 1982).
Aubrey’s Brief Lives, ed. L. O. Dick, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1957).
‘Brief Lives’, Chiefly of Contemporaries, ed. Andrew Clark (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1898), 2 vols..
Bacon, Francis, The Essays, or Councils, Civil and Moral (London: E. Holt for Timothy Childe, 1701).
Balmford, James, A Short Dialogue Concerning the Plagues Infection Published to Preserue Bloud, through the Blessing of God. (London: R. Rield for Richard Boyle, 1603).
Bannerman, William B., ed., The Registers of St Olave, Hart Street, London, 1563–1700 Harleian Society Registers ser., 46 (London: Harleian Society, 1916).
Barbot, Jean, A Description of the Coasts of North and South–Guinea (London: Printed by assignment from Messrs Churchill for John Walthoe [etc.], 1732).
Beaumont, Francis and John Fletcher, The Knight of Malta, in ed. A.R. Waller, The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1909), vol. 7, pp. 78–163.
Bethune, C.R. Drinkwater, ed. The Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, Knt. In His Voyage into the South Sea in the Year 1593, Hakluyt Society, 1st ser. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1847).
Blake, John W., trans. and ed., Europeans in West Africa, 1450–1560, Hakluyt Society 2nd ser., 86–7 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1942), 2 vols.
Boorde, Andrew, A Compendyous Regyment, or A Dyetary of Helth Made in Mountpellier, ed. F.J. Furnivall (London: For the Early English Text Society by N. Trübner, 1870).
The Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, ed. F.J. Furnivall (London: For the Early English Text Society by N. Trübner, 1870).
Brome, Richard, The English Moor, or The Mock-Marriage, ed. Matthew Steggle (London: Richard Brome Online, 2010), https://www.hrion-line.ac.uk/brome/
Burke, Arthur Maredyth, ed., Memorials of St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster: The Parish Registers 1539–1660 (London: Eyre & Spottiswold, 1914).
Calendar of Letters and State Papers Relating to English Affairs Preserved in or Originally Belonging to the Archives of Simancas, ed. Martin A. S. Hume (London: Public Record Office, 1892–9), 4 vols.
Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Most Honourable the Marquess of Salisbury, K.G., &c: Preserved at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, ed. Sir Robert Cecil, Richard Arthur Roberts, Edward Salisbury, et. al (London: HM Stationery Office, 1883–1976), 24 vols.
Calendar of Patent Rolls, 30 Elizabeth (1587–88), C66/1304–1321, ed. Simon R. Neal (Kew: List and Index Society, 2003).
Calendar of Patent Rolls, 34 Elizabeth, Part I to Part XV, C66/1379–1394, ed. Simon R. Neal (Kew: List and Index Society, 1999).
Calendar of the Plymouth Municipal Records, ed. Richard Nicholls Worth (Plymouth: Borough of Plymouth, 1893).
Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574–1660, ed. W. Noël Sainsbury (London: Longman, Green, Longman, & Roberts, 1860), 10 vols.
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles I, ed. John Bruce (London: Longman, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1858–97), 23 vols.
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reigns of Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth and James I, 1547–1625, eds. Robert Lemon and Mary Anne Everett Green (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1856–72), 12 vols.
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of James I, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857–1872), 5 vols.
Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, of the Reign of Elizabeth, 1558–1589, eds. Joseph Stevenson, Allan James Crosby, Arthur John Butler, et. al (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1863–1950), 23 vols.
Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts, Relating to English Affairs, Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice, and in Other Libraries of Northern Italy, ed. Rawdon Brown (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1864–1947), 38 vols.
Calendar of the State Papers Relating to Scotland and Mary Queen of Scots, ed. Joseph Bain, (Edinburgh: HM General Register House, 1898–1969), 11 vols.
Camden, William, ‘Annals of King James I’, in William Camden, A Complete History of England: With the Lives of all the Kings and Queens Thereof . . . (London: Printed for Brab. Aylmer [etc.], 1706), vol. 2.
Annales, the True and Royall History of the Famous Empresse Elizabeth Queene of England France and Ireland &c., trans. Abraham Darcie (London: Benjamin Fisher, 1625).
Remaines Concerning Britain (1605), ed. Robert D. Dunn (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984).
Cameron, Annie I., ed., The Scottish Correspondence of Mary of Lorraine, 3rd ser. (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1927), vol. 10.
de Castellanos, Don Juan, Discurso del Capitan Francisco Draque, prep. by Angel Gonzáles Palencia (Madrid: Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, 1921).
