Black Tudors

BLACK FACES OF
TUDOR ENGLAND
From the court musician who persuaded Henry VIII to
give him a handsome pay rise, to the family man who
profited from high society’s passion for silk stockings,
Miranda Kaufmann profiles six Africans who called
England home in the 16th century
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ROSE WILKINSON

BBC History Magazine 41

Black Tudors

Henry VIII’s The landowner’s

“black trumpet” enforcer
The Tudor king lavished gifts on his
long-serving musician, John Blanke Edward Swarthye’s role in a vicious
family feud landed him in court

COLLEGE OF ARMS MS WESTMINSTER TOURNAMENT ROLL. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF THE KINGS, HERALDS AND PURSUIVANTS OF ARMS
The popular perception that Henry VIII and his first queen,
people of African origin first Catherine of Aragon. In 1596, a black man called Edward Swarthye whipped
arrived in England aboard the Blanke also performed at John Guye, the future first governor of Newfoundland.
Empire Windrush in 1948 is Henry VII’s funeral and They were both servants in the Gloucestershire
misplaced – by at least 400 years. Henry VIII’s coronation (both household of Sir Edward Wynter: Guye managed the
Scores of black men and women 1509), plying his trade at the iron works, while Swarthye was the porter. This was
set up home in England as early English court from at least 1507. considered shocking and “unchristian like” at the time,
as the 16th century – many Blanke may have sailed to but not for the same reasons we might assume today. It
arriving from Iberia, as the England with the Spanish was the fact that such a high-status, educated servant as
Spanish and Portuguese laid princess Catherine of Aragon in John Guye had been publicly humiliated that upset the
claim to swathes of Africa. 1501, when she came over to onlookers, not the colour of Swarthye’s skin.
marry Henry VIII’s older brother, Swarthye had likely been brought to England by
Prince Arthur. While many of Wynter after he captained the Aid on Francis Drake’s
the Africans in Spain were Caribbean raid of 1585–86, one of many Africans who
enslaved, Blanke – like all fled their Spanish enslavers to join the English.
Africans in England – was a free The whipping was just one incident in an ongoing
man. He received 8d a day from family feud between the Wynters and their neighbours,
Henry VII (twice the figure most the Buckes. (Guye had recently married James Bucke’s
servants would expect to earn), daughter Anne, thus dividing his loyalties). Bucke
before successfully petitioning accused Wynter of a raft of crimes, from enclosing the
Henry VIII for a pay rise, common land to having had him assaulted. Edward
doubling his wages to 16d. Swarthye appeared as a witness in the ensuing court
Another indicator of Blanke’s case of 1597, his testimony confirming that he, a black
free status is the fact that he Tudor, had whipped a white man before a crowd
married in January 1512. assembled in the Great Hall at the Wynter’s home,
Henry VIII showed his esteem for White Cross Manor.
Africans could be found in the his “black trumpet” by giving The fact that Swarthye was allowed to testify in court
houses of prominent Tudors, him a generous wedding present: demonstrates that he was viewed as a free man in the
such as Robert Dudley and a gown of violet cloth, a bonnet eyes of the law. Enslaved people have been prevented
Francis Drake, and in the royal and a hat. from giving evidence throughout history: the Romans
court. Unfortunately, we have a The warrant describing the would only accept such testimony if it had been
portrait of just one. His name king’s gift is the last mention of obtained using torture, while in 1732 the state of
was John Blanke, and he can be Blanke in the records. Perhaps he Virginia declared that black men and women were
seen (above) in the Westminster died in the fire that struck the “people of such base and corrupt natures that their
Roll of 1511, sounding his Palace of Westminster in 1512, or testimony cannot be certainly depended on”. By
trumpet at the festivities marking at one of the two battles fought contrast, Swarthye’s testimony was taken by the Court
the birth of a short-lived son to that year: at Spurs and Flodden. of Star Chamber without demur.
42 BBC History Magazine
The prosperous
silk weaver
Reasonable Blackman made a good
living from a booming new industry
Reasonable Blackman was a silk prices). The silk industry was new
weaver based, by the end of the to England and its products were
1570s, in Elizabethan Southwark. the height of fashion. Once
He had probably arrived in Queen Elizabeth I received her
London from Antwerp in the first pair of silk stockings in 1561,
Netherlands, which had a sizeable she concluded: “I like silk
African population and was a stockings well; they are pleasant,
known centre for cloth manufac- fine and delicate. Henceforth I
ture. Around 50,000 refugees fled shall wear no more cloth
to England from the southern stockings.” The queen’s courtiers
Netherlands between 1550 and followed suit, and such was the
1585, as war raged between Dutch demand that imports of raw silk
rebels and Spanish forces increased five-fold between 1560
occupying their country.
Blackman had a family of at
and 1593.
Tragedy struck the Blackman A servant who
switched faiths
least three children, named family in October 1592 when his
Edward, Edmund and Jane, and daughter, Jane, and one of his
as none of them were recorded as sons, Edmund, died of the plague
bastards in the parish register, we
can assume he was married to
that struck London that year.
Nothing more is known
Mary Fillis was one of at least
their mother, about whom we of Blackman after the death of 60 Africans who were baptised
sadly know nothing. As with John his children, but there is a in Tudor England
Blanke’s wife, however, she was tantalising record that suggests
probably an Englishwoman. his son Edward carried on his
That Blackman was able to father’s trade. On 6 March Mary Fillis was born in 1577, the daughter of Fillis of
support a family is a sign of his 1614, when Edward Blackman Morisco, a Moroccan basket weaver and shovel maker.
prosperity as a silk weaver (in would have been 27, a certain She arrived in London in c1583–84, working for John
fact, he may have named himself “Edward Blakemore of Mile Barker, a merchant and sometime factor for the Earl of
Reasonable in order to draw End, silkweaver” was married Leicester. She was not the only African servant in the
attention to his ‘reasonable’ in Stepney. Barker household; Leying Mouea, “a blackamoor of
20 years”, and “George a blackamoor” were also
working there by the early 1590s.
By the time of her baptism in June 1597, Mary Fillis
had moved to the household of a seamstress from East
Smithfield named Millicent Porter. The parish clerk of
St Botolph’s Aldgate reported that “now taking some
hold of faith in Jesus Christ [Fillis] was desirous to
become a Christian”. Millicent Porter encouraged her
faith and spoke to the curate on her behalf. Fillis’s
conversion was not unusual – hers is one of more than
60 known baptism records of Africans from this
period. Although she was likely born into a Muslim
family in Morocco, Fillis was so young when she came
to England that she may not have retained much of
that faith. In London, baptism was mandatory if she
wanted to fully participate in the highly religious
post-Reformation Tudor society.
Fillis’s mistress, Millicent Porter, died on 28 June
1599 but we do not know what became of Fillis herself.
She was, however, present in London during a period
that saw a succession of ambassadors arriving in
England from her native land in order to negotiate
alliances against the common enemy: Spain.

