When we imagine people living and working in sixteenth century London, or actors performing in a play at the original Globe theatre, what do we see, in our mind’s eye? If the casting of many period dramas is to be believed, we’d probably conjure up a scene full of pale-skinned men and women - men in pointy beards, high-collared ruffs and tights - and blonde-haired, blue-eyed ladies floating about demurely in billowing dresses that bob as they walk. 

But this couldn’t be further from the truth. The England of Elizabeth, Drake and Shakespeare was in fact much more diverse. 

There was Diego, the African circumnavigator and translator who worked with Francis Drake from 1572. Edward Swarthye, a porter in Sir Edward Wynter’s household in the 1580s-90s. Reasonable Blackman, a skilled and well-respected silk weaver in 1580s London. All these characters are brought vividly to life in the brilliant and eye-opening book Black Tudors, by Miranda Kaufmann. (1)

And there are many more.

We have African Elizabethans working in the households of captains, needlemakers, seamstresses, beer brewers, and merchants. (2 They lived in the royal palaces, too. In 1577 Elizabeth I ordered a white coat trimmed with gold and silver to be made for her ‘lytle Blackamore’.(3)

The evidence is clear. Elizabethan towns such as London, Bristol, Plymouth and Southampton - and many others - were thriving, bustling communities made up of people with different skin tones. If you could go back in time and walk through their hectic, vibrant streets, you’d hear a busy chatter of diverse languages and accents, too. This is the sixteenth century England we don’t often see in our documentaries, dramas and in our history books. 

Black Tudors gives examples of African Tudors giving evidence in court, marrying, starting families, and being given thoughtful and respectful burials by their communities. (1) Seamstress Millicent Porter attended her servant Mary Fillis’ baptism in 1597 and in the same year the London doctor Simon Forman noted in his diary that the 12-year old ‘Polonia the blackmor maid’ was brought to him by her mistress for medical care. (4) As pointed out by Kaufmann and also writer Gustav Ungerer, treatments such as these suggest that Elizabethans demonstrated a duty of care for their servants, and real genuine concern and kinship. This is perhaps not surprising, as Tudor servants were considered part of the family. They lived, worked and slept in the household, often sharing beds. Servants were also often bequeathed money and belongings in Tudor wills.

Literature also pieces together more of the puzzle. From Shakespeare’s Dark Lady who ‘beauty herself is black’ to the silent and ceremonial ‘Bassoes and contributorie Kinges’ who draw Bajezeth in his chariot in Marlow’s Tamburlaine of 1587, the depiction of Africans in Elizabethan literature is varied. (5) In some of these roles, the characters silently and solemnly draw chariots, play music or accompany royalty. In others, like Othello, they are vulnerable, troubled and fully rounded out roles that hold and captivate the audience. Under Elizabeth, the representation of Africans on the theatrical stage increased quickly. In 1507 we see John Blanke, the trumpeter at Henry VII’s court. (1) Eighty years later, the first African character appears on Marlowe’s theatrical stage. Four years after that, audiences would have heard the first African character speak, in George Peele’s Battle of Alcazar in 1591.(6) Other roles would come in the closing years of Elizabeth’s reign, in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice (1590s), and Othello (1603).

But who played them? 

Matthieu Chapman writes that, “between 1587 and 1660, more than 100 black characters appear in English dramatic texts,” and makes a convincing argument that theatre companies may have employed African actors to play them. He points out that although we know that white actors used make up to portray these characters, make up was expensive and difficult to remove quickly. This meant that actors would not have been able to easily play different parts on stage. He suggests that the non-speaking, more ceremonious roles could also have been performed by actors with little knowledge of the English language.(6)

So, Elizabethan England. 

On closer look at the historical record, it’s certain that African Elizabethans lived in England in many various roles as workers, business owners, international interpreters, and skilled tradespeople in their own right. Their social, religious and medical needs were met by their communities and servants may have picked up skills relating to the trade of their employers.

In culture, African Elizabethans weren’t portrayed as one-dimensional characters that fulfilled some sort of political motive - but brave, strong, vulnerable, intelligent, alluring and thoughtful. And it’s highly likely that African actors took to the stage in Shakespeare’s own lifetime.

It’s time we reset the scene, and saw Elizabethan England as the historical record shows it: bustling mixed communities, working, living and performing together. These are people with their own stories to tell, and it’s about time these stories were told.

Notes and Sources

 (1)   Black Tudors book and http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/10-black-tudors.html

(2)   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18903391

(3)   ‘Courts, Blacks at Early Modern European Aristocratic’, Encyclopedia of Blacks in European History and Culture (2008), Vol.1, pp 163-166. 

(4)   Ungerer, Gustav. "The Presence of Africans in Elizabethan England and the Performance of "Titus Andronicus" at Burley-on-the-Hill, 1595/96." Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England 21 (2008): 19-55. Accessed October 3, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24322681. p23-24.

(5) Shakespeare, Sonnet 132 and Marlowe, Tamburlaine, Part 1. Act 3 Scene 3. 

(6) Chapman, Matthieu A. The Appearance of Blacks on the Early Modern Stage Love’s Labour’s Lost, African Connections to Court. 2014. Early Theatre, 17-2 (2014). p77-94. 

Credit; https://lovebritishhistory.blogspot.com