Chamberlain, John, The Letters of John Chamberlain, ed. Norman Egbert McClure (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1939), vol. 2.
Chapman, George, The Comedies of George Chapman, ed. T.M. Parrott (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1914).
Chaucer, Geoffrey, The Canterbury Tales, ed. David Wright (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986).
Clowes, William, A Profitable and Necessarie Booke of Obseruations, For All Those That are Burned with the Flame of Gun Powder, &c . . . (London: E. Bollifant for Thomas Dawson, 1596).
Colyer-Fergusson, Thomas Colyer, Sir, ed., The Marriage Registers of St. Dunstan’s, Stepney, in the county of Middlesex. (Canterbury: Cross & Jackman, Printers, 1898), vol. 1.
The Copie of a Leter, Vvryten by a Master of Arte of Cambrige, to his Friend in London (Paris:, s.n., 1584).
Corrie, George Elwes, ed., Sermons by Hugh Latimer, Sometime Bishop of Worcester, Martyr, 1555 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1844), vol. 1.
Coryat, Thomas, Coryat’s Crudities: Hastily Gobled up in Five Moneths Travels . . . (Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1905), 2 vols.
Craig, J.T. Gibson, ed., Papers Relative to the Marriage of King James the Sixth of Scotland with the Princess Anna of Denmark (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1828).
Cranley, Thomas, Amanda: or the Reformed Whore (London: John Norton, 1635).
Cruwys, Margaret C.S., ed., The Register of Baptisms, Marriages & Burials of the Parish of St. Andrew’s Plymouth, Co. Devon (Exeter: Devon & Cornwall Record Society, 1954).
Cummings, Brian, ed. The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
Danvers, Frederick Charles and William Foster, eds. Letters Received by the East India Company (London: Sampson, Low, Marston & Co., 1896–1902), 6 vols.
Davenant, William, The History of Sir Francis Drake: Exprest by Instrumentan and Vocall Musick (London: s.n.,1659).
Davis, Norman, ed. Paston Letters and Papers of the 15th century, Early English Text Society ser., (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 2 vols.
Dekker, Thomas, The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker, ed. Fredson Bowers, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961), 4 vols. The Wonderfull Yeare (London:Thomas Creede, 1603).
Devon, Frederick, ed. Issues of the Exchequer: Being Payments Made Out of His Majesty’s Revenue During the Reign of King James I (London: John Rodwell, 1836).
The Diary of the Lady Anne Clifford, ed. Vita Sackville–West (London: William Heinemann, 1923).
Digby, Kenelm, A Late Discourse Made in a Solemne Assembly ovf Nobles and Learned Men at Montpellier in France . . ., trans. R. White (London: Printed for R. Lownes and T. Davies, 1658).
Drake, Francis, Sir, Sir Francis Drake’s West Indian Voyage, 1585–6, ed. Mary Frear Keeler, Haklyut Society 2nd ser., 148 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1981).
Dunbar, William, The Poems of William Dunbar, ed. Priscilla Bawcutt (Glasgow: Association for Scottish Studies, 1998).
The Poems of William Dunbar, ed. James Kinsley (London: Oxford University Press, 1979).
‘The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy’, trans. Michael Murphy (C
lan Strachan Scottish Heritage Society, n.d.) http://www.clanstrachan.org/history/Flyting_of_Dunbar_and_Kennedy.pdf.
Edelman, Charles, ed. The Stukeley Plays: The Battle of Alcazar by George Peele, The Famous History of the Life and Death of Captain Thomas Stukeley (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2005).
Elyot, Thomas, ‘Extracts from the Accounts of the Burgh of Aberdeen’, in The Miscellany of the Spalding Club, ed. John Stuart (Aberdeen: Spalding Club, 1841–52), 5 vols.
The Boke Named the Governour (s.n., 1531).
Florentine Chronicle of Marchionne di Coppo di Stefano Buonaiuti, trans. Jonathan Usher, Decameron Web, https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/plague/perspectives/marchionne.php, Rubric 634a.
Freshfield, Edwin, ed., The Register Book of the Parish of St. Christopher le Stocks, in the (London: Rixon and Arnold, 1882).
Galen, Claudius, Galen on the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body, trans. Margaret Tallmadge May (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1968), 2 vols.
Gesta Grayorum, or the History of the High and Mightie Henry, Prince of Purpool, Anno Domini 1594, ed. D. Bland (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1968).
Gray, Thomas, An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard (London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1751).
Gray, Todd, ed., Devon Household Accounts, 1627–59, Part II, new ser., 39 (Exeter: Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 1996).
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