black tudors homework

Black Tudors: The fascinating lives of Africans living in Tudor England

There is a general assumption that Black people came to England only through the slave trade in the 17th century or through immigration during the middle part of the 20th century, such as with West Caribbean migrants who arrived on the SS Empire Windrush boat at Tilbury Docks in June 1948.

Misconceptions arise mainly through popular culture and how people of colour, both in Britain and America, have been portrayed in films and TV dramas over the last fifty years. School history books often focus on England’s notorious ‘Triangular trade route’ that was at its height in the 18th century. This route saw British ships exchanging goods for enslaved people in West Africa to transport and sell in America.

Read more about Ancient History

The history of black Britain: Roman Africans

A little known fact is that black people and people of colour were living as ‘free people’ in the Tudor times, coming to its shores through a variety of ways, mainly through trade with countries such as Morocco. But it wasn’t just in Elizabethan England that black people were making their presence known. The Congolese ambassador Don Miguel Castro to the Netherlands in the 1640s was African and others such as Alessandro de’ Medici, Duke of Florence had a mother who was an African woman called Simonetta. Other notable black figures were members of Margaret of the Netherlands’ court, as well as many other non-slave black men and women, some of high status and ranking who were socially integrated in northern European cities. Rembrandt’s 1661 painting ‘Two African Men’ is one of the Dutch old master’s enigmatic works.

This article presents some of those characters, who in a few unique cases are captured in rare paintings and images.

Read more about Black History

The life of Alessandro de' Medici, the Black Duke of Florence 

England’s free soil.

In England during the 16th century there was a concept, most likely theoretical, of ‘free soil’ which translated as meaning that if anyone set foot on England’s soil, they become free. The only court case to discuss slavery in this period concluded in 1659 that ‘England had too pure an air for slaves to breathe in’.

Possibly the main reason why England had this reputation was that in the 1500s there were still no English colonies before 1607 and in the West Caribbean not until 1623. Before the infamous trade in human cargo in which England became a main player during the 17th and 18th centuries, most enslaved African people were transported by Spanish and Portuguese merchants to Europe and later to their respective colonies in the Caribbean. Spanish colonists first began importing enslaved black people from the Iberian Peninsula in Spain to their Santo Domingo colony on the island of Hispaniola in 1501. The Portuguese however were the first traders in enslaved Africans and the first to engage in the Atlantic slave trade as early as 1526.

Severus: Rome’s first African Emperor

When England was at war with Spain and Portugal its warships recruited enslaved people from Spanish and Portuguese ports to fight alongside the English. Some Africans found passage back to England where they were considered free. Although most black people in England lived and worked within the lower echelons of Tudor society they were not enslaved but worked as servants or had a trade such as carpenters, needle makers and silk weavers, along with other craftsmen who were considered to be free.

However, less than a century later Britain’s role in the transportation of West Africans to its colonies would become an infamous part of English history which saw over 3.1 million Africans transported across the Atlantic. These enslaved people were forced to work producing raw materials for England’s manufacturing industries or contributing to its international trade in sugar and tobacco. Half the entire slave trade took place during the 18th century with the British, Portuguese and the French being the main carriers of nine out of ten enslaved people abducted in Africa.

Free Africans in Elizabethan England

Before England’s appalling contribution to the slave trading industry in the 18th century black residents and other characters of ethnic origin could be considered free people, protected from the shackles of slavery and ownership. The following characters represent a diverse group of black Tudors and Elizabethans, whose histories are recorded in rarely acknowledged or well known documents.

Read more about British History

12 Black Britons who shaped history

Mary fillis of morisco.

Born in Morocco in 1577 by a mother only known as Fillis of Morocco who was a basket weaver and shovel maker, Mary Fillis is an example of a black women who was not enslaved in England. She is noted for an extraordinary act of risk taking where she decided to leave one house of secure employment for another to gain invaluable skills. Mary came to London as a child to live in Mark Lane in the parish of St Olave’s, Hart Street near the Tower of London as a servant in the household of merchant John Barker and his wife Anne. It is possible that Mary came to England through Barker’s occupation as a merchant agent involved in trade between England and Morocco, bringing the young girl back with him to England.

The most striking aspect of Mary’s story is that at some stage when she was about 19 or 20 years-of-age she left the Barker household to live with her new mistress Millicent Porter, a seamstress. It was in this more modest household that Mary learned seamstress skills, most likely to raise her status in Elizabethan society as a woman with skills to earn a living. In 1597 with Porter’s assistance and help Mary was baptised at St Botolph’s Aldgate church in London where her baptism record in the parish clerk’s memorandum book. The entry which covers three pages describes her as a ‘Blackamoor’. From that auspicious day, possibly one of the first black women to be confirmed into the Christian faith in England, she became a free woman, afforded the rights of any free-living citizen on par with English people during the 16th century.

