What was like to be a black knight in 15th century England, /his? Did they face a lot of discrimination?

What was like to be a black knight in 15th century England, /his? Did they face a lot of discrimination?

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Blanke
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REEEEEEEEEE

Quite the contrary, he was given special permission to pleasure the queen while the king looked on appreciatively

Look at how Richard III's knights lacked diversity in comparison to Henry. No wonder why he lost!

Feared, bigly.

Sage

I'm sure there had to be at least a handful of Moors and African merchants in England by the 15th century, but how does one break into knighthood, considering it's a hereditary system? Are you sure this isn't some Man-at-arms in the entourage of a real night?

To answer the question, I imagine the most common affront would be his comrades questioning his Christian faith. His foreignness may be cause for teasing and derision, but no more so than the ribbing a fellow soldier from London would give to his buddy from Cornwall.

A knight with no limbs would probably have a rough time getting around, I'd say that.

The question is how did they arrive there so far from Africa. One explanation might be that they or their fathers were brought to Iberia by the moors as slave soldiers where they were captured during the reconquista, converted to christianity then fought as mercenaries before some of them were noticed and hand picked for Richard or Richmond's personal retinue.

Bodyguards from distant foreign lands were sometimes preferred as they lacked any connection or loyalty to enemies close by. An example being the Varangian guard who went from Scandinavia and England to Constantinople.

Look at his armor, dude is a fully plated knight. Not an ordinary footsoldier either.

It's just a flesh wound.

That took me far too long.
>Huh? Why a weird reference to the bla- oh, you cheeky cunt.

I move....for no man

He is certainly of some elevated status, but a knight's retinue commonly armed themselves and fought as their master did. On the battlefield, there was little to visually distinguish between a knight and an unknighted heavy cavalryman. Knighthood was in the title, not the equipment.

>this
>black celts
>black Normans
>black iron age Britons
>lefties on here will continue making up half assed excuses

What is the final solution to the cuckold question?

>His foreignness may be cause for teasing and derision, but no more so than the ribbing a fellow soldier from London would give to his buddy from Cornwall
Lmao you really believe this?

Class was far more important than race back then.

You people are sperging out over Shakespeare.

The exact same show/play also portrays Richard personally dueling and killing another lord at the battle of Towton, when Richard was actually 9 years old.

>but how does one break into knighthood, considering it's a hereditary system? Are you sure this isn't some Man-at-arms in the entourage of a real night?

Do you unironically believe the BBC gives a shit about historical accuracy and gave it that much thought?
Pro top: They didnt
They just wanted to shove a nigger in to instate in the mind of people that Britain is a diverse country

Also, Moors were North African (like the man on pic related), not nignogs

Who the fuck cares whether an actor on tv is black or white, jesus christ get a fucking life.

That's Richmond you fucking dolt.

It isn't race, it's ethnicity.

You really believe a Londoner would treat a guy from Cornwall the same way he would treat a Frenchman or an Italian?

Get a clue.

I don't disagree, but I think people overestimate how much race mattered before west african slavery came into the picture.

Race didn't matter, but ethnicity certainly did.

In this case, a black guy would be still considered a foreigner

They'd probably see each other as foreigners either way.

See also: Caxton's Eggs.

they'd have less reason to hate him than a frenchman

>Moors
Moors weren't fucking black you piece of shit. Where's all the nigger ancestry in Spain?

What a false equivalence.

Yes, he'd see the guy from Cornwall as foreign, but the French and the Moor as more foreign

Yet he'd still be treated different

Yeah but what said, they would dislike him a lot less than a foreigner from an enemy nation.

>Where's all the nigger ancestry in Spain?

In Spain.

How they hell does he even remotely look like pic related?

Henry VIII had a black trumpeter.

Being black in a place like England back then was akin to having three eyes or being white in China. You'd be a rarity and that could get you cushy jobs at courts and aristocratic houses as a domestic servant or some bullshit function where they could get you to parade around.

At the battle of Bosworth Field? You do realize Henry just came from Brittany, right?

My problem is how black this guy is, like sub-saharan black. A Mediterranean mulatto would fit alot better, but even then context would be needed why he would be in England. A dark skinned Italian could easily be associated with the church or some such with a hand wave. I mean there must be knightly orders in Spain territories that once we're held by Moors, but even then that doesn't mean they existed in the same time or intermixed.

>Is it just me or is assuming all Africans look alike is kinda racist? It's as if someone read about Carthage and went 'oh they are in Africa, that means they are all black guys' so casting any black guy will be ok. Or they just assume that Africa Americans are what Africans look like. The same sort of thing with Asians, they need a Japanese fella, so he is always an honorary Arian type of japanses, and never a dark skinned guy. We just assume that they are all from Thailand or Vietnam. And of course south America is basically veiwed as Spain. If America and France have nuanced populations of all colors, then why do we paint with such a broad brush when we view other places?

>They did do a good job casting captain Philips, but that was because they went out and found actual somalis.

Interesting that OP picks up on random black extra who has 3 lines, but not Sophie Okonedo as Margaret of Anjou.

It's basically how we got the only black samurai in history.

Henry VIII is the early 16th century guy right.

I meant the fat one that killed most of his wives.

Why do I feel like I'm talking to retards?

NOWHERE did I say he'd be treated worse than a Frenchman, I merely brought it up as it came to my mind, as an example. If you wish, replace ot with Dane.

Whoops, op's picture is relating to Henry VII. I assumed you're talking about Henry Tudor (Welsh)

Henry VII IS Henry Tudor

Well I don't know anything about Black people during the wars of the roses, just that one of the later henries had a black trumpeter. It's not that long after.

Shit, I said night? Derp. I haven't seen the program in question, but I guessed as you stated, that the BBC just kinda shoehorned him in. I was having a little fun trying to guess the most logical place for an odd African in an English army in that place and time.

>Be born in Ottoman north Africa.
>Grandparents were kidnapped from some West African coastal village
>Get sold to some merchant as a galley slave
>Jump ship off the coast of what's left of Al-Andalus
>Escpape north to Christian Spain
>Convert out of spite to your former overlords
>Fight in the Reconquista
>Live the life of a soldier for hire
>Eventually make your way to Normandy

It's possible. I think such a man would be mentioned somewhere, but considering how many documents and records of the past are lost forever, I can't say it NEVER happened. Now if they revealed such a backstory, that'd be pretty fucking badass. It'd be hack writing to just say "There's a black knight close to Richard III and nobody questions it."

The English Kings were black

>Well I don't know anything
Exactly, now fuck off you fucking faggot. The Black, or black, at that time could have a completely different connotation to what you degenerate pieces of trash consider black today.

>England
>white

Nice meme

My 18th century great-great-great-...-uncle (childless older brother of my direct male line ancestor) bought a couple of black slaves (male and a wife for him - not sure if they were together before he bought them) when he visited the Netherlands and kept the man as a member of staff on his estate.

Although great uncle clearly wasn't very good at this slave owning thing because the family archive shows the man was paid a very good salary and it continued to be paid to his widow after he died.

Educate yourself pleb

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Blanke

*in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, not sure why I left that out