2.2 Africans in Tudor England c1500-1603

Question 1

Who came and why?

Answer 1

• In the sixteenth century, trade and exploration brought England into ever-closer contact with the wider world
• Africans came from Western Europe, North and West Africa and the Ottoman Empire
• Some may have been Muslims. Several were born in England

Question 2

What was their impact?

Answer 2

• The small amount of research carried out so far suggests that there were not many of them
• As their story has been hidden or ignored for hundreds of years, we are only just beginning to understand the roles Africans played in sixteenth century England
• As we discover the lives of these people, who appear to have lived normally and to have been accepted in society, our understanding of the diversity of the British people is starting to change

Question 3

What were their experiences?

Answer 3

• Most were servants but some followed trades
• Although Europeans were beginning to enslave people on the African continent, Black people in Tudor England were free
• It is hard to be sure how they were regarded as we do not have their own accounts of their lives

Question 4

How did Britain’s relationship with the wider world affect African immigration?

Answer 4

• Some Africans came to England with the Spanish princess, later queen of England, Catherine of Aragon, while others may have come later as refugees from Spain
• Meanwhile, England’s economy was growing thanks to trade, some of which was with North Africa
• This may have been the origin of some of England’s Africans
• Some West Africans learnt English and acted as interpreters for English traders and pirates

Question 5

Explain why Africans may have come to settle in Tudor England

Answer 5

One reason why Africans may have come to settle in Tudor England was because many fled from Spain after the re-conquest of 1492. Many Muslims fled to North Africa and high-ranking moorish families were forced to work by their new masters in Spain. The Catholic armies of Spain were enemies of Protestant England and many moors fled as refugees.

A further reason why Africans may have come to settle in Tudor England was because Queen Elizabeth I had good relations with other Muslim rulers, including the Ottoman sultan and the Mughal emperor. Some of the Africans in England may have come from Morocco. There were regular visitors, particularly ambassadors and merchants, between England and the Islamic world

Question 6

What evidence do we have that Black people were accepted in England during the Tudor age?

Answer 6

• Court records show that Black people had the right to a voice and equal respect under the law
• Poets of the time wrote about the beauty of African women
• They were accepted into society, into which they were baptised, married and buried