It is fascinating to think that Mary Fillis took the brave initiative to leave the relative comfort of Barker’s affluent household with all its luxuries to take up service in mistress Porter’s modest home. Here as well as undertaking a variety of household duties she was able to learn skills to better herself and earn a living that would have helped her to integrate more fully in Elizabethan England.

Read more about Popular Culture

The importance of celebrating black British history

Henry viii’s black favourites : jacques francis & john blanke.

King Henry VIII (1491 - 1547) is perhaps a surprising figure to be associated with two black Tudors who represent vital evidence of Africans holding important positions in 16th century England. Both men were respected for their formidable skills that were acknowledged by one of the most influential and powerful kings in history.

Jacques Francis : Salvage Diver

Black African, Jacques Francis, became famous as the salvage diver of one of the Tudor period’s most ill-fated warships, the Mary Rose. Francis was brought to England and employed by Henry to dive down into the wreck of the king’s most valuable 600 tons warship which boasted state-of-the-art maritime technology and weaponry. On 19 July 1545 the Mary Rose set out from Portsmouth to defend England against an invading force of 30,000 Frenchmen in what was to become the battle of the Solent. After having only just left port the colossal ship sank, watched by King Henry himself and who was said to have wept at the sight of the tragedy.

The guns on the ship were marked with Henry’s royal crest and were worth each more than £1.7 million in today’s money. Realising that it was impossible to raise the ship from the depths of the Solvent, King Henry decided to try and salvage some of the expensive weaponry. One problem with this plan was that most Europeans couldn’t swim, let alone dive great depths. The only people known in the early modern world who could swim and dive and hold their breath for long periods were Africans.

Henry hired a Venetian to put together a team of divers led by Jacques Francis, who with his team, possibly other Africans, also salvaged valuables from sunken ships the Santa Maria and Sanctus Edwardus.

Born around 1527 in the Portuguese colony on Arguin Island off the western coast of Mauritania in 1528, the island’s treacherous waters were an ideal training ground for Francis to acquire the skills of salvage diving. He would have learned to dive to great depths without any equipment and what is known today as free diving. By the time Francis was 18 he was living in Southampton and frequenting a pub called The Dolphin for his meals and drink before his royal calling.

Read more about Tudor History

The Mary Rose: Tudor battleship

Court testimony.

The reason why we have details about Francis’ life is because he testified in a court case as a witness for his employer Pierso Corsi who had been accused of theft. Because Francis’ English wasn’t good enough to be heard in court, a translator was employed to assist as Francis testified of his own free will. Interestingly three Venetians maintained that Francis was a ‘slave’ and a ‘heathen’ and that his testimony should be discounted. One reason for this disparagement was due to the claim that Francis had not been baptised and was therefore not a Christian.

Jacques Francis didn’t define himself as an enslaved person, arguing that he was paid wages. He described himself as a ‘famulus’, a Latin term for servant or attendant, which the court in England accepted and therefore his testimony. In the eyes of the law Francis was acknowledged as a ‘free man’, the same as other black Tudors and Elizabethans during this period. One impediment to citizens not being afforded the same rights as other free men and women, and being allowed to give testimony in court was if they were considered to be slaves. Throughout history, going back to Roman law, enslaved people were not allowed to give testimony in court and could only be taken under torture. In colonial America legislation was passed to bar Africans from testifying. The fact that Africans’ testimonies could legally be heard in English courts is evidence that they were not enslaved in England.

John Blanke: Royal Trumpeter

John Blanke, known as the Black trumpeter during the court of King Henry VIII is mentioned in wage documents relating to his time in employment, at first with Henry VII and later with his infamous son Henry VIII. Besides wage documents some Africans appeared in legal papers, as in the case of Jacques Francis who acted as a witness giving testimony in court. John Blanke however is one of the few if not the only African whose identity is recorded in a rare painting now held in the College of Arms.

Blanke is identified, possibly twice in different costumes, among other trumpeters in the ‘Westminster Tournament Roll’, a sixty-foot record of the moment when Henry VIII celebrated the birth of his first ill-fated son by Catherine of Aragon in 1511 who would die aged just 52 days old. Blanke, along with other prized trumpeters is seen in the roll playing at this prestigious royal event and his presence along with other chosen royal trumpeters indicates his status and prestige. Blanke’s reputation is further enhanced by evidence that he also asked his boss Henry VIII for a raise and got it, increasing his wages from 8d to 16d.

Blanke’s image is the only known portrait of an African in Tudor England. Besides John Blanke, Africans lived and worked all across the country from Edinburgh to Hull down to Truro in Cornwall and southern port towns like Southampton, Bristol and Plymouth, while a third existed in London.

The lives of Henry VII and Henry VIII: Never the twain shall meet

Edward swarthye : gloucestershire porter.

