Themost famous Black African in Tudor England is John Blanke, a musician in the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII. The discovery of Blanke, originally by Professor Sydney Anglo, was made famous by Dr. Miranda Kaufmann’s 2017 book Black Tudors, The Untold Story.  A year earlier Michael Ohajuru started the John Blanke Project, an art and archive venture inviting historians and artists to respond to this evidence of the first person of African descent in British history for whom we have both an image and a record.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to them both about the evidence for Africans in early modern Britain, whether John Blanke was exceptional, what new things we're learning about him, and why it's important to tell stories like his.

This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here: https://access.historyhit.com/checkout/subscribe/receipt?code=tudors&plan=monthly

You can take part in our listener survey here >