BBC History Magazine 43

Black Tudors

The soft-skinned
prostitute
Men were willing to pay four times the
going rate “to lie” with Anne Cobbie
Anne Cobbie was a prostitute who worked in the bawdy
house of Mr John and Mrs Jane Bankes in the parish of
St Clement Danes, Westminster in the 1620s (when
England’s Tudor dynasty had been replaced by the
Stuarts). It was said that men would rather give her a
“piece” – a gold coin worth 22 shillings – “to lie with her”
than another woman five shillings “because of her soft
skin”. Mary Hall, another prostitute from the Bankes’
establishment, described Anne as a “tawny moore”. This
suggests she had relatively light skin, and so perhaps was
from one of the ‘Barbary States’ of north Africa, or even, A single woman
in rural England
given her English surname, the mixed-race child of a black
Tudor and an Englishman or woman.
Cobbie’s activities were illicit, since Henry VIII had
closed down the last legal brothels in 1546, and she duly Cattelena of Almondsbury sold butter and
found herself in Westminster Sessions Court – one of 10
women cited when the Bankes were charged in 1626 with milk from her most prized possession, a cow
“keeping a common brothel house”. The action was
brought by one Clement Edwards, a former rector of Cattelena was an independent, butter but allowed her to profit
Witherley in Leicestershire, whose wife had left him to unmarried, “singlewoman” who from selling these products to her
work in the Bankes’ establishment. Although the Bankes lived in the small Gloucestershire neighbours. No furniture is
were briefly incarcerated in the Gatehouse Prison, close to village of Almondsbury, not far listed, which suggests she may
Westminster Abbey, Anne Cobbie evaded punishment from Bristol, until her death in have shared her home, perhaps
(which could include carting, flogging, a fine, banishment 1625. Her Hispanic-sounding with Helen Ford, the widow who
from the city or imprisonment in Bridewell prison, where name suggests that, like many administered her estate.
inmates were forced to beat hemp and spin flax). others, she had arrived in Cattelena’s possessions, – from
Cobbie’s story is unusual, in that there is actually more England via the Spanish or her cooking utensils to her table
evidence of African men visiting English prostitutes than Portuguese-speaking worlds. She cloth – each tell us something
vice versa at this time. In December 1577, “Jane may have originally come to of her life. But the fact that she
Thompson a harlot’” was whipped because “she had Almondsbury via Bristol or as a had them at all tells us even
consented to commit whoredom with one Anthony a servant to one of the local gentry more. Africans in England were
blackamore”, and they were caught in bed together “the families, such as the Chester not owned, but themselves
door locked to them”. family of nearby Knole Park. possessed property.
Cattelena was one of a number
of Africans living in rural Miranda Kaufmann is a senior
England. Parish registers record research fellow at the Institute of
the baptisms and burials of Commonwealth Studies, and author
Africans, or the children of of Black Tudors: The Untold Story
Africans, in villages in Cornwall, (Oneworld Publications, 2017)
Cambridgeshire, Devon,
Dorset, Gloucestershire, Kent,
Northamptonshire, Somerset, DISCOVER MORE
Suffolk and Wiltshire. The EVENT
earliest of these is the burial of E Miranda Kaufmann is discuss-
“Thomas Bull, niger” in Eydon, ing black Tudors at BBC History
Northamptonshire in 1545. Magazine’s History Weekend in
An inventory survives of the York. historyweekend.com
goods Cattelena owned. These
included bedding, pots and pans, ON THE PODCAST
a pewter candlestick, a tin bottle, Miranda Kaufmann discusses
a dozen spoons, clothing and a Africans’ role in Tudor voyages
coffer. Her most valuable of discovery on our podcast
possession was a cow, which not E historyextra.com/podcast/
only supplied her with milk and african-history-special

44 BBC History Magazine