About John Blanke
John Blanke is remembered as the trumpeter to King Henry Vll and Vlll. While the first mention of a black person in Royal records is believed to have been in 1507. His image is depicted on an embroidery of the 1511 Westminster Tournament, held to celebrate a royal birth.
Records show he was paid 8 shillings a day by Henry Vll. Blanke, meaning white, is not believed to have been his real name, but given to him as a joke by the royal court…as a result, his exact origins aren’t known, but he may have come from Africa or the Iberian Peninsula.