A number of people of African origin were recorded as servants at the Royal Court of Scotland during the 16th-century, forming a notable African presence at the Scottish royal court. The accounts include gifts of clothing. [1] The American scholar Kim F. Hall has characterised these people as "dehumanised alien curiosities", [2] and their histories, roles at court, and their relationships with communities, are the subject of continuing research and debate. [3]
In the original records written in the Scots language, the word "More" or "Moir" refers to people of African origin. [4] [5] An early reference to people of African origin at the Scottish court relates to a group of young women or children in November 1504, recorded as the "More lasses". They were accompanied by a Portuguese man, and a woman was rewarded for bringing them from Dunfermline Palace to Edinburgh. [6] One record, written in Latin, calls this group "four persons of Ethiopia". [7]
Subsequent accounts of the Scottish treasurer, from 1511 onwards, mention Ellen More and Margaret More, as servants of Margaret Tudor. [8] Ellen More was given clothes and gifts on New Year's Day like other courtiers. [9] Ellen More has been identified with the part of the "Black Lady" in the tournaments of James IV of Scotland, [10] and as the subject of a racist poem by William Dunbar, Of Ane Blak-Moir , who had arrived in Scotland on the "latest ships". [11] [12] Her story was the basis of a character in a 2022 stage play, James IV - Queen of the Fight, by Rona Munro. [13]
Other servants of African origin who received payments from James IV include; the musician and drummer known as the "More taubronar", whose name has not been discovered; Peter the Moor; and a group known as the "Moor friars". [14]
The Rough Wooing, a war between England and Scotland, brought the soldier Pedro de Negro and a cavalryman known as the "Spanish moor" to Scotland. [15] Mariotta Haliburton, a Scottish aristocrat, wrote that the "Spanish moor" was "as sharp a man as rides". [16]
Other people identified as "Moors" are noted in a record known as the "Bread Book" of Mary of Guise. [17] Nageir the Moor received payments from Regent Moray. [18] Anne of Denmark, queen consort of James VI and I, had servants of African origin, and, during her time in Scotland, people of African origin performed in court drama, including her Royal Entry to Edinburgh and the masque at the baptism of Prince Henry. [19]
In 1603, at the Union of the Crowns, James and Anne of Denmark moved to London, and the culture of the Scottish court merged with Tudor traditions. [20] The scholar Sujata Iyengar sees The Masque of Blackness performed at Whitehall Palace, as an example of Anne of Denmark's continued use of Scottish theatrical themes in England. [21]
James IV was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauchieburn, following a rebellion in which the younger James was the figurehead of the rebels. James IV is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs. He was responsible for a major expansion of the Scottish royal navy, which included the founding of two royal dockyards and the acquisition or construction of 38 ships, including the Michael, the largest warship of its time.
The Masque of Blackness was an early Jacobean era masque, first performed at the Stuart Court in the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1605. It was written by Ben Jonson at the request of Anne of Denmark, the queen consort of King James I, who wished the masquers to be disguised as Africans. Anne was one of the performers in the masque along with her court ladies, all of whom appeared in blackface makeup. In a ceremony earlier on the day, Prince Charles, Anne's second son was given the title of Duke of York.
Mariotta or Maryon or Marion Haliburton, Lady Home was a 16th-century Scottish noblewoman. She varied the spelling of her forename between Mariotta, Marion, and Mary. She is remembered for her defence and negotiation of the surrender of Hume Castle after the Battle of Pinkie when the castle was surrounded by an English army. Afterwards she continued to struggle for the rights of her people at the village of Hume in the Scottish Borders, writing both to the English commander and the Scottish leader.
"Of Ane Blak-Moir" is a short poem in Scots by William Dunbar.
John Blanke was a musician of African descent in London from the early Tudor period, who probably came to England as one of the African attendants of Catherine of Aragon in 1501. He is one of the earliest recorded black people in what is now the United Kingdom after the Roman period. His name may refer to his skin colour, derived either from the word "black" or possibly from the French word "blanc", meaning white.
Court music in Scotland is all music associated with the Royal Court of Scotland, between its origins in the tenth century, until its effective dissolution in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the Union of Crowns 1603 and Acts of Union 1707.