Edward Swarthye, a porter in the village of Lydney in rural Gloucestershire was a black Tudor employed as a servant by his master and godfather Edward Wynter. The name Swarthye meant ‘dark skin’ and he most likely came to England due to Edward Wynter’s voyage to the Caribbean with Sir Francis Drake to raid Spanish ports where Swarthye may have been recruited to fight alongside the English. During the 1600s over 300,000 Africans were transported by the Spanish to their colonies in the Caribbean to work in silver mines. English ship captains fighting the Spanish on the high seas would recruit enslaved Africans to fight the Spanish. In many cases enslaved Africans would seize the opportunity to escape their Spanish masters and board English ships, which may have been how Edward Swarthye made his way to England.

Whipping scandal

An event on the 3 December 1596 involving Swarthye when he whipped a white man on his master’s orders shocked witnesses at the time, not because he was black, but because the beaten man was of higher status. The story is perhaps a more shocking revelation to contemporary readers due to the history of slavery and the preconceived notion of white men whipping the black men in less enlightened and brutal times.

The whipping, ordered by Swarthye’s employer Edward Wynter was carried out on servant John Guy in front of twenty men. The crowd were shocked, not because of any racial element but because Guy was of high rank and standing than Swarthye. Guy had also worked as a servant for Wynter and been brought up in his household. At the time of the beating he was in charge of Wynter’s iron works and on high wages. Wynter accused Guy of running off to Ireland while he was away and leaving the ironworks unmanaged. Wynter believed this desertion deserved physical punishment. An alternative explanation for the vicious punishment could have been to do with a personal feud because Guy had married the daughter of Wynter’s enemy James Bucke. When the incident reached the Star Chamber Court, Swarthye himself gave a deposition, largely supporting his master’s actions and maintaining that the whipping had not been premeditated.

The fact that Swarthye, a black man, testified, showed that, like Jacques Francis, he was seen as a ‘free man’ in the eyes of the law. The humiliated John Guy went on to become the Mayor of Bristol and the governor of the first English colony in Newfoundland.

The blockade of Africa: The West African Squadron

Baptisms, racial integration and marriages.

During the Tudor period it was essential for Africans or other non-English residents - be they from Morocco or the south Caribbean - to become baptised to be able to fully integrate in society. At the time of Mary Fillis and her baptism in 1597 there was a general view among the English that African people in England could become Christians, even if it meant just learning the Lord’s prayer and some of the psalms. Mary’s baptism was one of sixty baptisms of ‘Blackamoors’ during that time where there existed a progressive view that Africans and other non-European races were created after the image of God and therefore able to become true Christians.

Citizens like Millicent Porter, who acted as godmother to Mary Fillis encouraged the baptism and religious education of Africans. One such benefactor was Paul Bayning, a merchant and privateering magnate. After Bayning died in 1616 he left £5 to the minister of St Olave’s, Hart Street in London for instructing his African servant ‘Anthony’ in the principles of the Christian faith and religion, to be baptised.

As baptism and instruction into the Christian faith legitimised Africans’ acceptance in Tudor society, it also led to marriages between English citizens and Africans. Records show marriages taking place between English Christians and Africans, be they between African men and English women, or African women and English men. A man called George Best wrote in 1578 ‘I have seen an Ethiopean as black as coal brought to England who taking a fair English woman to wife, begat a son in all respects as black as the father’. In 1600 in Bristol, an African woman called Joan Maria married a man called Thomas Smith whose job was manufacturing weapons.

Olaudah Equiano and the Zong Massacre

Servants vs slaves.

But not everyone respected the notion of ‘free soil’ and people being free of slavery in England during the Elizabethan age. In 1587 Portuguese merchant Hector Nunes, who had left Portugal for London to escape anti-Semitism submitted a petition to the Court of Requests over a matter relating to an ‘Ethiopean Negar’ who was working for him and had most likely come from Santo Domingo in modern day Dominican Republic where he had been enslaved by the Spanish. Having traveled to England as part of Sir Francis Drake’s fleet after fighting the Spanish he was sold illegally to Hector Nunes.

Nunes’ petition was in the form of a document complaining that the black man in his employment refused to carry for him and serve him. Nunes assumed that the law in England was the same as in his native Portugal but was to learn that the common law in England had no remedy to offer him with his situation. Such legislation meant that Nunes couldn’t force the Bman to work for him. In an earlier case of slavery being challenged by England’s ‘free soil’ principle an African man called Pero Alvarez told the king of Portugal that he had been set free in England by Henry VII. The King of Portugal accepted this explanation and Alvarez continued to live a free life in Portugal.

There were at least 350 Africans in England during the Tudor and early Stuart period (1500 – 1640) who mostly came from North and West Africa. None were regarded as being enslaved by law. Underlining an atmosphere of modest toleration of ‘foreigners’ and marriages between races in English society was possible due to the influence of biblical texts such as in the Geneva translation of the Bible where there is a reference to Moses taking an Ethiopian wife. Tragically this brief welcoming view was to change drastically in the 18th century when there developed a stark contrast in society’s attitudes towards people of colour just a century later.

