Black Tudors: Three Untold Stories

Dr Kaufmann tells the intriguing tales of three Africans living in Tudor England: a diver, a Moroccan woman and a porter. A lecture by Dr Miranda Kaufmann, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London 17 October 2019 6PM BST Dr Kaufmann tells the intriguing tales of three Africans living in Tudor England – Jacques Francis, a diver employed by Henry VIII to recover guns from the wreck of the Mary Rose; Mary Fillis, a Moroccan woman baptized in Elizabethan London; and Edward Swarthye, a porter who whipped a fellow servant at their master’s Gloucestershire manor house. Their stories illuminate key issues: – how did they come to England? What were their lives like? How were they treated by the church and the law? Most importantly: were they free?