Casper Van Senden was a German merchant who was active in Tudor-era England during the 16th century. Born in the German city of Lübeck, he eventually moved to the English capital of London, a major port at the time. Working as a merchant in Hanseatic League, he rose to prominence in 1596 by ensuring the safe return of 89 English subjects who were detained in the Iberian Union. This brought Van Senden to the attention of Queen Elizabeth I, as he entered her court to seek compensation.
The masque at the baptism of Prince Henry was a celebration at the christening of Prince Henry at Stirling Castle, written by the Scottish poet William Fowler and Patrick Leslie, 1st Lord Lindores.
Ellen or Elen More was an African servant at the Scottish royal court. She probably arrived in Scotland in the company of a Portuguese man with imported animals. There are records of clothing and gifts given to her, although her roles and status are unclear. Some recent scholarship suggests she was enslaved, and her arrival in Scotland can be linked indirectly with the slave trade. She is associated with a racist poem by William Dunbar, and may have performed in Edinburgh as the "Black Lady" at royal tournaments in 1507 and 1508.
On 17 May 1590, Anne of Denmark was crowned Queen of Scotland. There was also a ceremony of joyous entry into Edinburgh on 19 May, an opportunity for spectacle and theatre and allegorical tableaux promoting civic and national identities, similar in many respects to those performed in many other European towns. Celebrations for the arrival of Anne of Denmark in Scotland had been planned and prepared for September 1589, when it was expected she would sail from Denmark with the admirals Peder Munk and Henrik Gyldenstierne. She was delayed by accidents and poor weather and James VI of Scotland joined her in Norway in November. They returned to Scotland in May 1590.
Henry or Henrie Anthonie Jetto was a black English yeoman, the earliest-known black person with an extant will in England and the earliest to have resided in Worcestershire.
The jewels of Anne of Denmark (1574–1619), wife of James VI and I and queen consort of Scotland and England, are known from accounts and inventories, and their depiction in portraits by artists including Paul van Somer. A few pieces survive. Some modern historians prefer the name "Anna" to "Anne", following the spelling of numerous examples of her signature.
Sir Pedro de Negro or Sir Pedro Negro was a Spanish soldier who fought for Henry VIII of England and Edward VI of England in France and Scotland.
Eleanor or Alianor Verney was an English courtier who travelled to Scotland with Margaret Tudor in 1503.
The Masque of Indian and China Knights was performed at Hampton Court in Richmond, England on 1 January 1604. The masque was not published, and no text survives. It was described in a letter written by Dudley Carleton. The historian Leeds Barroll prefers the title, Masque of the Orient Knights.
The wedding of Elizabeth Stuart (1596–1662), daughter of James VI and I, and Frederick V of the Palatinate (1596–1632) was celebrated in London in February 1613. There were fireworks, masques, tournaments, and a mock-sea battle or naumachia. Preparations involved the construction of a "Marriage room", a hall adjacent to the 1607 Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace. The events were described in various contemporary pamphlets and letters.
Running at the ring, riding at the ring or tilting at the ring is an equestrian tournament activity originally practiced at European royal courts and likely derived from other lance games like quintain. It gained new popularity at Natural Chimneys near Mount Solon, Virginia, possibly as early as the 1820s, and since 1962, has been the state sport of Maryland. A similar contest, the corrida de sortija, is held in Argentina where it is considered a gaucho sport derived from the Spanish tradition of medieval tournaments.
Anne of Denmark (1574–1619) was the wife of James VI and I, King of Scotland, and King of England after the Union of Crowns. In 1617, she was depicted in a painting by Paul van Somer with an African servant holding her horse at Oatlands Palace. There are archival records of Africans or people of African descent, often called "Moors" or "Moirs", in her service. One of the first publications to mention Anne of Denmark's "Moir" servant in Scotland was edited by James Thomson Gibson-Craig in 1828.
The More Taubronar was a musician of African origin at the court of James IV of Scotland and his wife Margaret Tudor. His name is unknown. A "taubron" was a kind of drum, the word is related to the modern form "tabor". The word "More" or "Moryen" was used for people of African origin at the Scottish court. Archival records credit the More Taubronar as the producer of a costumed dance or masque performed at the Scottish royal court in 1505.
Nageir the Moor was a servant of African origin at the Scottish royal court.