In 1562 Captain John Hawkins was the first known Englishman to include enslaved Africans in his cargo. Queen Elizabeth approved of his journey, during which he captured 300 Africans. He then sailed across the North Atlantic and exchanged them for hides, ginger and sugar. This appalling chapter in England’s history, in which millions of Africans were transported to be enslaved its colonies in the name of international commerce, lasted over 200 years. This trade in human misery wasn’t abolished until 25 March, 1807 when King George III signed into law the Act for Abolition of the Slave Trade, banning trading in enslaved people in the British Empire. Enslaved people were not set free in British colonies until an act of Parliament in 1834.

For more articles about Black History, check out Sky HISTORY's Black History Month hub .

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Black Tudor History

by Heather   -  February 18, 2017

It’s Black History Month in North America, and in honor of that, I am going out of the planned narrative of war with France, and doing this episode on Black Tudors, and the experience of life for black people in Tudor England.  For those of you who prefer reading over listening, the transcript is below.

There have been black people in England since Roman times, and records show them in England throughout the middle ages. During the Age of Exploration, though, the population in London and England grew, so much so that Elizabeth I thought she might have to do something about it. She was unsuccessful, though.

Interestingly, the slave trade didn’t really take off in England until the mid 17th century, and under English law it was impossible to be a slave in Tudor England, so the experience of black Tudors is unique compared to those in Spain and Portugal during this time. In fact, the story is largely how similar to white Tudors their experience was. By that, I mean that their experience ran the spectrum from being poor servants to having important roles at court, and everything in the middle. You’d never know it based on the pop culture interpretations of Tudor England, though.

So join me in this episode to learn about several black Tudors including a black soldier who was made a knight after defeating the Scots.

If you like this show, please leave me a rating on iTunes . It’s the number one thing you can do to help new shows succeed. You can also support the show on Patreon for as little as $1/episode. And thanks!

Links and More Information

My Episode on the Agora Podcast Network Exchange: https://www.acast.com/theagorapodcastnetwork/untitletheexchange-ep.8-therenaissanceenglishhistorypodcast

Read the 1596 proclamation that England had a growing population on its own, and didn’t need “blackmoors” in the realm. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/docs/privy_council.htm

The proclamation giving Casper van Senden license to sell black servants to help defray costs associated with returning prisoners from Spain and Portugal. The masters were offered no compensation, but the Queen stated that she wanted them to be served by Christian English people. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/docs/privy_warrant.htm

The 1601 proclamation http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/docs/royal_proc.htm

History of the Slave Trade in England http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/slavery/pdf/britain-and-the-trade.pdf

BBC History Extra article on London’s first black neighborhood: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18903391

Of Ane Blak Moir – Satirical Scottish Poem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Ane_Blak-Moir

Miranda Kauffman’s essay on blacks in Tudor England http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/blacks-in-tudor-britain.html

Miranda Kauffman’s essay on Diego, on the Golden Hinde http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/bbc-history-magazine.html

TRANSCRIPT on Episode 68: Black Tudors

Hello, and welcome to the Renaissance English History Podcast, a member of the Agora Podcast Network. I’m your host, Heather Teysko, and I’m a storyteller who makes history accessible because I believe it’s a pathway to understanding who we are, our place in the universe, and being in touch with our own humanity. This is episode 68, and I am doing something that I know many of you hate when I do, and I try not to do very often – I told a lie last episode. I was planning on doing the second French Wars episode this week, but with it being Black History Month in North America, I got distracted learning about Black Tudors, and wanted to do an episode devoted to the black experience in 16th century England.

Remember you can get show notes for each episode – this week’s are quite extensive – along with the book recommendations, at Englandcast.com, where you can also sign up for the newsletter list and get extra minicasts, special book giveaways, and other fun stuff. Go to Englandcast.com to sign up.

There are a lot of misconceptions about being black in Tudor England, and I want to try to debunk those in this episode. The first main one would be that there weren’t really black Tudors. When, in fact, there were many black people in Tudor England, some of whom had quite high up positions in the government and at court. Second, you might think that if you were black in the 16th century, you were likely a slave. Also not true. There are parish records of black people being buried in parish graveyards, marrying white English women, and there was even a black knight who helped win a victory against the Scots.

So let’s talk first about the status of black people in Tudor England. The slave trade in England didn’t really take off until the mid 1640’s, so during the reigns of the Tudors, there wouldn’t have been a slave trade, or slavery as we know it. In fact, in English law, it was not possible to be a slave in England. During the 16th century, the black population was mostly free, and there were many intermarriages, as I said before.

There were black people in England from Roman times, and they certainly would have been seen from time to time throughout the middle ages. In 1205, for example, the Close Rolls of king John give a mandate to the constable of Northampton to retain Peter the Saracen, maker of crossbows, and another with him, for the king’s service, and allow him 12d a day.” But it’s really during the Elizabethan period that we saw a large rise in the black population, which eventually led to Queen Elizabeth putting out several proclamations about the number of black people in the country.

