Africans In Shakespeare’s England

Question 1

What is Miranda Kaufmann’s argument?

Answer 1

• africans at the courts of Henry VII, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, as well as in the household of William Cecil
• Portuguese were the first to visit Africa and brought back enslaved Africans in 1444, developing a black population across southern Europe

Question 2

What is Onyeka’s argument?

Answer 2

• enough black people in England for Elizabeth to have signed a letter that included the phrase ‘great numbers’
• Africans were baptised, buried and recorded in parish reciords from London and Bristol
• Catalina de Cardones, arrived in England in 1501 with Catherine of Aragon, served as her mistress for 26 years

Question 3

Nationalism and Localism

Answer 3

• England was a minor player on the global stage
• had just come out of a long period of civil war (war of the roses)
• due to Henry VII usurping Richard III, there was a fear of people from the continent crossing into Europe

Question 4

Peter Fryer’s argument

Answer 4

Claimed Africans in Tudor England were ‘strolling players, isolated, strange, and transient’. (1984)

Question 4

Kim Hall’s argument

Answer 4

Africans in Tudor England were ‘too accidental and solitary to be given a historical statistic’. (1996)

Question 5

The ‘Moors’ of Europe

Answer 5

• independent kingdoms of black people formed in modern day Portugal and Spain
• some people of African descent married into honourable European bloodlines like the Hapsburgs

Question 6

How did the Aragon coat of arms display the presence of black people in Europe?

Answer 6

Ferdinand of Aragon and isabella of Castile included black people on it

Question 7

Spanish Inquisition

Answer 7

• many paintings depict black people as integral to society
• performed in the Nuremberg festival to celebrate the Holy Roman Empire
• John Blanke, the ‘black trumpeter’

Question 8

18th July 1596 Letter

Answer 8

• attempted to give Casper van Senden authority to deport the Africans
• warrant to mayor of London, again signed by Elizabeth
• proposes Africa’s should be given to senden so he can be compensated for the release of 89 English prisoners

Question 9

11th July 1596 Letter

Answer 9

• depicted Africans as only recently arriving, but claimed there were too many
• signed by Elizabeth but was unlikely to be her hand, more likely a member of the privy council
• Onyeka argues that the writer is only interested in the group of 10 who arrived with thomas Baskerville

Question 10

The Procclomation of 1601

Answer 10

• unsigned and uniform document that described great numbers of Africans from the queens hand
• queen requests anyone who is with a black person brings them forward