Going back to the beginning of the century, in 1501 Catherine of Aragon came to England to marry Prince Arthur. She came from Southern Spain, which had been ruled by the Moors until just recently, and even today still reflects the Moorish history. I live in Andalucia, just a few hours from where Katherine grew up at the Alhambra, and in my town there are Moorish palaces still in existence, with gorgeous tiling and gardens, as well as a medieval wall built by the Moors that has that distinctive north African Moroccan look to it.

So Catherine would have been exposed to Moors, and to Africans in general. In her retinue when she came to England there were several black people; maids, and musicians. One, John Blanke, was a famous trumpeter. Little is known about his life, other than that he was in Catherine’s retinue. But he petitioned Henry for a raise in 1507, which was successful, and he was also part of the celebrations for Henry VIII’s only son with Catherine of Aragon, Henry Duke of Cornwall, and he is portrayed in paintings from that event. The Iberian Moor Catalina de Cardones was another member of Katherine’s retinue, and served her for twenty-six years as Lady of the Bedchamber. She married someone called ‘Hace Ballestas’, a crossbowman who was also of Moorish origin. Later on, Robert Cecil would have a black servant called Fortunas.

One story I want to tell you is about the first black Tudor made a knight. Sir Pedro Negro was a Spanish mercenary soldier. In 1546, during one of Henry VIII’s wars with France, he traveled into France with other Spanish fighters under the command of Colonel Pedro de Gamba.The Spanish mercenaries won a great battle against the French, and were awarded annuities. Negro was awarded 75 pounds in August and 100 pounds in September that year. In September of 1547 he was knighted by the Duke of Somerset at Roxoborough after taking Leith castle. In 1549 the Scots were besieging Haddington Castle; this was during a period of rough relations with Scotland when Edward VI started the Rough Wooing again to get Mary Queen of Scots to marry into England. So the Scots were besieging Haddington Castle, and Negro led a charge through the Scots to reinforce Haddington with gunpowder, which allowed them to continue to defend themselves longer. Sir Pedro Negro died in 1550 of the sweating sickness, and his funeral was a huge occasion with the street hung with black, and with his arms, and all sorts of musicians and parades honoring him.

As early as 1558 there are parish records mentioning Africans being buried in full Christian sanctified land in the graveyards. They were called Blackamoors, Blacks, Moors, Negroes, and Ethiopians. And they often intermarried. One James Allen Gronnio saw an African prince, who had been enslaved at 15, served in the British army, and later settled near colchester marry an English woman. He wrote, “I have seen myself and Ethiopian black as coal taking a fair English woman as wife. They begat a son in all respects as black as the father.”

As the slave trade from Spain and Portugal grew, and English pirates like Francis Drake came into contact with them, more and more Africans would have been appearing in England. This is reflected in Shakespeare with characters like Othello, which showed that there were plenty of black people in London at the time. There was an African on board the Golden Hinde when Drake left London, and three others joined the ship during its voyage.

There actually were enough black people in England so that Elizabeth thought she had to do something about it. By this point many wealthy landowners would have had one or maybe two black servants, and they were also common servants throughout society.

In 1596 Elizabeth issued a proclamation writing to the mayors of major cities that there were, “of late, divers backmoors brought into this realm, of which kind of people there are already here too many” She ordered that “those kind of people should be sent forth of the land.” At the same time she made an arrangement for a merchant, Casper van Senden, to deport black people. It seems that the aim was to either sell them to get money to ransom, or do an even trade, with Spain to get English prisoners held by them. Problem was that Elizabeth offered no compensation to employers to part with their servants, and so most refused to let them go.

In 1601 she issued another proclamation saying she wasn’t happy with the number of blackmoors which are “crept into this realm.” She again gave Senden a license to deport them, but it doesn’t seem that it was any more successful than the first attempt. Like it or not, it seems that black people had found a home in Tudor England.

But why did Elizabeth suddenly want to deport the black people? As we’ve talked about in this podcast before, the 16th century saw the breakdown in many things that had been taken for granted in society before, such as a very clear class system based on old money and land ownership. The ruling classes became worried about poverty and vagrancy as the feudal society basically died a slow death. They of course feared disorder, societal breakdown, and basically anything else that would challenge them. So they came up with a series of poor laws to deal with their fears.

The 1590’s saw a series of bad harvests, and suddenly there was more poverty and vagrancy than ever. Elizabeth seemed to be trying to place blame on the black people for the social problems. In the 1601 proclamation she said that black people were “fostered and relieved here to the great annoyance of the Queen’s own liege people, that want of relief which those people consume.” It also said that “most of them are infidels, having no understanding of Christ or his gospel.” Of course, as I said before, this isn’t true since many parish records show Christian burials for Africans, and there is no evidence to show that they were any poorer than any other group of people in Elizabethan society. But as those of you who listened to the xenophobia episode will remember, this was a time when it didn’t take a lot to make someone feel threatened. That’s not a political commentary. It’s just what was.

I want to close with the story featured in the BBC History Extra magazine in 2012 on London’s first black neighborhood. The parish records of St. Boltolph’s outside Aldgate show 25 black people in the later part of the 16th century. They are mainly servants, but one, who was next to the bell foundry off Whitechapel road likely worked at the foundry. Some were given very high status funerals with black cloth, which showed the high rank they were given by employers, neighbors, and colleagues.

Among the names are these: Christopher Cappervert [ie from Cape Verde] – “a blacke moore” Domingo – “a black neigro servaunt unto Sir William Winter” Suzanna Peavis – “a blackamore servant to John Deppinois” Symon Valencia – “a black moore servaunt to Stephen Drifyeld a nedellmaker” Cassango – “a blackmoore servaunt to Mr Thomas Barber a marchaunt” Isabell Peeters – “a Black-more lodgeing in Blew Anchor Alley” “A negar whose name was suposed to be Frauncis. He was servant to be [sic] Peter Miller a beare brewer dwelling at the signe of the hartes horne in the libertie of EastSmithfield. Yeares xxvi [26]. He had the best cloth [and] iiii [4] bearers” Among later names, we find: Anne Vause – “a Black-more wife to Anthonie Vause, Trompetter” John Comequicke – “a Black-Moore so named, servant to Thomas Love a Captaine” And, the saddest in this list: Marie – “a Blackamoor woman that die in the street”

Sometimes the detail in the Botolph’s register is very revealing.

In 1597, for example, Mary Fillis, a black woman of 20 years who had been the servant of Widow Barker in Mark Lane for many years. She had been in England 13 or 14 years, and was the daughter of a Moorish shovel maker and basket maker. Never christened, she became the servant of Millicent Porter, a seamstress living in East Smithfield, and now “taking some howld of faith in Jesus Chryst, was desyrous to becom a Christian, Wherefore shee made sute by hir said mistres to have some conference with the Curat”.

Examined in her faith by the vicar of St Botolph’s, and “answering him verie Christian lyke”, she did her catechisms, said the Lord’s Prayer, and was baptised on Friday 3 June 1597 in front of the congregation. Among her witnesses were a group of five women, mostly wives of leading parishioners. Now a “lyvely member” of the church in Aldgate, there is no question from this description that Mary belonged to a community with friends and supporters.

But the Aldgate records also show the difficult side to the lives of black Tudors.

Some black women worked alongside their white counterparts as prostitutes, especially in Southwark, and in the brothel area of Turnmill Street in Clerkenwell. Lucy Negro, a former dancer for the Queen, ran an establishment patronised by noblemen and lawyers. Lucy was famous enough to be paid mock homage in the Inns of Court revels at Gray’s Inn. Her area of London was notorious. “Pray enquire after and secure my negress: she is certainly at The Swan, a Dane’s beershop in Turnmil Street,” wrote one Denis Edwards in 1602. Shakespeare’s acquaintance, the poet John Weaver, also sang the praises of a woman whose face was “pure black as Ebonie, jet blacke”.

So this article from History Extra shows a microcosm of what life was like for black Tudors, which is that it was pretty much the same as life for white Tudors. Some were knights, lived at court, worked for advisors, worked for the Queen, had very high status. Others were prostitutes. Some ran the brothel, showing a certain entrepreneurial spirit. The point is, that the black experience, at least in this point in English history, before the slave trade really began in earnest in England, was very similar to the white experience, and while certainly black people were seen as “other” and often scapegoated, they still had a role in Tudor society, and the pop culture that leaves them out are doing a disservice to the accurate history of the time.

The book recommendation this week is Onyeka Nubia’s Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, their Presence, Status and Origins. Remember there are show notes, everything like that, at englandcast.com. Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll be back next week with more on France, now with Henry VIII in charge. Thanks so much for listening!

[advertisement insert here: if you like this show, and you want to support me and my work, the best thing you can do (and it’s free!) is to leave  a rating or review on iTunes.  It really helps others discover the podcast. Second best is to buy Tudor-themed gifts for all your loved ones at my shop, at  TudorFair.com , like leggings with the Anne Boleyn portrait pattern on them, or boots with Elizabeth I portraits. Finally, you can also become a patron of this show for as little as $1/episode at  Patreon.com/englandcast  … And thank you!]

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Oxford Education Blog

The latest news and views on education from oxford university press., new ks3 enquiry: how can we find out about the lives of black tudors.

History teachers are all too aware of the importance of opening up the study of the past beyond the narrow tramlines that have shaped many schemes of learning over the years. Indeed, it’s clear that many history teachers have been having a good, hard look at some of the topics they teach (and the way they are taught) over the last year or so.

Some teachers have asked publishers to help support them in their efforts to diversify their curriculum. So – over the last few months, the OUP History team have put together a series of historical enquiries that we hope will shine a light on the contributions and experiences of previously underrepresented groups. Working with experts in their field, such as Dr Miranda Kaufmann , we have decided to add to the existing KS3 History course with nine exciting new lessons, spanning three enquiries. OUP is not going to wait to print new editions of the textbooks –  we have instead decided to supplement what we offer as part of our commitment to the inclusive presentation of diverse histories, and to better reflect the world around us.  Each of these enquiries will be available on Kerboodle in the form of a digital book and supplementary resources.

To give you an idea of how this might work, here’s how you can integrate one of these enquiries with the KS3 History Fourth Edition textbooks you’re already using:

• The first enquiry – now available on Kerboodle – is called ‘ How can we find out about the lives of Black Tudors?’
• This enquiry fits in with Chapter 2 (Life in Tudor times) of the Revolution, Industry and Empire: Britain 1558–1901 Fourth Edition Student Book . Chapter 2 looks at various aspects of Tudor society. The chapter itself opens with a focus on the different classes within Tudor society, as referenced by William Harrison’s well known 1597 Description of England. In 2.1A Who’s who? , students define the main groups that make up Tudor society and examine how the poor were treated. This enquiry builds on these lessons by focusing on the experience of Black people in Tudor England.
• The enquiry covers the following topics.
• The first lesson examines the presence of Africans in Britain up to the Tudor era. It details, for example, the Roman Empire’s first African Emperor, who lived in Britain for three years.
• The second lesson looks at the methods used by historians to uncover the hidden stories of Black Tudors, including a source analysis activity about a young woman named Mary Fillis.
• The third lesson investigates the life of John Blanke, a royal musician in the courts of both Henry VII and Henry VIII. Blanke is the only identifiable Black person to have been shown in sixteenth-century English art.

As well as ‘How can we find out about the lives of Black Tudors?’, there are two more coming later this year, which will focus on women in medieval society and the experience of Caribbean soldiers at the time of the First World War . Kerboodle users will get these enquiries automatically, but you can access a free sneak preview of the first enquiry here.

Like lots of the teachers I work with both in schools and in my role with PGCE students at the University of Warwick, OUP are determined to engage with, provoke and open up new ways of thinking about how we all fit into the complex jigsaw that is Britain’s past – and we hope that these enquiries are good ways to start doing this.

What do you think about the enquiry topics we’ve chosen? What other topics would you like to see developed in future? We’d love to know! Do get in touch by emailing [email protected] or message us on Twitter @OUPSecondary

Aaron Wilkes  is one of the leading history authors in school publishing as well as being a History teacher at St James Academy, Dudley. Aaron is the author of the new  KS3 History 4th Edition  series as well as part of our  Oxford AQA GCSE History  team.

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Black Tudors : the untold story

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Black Tudors: Free enquiries for KS3 History

Black tudors has become a phenomenon in the history teaching community since its publication in 2017..

We have worked closely with author Miranda Kaufmann, the University of Oxford’s Jason Todd and a team of teachers from across the UK to produce five different enquiries that incorporate Miranda’s scholarship.

Short on time in KS3? Choose one of our single-lesson enquiries. Looking for greater depth? Use one of our multi-lesson enquiries. We want every pupil to have a chance to meet this diverse and enthralling cast of characters.

• Key skill: The second order concept of significance

Resources included:

• Lesson presentations
• Lesson worksheets
• Scheme of work
• Curriculum rationale
• Key skill: Looking at interpretations
• Presentation
• Key skill: Evidential thinking
• Homework worksheets

Writing Black Tudors

Listen to Miranda Kaufman in conversation with Jason Todd, as they discuss the process of writing the book.

Further reading

Download a bibliography with suggestions for additional resources and reading.

Evidence and sources

Hear Miranda talk in more detail about the evidence and sources that she used to write Black Tudors .

The author team

Find out more about Miranda, Jason and the teachers who wrote the enquiries.

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Africans in Tudor and Stuart England by Conor Byrne

Notes and sources.

Conor Byrne, author of Katherine Howard: A New History is a British undergraduate studying History at the University of Exeter. Conor has been fascinated by the Tudors, medieval and early modern history from the age of eleven, particularly the lives of European kings and queens. His research into Katherine Howard, fifth consort of Henry VIII of England, began in 2011-12, and his first extended essay on her, related to the subject of her downfall in 1541-2, was written for an Oxford University competition. Since then Conor has embarked on a full-length study of qyeen Katharine's career, encompassing original research and drawing on extended reading into sixteenth-century gender, sexuality and honour. Some of the conclusions reached are controversial and likely to spark considerable debate, but Conor hopes for a thorough reassessment of Katherine Howard's life.

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Black Tudors: The Untold Story Hardcover – November 7, 2017

• Print length 384 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Oneworld Publications
• Publication date November 7, 2017
• Dimensions 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
• ISBN-10 9781786071842
• ISBN-13 978-1786071842
• See all details

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About the author, product details.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1786071843
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oneworld Publications (November 7, 2017)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781786071842
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1786071842
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.42 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
• #1,945 in Historical British Biographies
• #4,442 in Black & African American Biographies
• #11,162 in United States Biographies

About the author

Miranda kaufmann.

Dr. Miranda Kaufmann is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, part of the School of Advanced Study, University of London. She read History at Christ Church, Oxford, where she completed her doctoral thesis on 'Africans in Britain, 1500-1640' in 2011. As a freelance historian and journalist, she has worked for The Sunday Times, the BBC, the National Trust, English Heritage, the Oxford Companion series, Quercus publishing and the Rugby Football Foundation. She is a popular speaker at conferences, seminars and schools from Hull to Jamaica and has published articles in academic journals and elsewhere (including the Times Literary Supplement, The Times, The Guardian, History Today, BBC History Magazine and Periscope Post). She enjoys engaging in debate at the intersection of past and present and has been interviewed by the BBC, Sky News, Al Jazeera USA and the Observer.

Contact her at @MirandaKaufmann or via www.mirandakaufmann.com

Recent projects include establishing the "What's Happening in Black British History?" series of workshops at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies with Michael Ohajuru, the Influential Black Londoners exhibition at the National Trust's Sutton House in Hackney, and an entry for John Blanke (fl.1507-1512) in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Her first book, Black Tudors: The Untold Story, will be published by Oneworld on 5th October 2017 (UK) and 14th November 2017 (USA).

Miranda discovered rugby at Oxford, where she became college captain at Christ Church and eventually got two winning Blues, beating Cambridge 20-0 and 35-7 in 2005 and 2006. She enjoys travelling (highlights include bar-tending in Sydney during the 2000 Olympics, teaching English in Ecuador, and retracing Francis Drake’s steps in Colombia), dancing, cinema, theatre, art, and baking white-chocolate-chip chocolate Brownies.

For articles, blogs, videos, podcasts and more visit: www.mirandakaufmann.com

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Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, their presence, status and origins

Nubia, Onyeka (2016) Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, their presence, status and origins. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

The book Blackamoores Africans in Tudor England: Their Presence Status and Origins is now the leading book on this subject. It kick-started a campaign to include Black Tudors in the curriculum and has now gained over five thousand signatures. This book in conjunction with the Blackamoores International Book Tour helped Narrative Eye win the Haringey Diversity Award for 2014. This book is now used as a teaching and reference tool worldwide in a range of Universities and teaching institutions and its finding have been referenced by historians and other academics internationally.

The article contained in this document supports the findings of this book and is about whether Englishmen believed that Africans in Tudor England were cursed black as a result of the Curse of Ham.

Blackamoores contains original research conducted over twenty-three years. Some of that period was spent doing research at Middlesex University. This book is revised and different from that initial research as this was mostly concerned with an African presence in Tudor England. Blackamoores is about the status and origins of Africans in Tudor England and for the first time draws on evidence from an African presence in Stuart England. This evidence has not been made available to the public before and it is the first time that it has been used to examine the status and origins of Africans in Tudor England.

I have found Africans in cities and towns such a Hertford, London, Plymouth, Bristol and Northampton, Norwich. I have proved in this book that Africans did not automatically occupy the lowest positions in Tudor society. This book shows that Africans in Tudor England were not all slaves, or transient immigrants who were considered as dangerous strangers and the epitome of otherness. Blackamoores also reveals that some Africans in England had important occupations in Tudor society, and were employed by powerful people because of the skills they possessed. These people inherited some of their skills from the multicultural societies that they came from. I show that some Africans in England were born in other countries. This is the first time that this kind of tracing has been done in a systematic and detailed way on this population. I also prove that Africans were not all foreign and that most were integrated members of their local parishes.

The arguments in the book Blackamoores and this article are supported by evidence from a variety of sources both manuscript and printed, most of which has never been seen before whilst other evidence is discussed within a new context.

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Black tudors: three untold stories.

Dr Miranda Kaufmann

• Extra Reading

PART OF OUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIES

Dr Kaufmann tells the intriguing tales of three Africans living in Tudor England – Jacques Francis, a diver employed by Henry VIII to recover guns from the wreck of the Mary Rose; Mary Fillis, a Moroccan woman baptized in Elizabethan London; and Edward Swarthye, a porter who whipped a fellow servant at their master's Gloucestershire manor house. 

Their stories illuminate key issues: – how did they come to England? What were their lives like? How were they treated by the church and the law? Most importantly: were they free?

Download Transcript

This event was on thu, 17 oct 2019.

Miranda is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, part of the School of Advanced Study at the University of London. She is also an Honorary Fellow of the University of Liverpool and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

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The Tudors Homework

Subject: History

Age range: 11-14

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

29 February 2024

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The Tudors Homework - A carefully curated dual coding booklet and matching homework activity / activity booklet for students to complete.

How to use a dual coding booklet for revising a history topic STEP 1: Study the pages for 4-5 minutes. STEP 2: Read the content which is linked to the symbols. STEP 3; Cover up the written content and just look at the symbols. STEP 4 Recall as much information as possible (Can be done in Verbal or written format)

✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ Here are some of our other best selling History resources: The Black Death Weimar and Nazi Germany Exploring Tudor England GCSE History - Medicine Through Time The Great War Escape room Elizabethan England Vikings Task Cards World War Two - End of Unit Escape Room

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