Ellen More

[12] In the same years in England, African servants were recorded in the household of the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon, the wife of Prince Arthur and Henry VIII, including the trumpeters John Blanke and Alonso de Valdenebro, and a groom Francis Negro.

[17] Four African people, described as "More lasses" in Scotland in 1504, were accompanied by a Portuguese man and imported animals including a cat and a horse.

[24] A letter from a Southampton customs official describes a merchant's plan to present 2 musk cats, 3 little monkeys, a marmoset, and other exotic goods to Henry VIII.

[25] A portrait of Margaret Tudor includes a Brazilian marmoset, and may be a copy of a picture once in the collection of Henry VIII, described in his inventory as a "woman having a monkey on her hand".

[26] A monkey in a portrait of Catherine of Aragon, painted around 1531, appears to be a pet Marcgrave's capuchin, a type brought from Brazil by Portuguese traders.

The context was a dispute about the loss of a valuable cargo at Sluis belonging to John Barton of Leith back in the reign of James III.

[31] Archival references to the "More lasses", a Portuguese man, and exotic animals were re-discovered in the early 19th century by William MacGregor Stirling (1771-1833) and others.

[41] Four African women, called "More lasses", went to North Queensferry and Inverkeithing on 8 November, looked after by the court apothecary, John Mosman.

The four African people, recorded by a clerk as "Ethiopians", were first lodged in the house of James Hommyll, a wealthy Edinburgh merchant who bought tapestries for the king.

[48] The Latin record may be translated:Et pro expensis quatuor personarum Ethiopum remanentium extra domicilium de mandato regis, iij li.Et per solutionem factam Jacobem Hommill pro expensis unius portingalie portantis quatuor personas Ethiopum, duos equos, et animalia, extranea domino regi remanentes apud Edinburgh per quadraginti dies in domicilio dicti Jacobi de mandato regis, xviij li iiij s.And, for the expenses of four Ethiopian persons remaining outside the household, by the hand of the king, £4.And to pay James Hommill for the Portuguese man bringing four Ethiopian people, two horses, and the animals, remaining outside the household in Edinburgh for forty days in the said James's house, by the hand of the king, £18 and 4 shillings.

[49]Property records mention that James Hommyll's house or land was on the south side of the High Street in the tenement of Lord Borthwick beyond the Over Bow, near to Edinburgh Castle.

[58] The historian Bernadette Andrea notes that Ellen More and other African people arriving in Scotland and Britain in the 16th-century may have followed the Islamic faith.

[61] The shoemaker was John Davidson, who also made shoes for "Little Martin the Spaniard" and the Danish noble, Christopher or Christiern, said to be a son of Elizabeth of Denmark, but his identity remains unclear.

[62] The keeper of Edinburgh castle, Alexander McCulloch of Myreton, was paid £100 in 1505 for keeping the king's daughter with Margery Lindsay, "and the Moris and servandis".

[65] This is an example from the accounts of a New Year gift of money, five French gold crowns worth £3-10s Scots, given to Ellen More on 1 January 1512 at Holyrood Palace; "Item, to Elene Moire, v Franch crounis, iij li x s." The same amount was given to two "maidens", servants of Elizabeth Barlow, Lady Elphinstone.

[73] William Dunbar wrote a poem for the court of James IV with the title Of Ane Blak-Moir which describes the appearance of a black woman involved in a tournament in unflattering and racist terms.

[74][75][76] David Laing seems to have been the first writer to connect Dunbar's poem with the archival rediscovery of Ellen More and the African presence at the Scottish court of James IV.

[81] It is not clear if William Dunbar's poem was directly connected to these events, or that Ellen More played the part of the Black Lady in the tournaments.

[82] The identity of Ellen, or Elen More, is discussed in scholarship as the subject of Dunbar's poem, the woman named in the accounts, and the actor in the tournaments.

[83] Martin the Spaniard, who appears in the accounts linked with the "More lasses" in payments for their shoes, performed with the Black Lady at the tournament banquet.

The poem "creates a very unfavourable contrast between black female physiology and that of white ladies at court";[86] The expenditure on these lavish events, imitating the "Round Table of King Arthur of England", was recorded in the treasurer's accounts, and the tournaments were described in Scottish chronicles.

[92] It was issued by the Marchmont Herald on behalf of the 'Chevalier Sauvage à la Dame Noire', the Wild Knight to the Black Lady, and gave details of the events to be held at Edinburgh.

[104] The tree of Esperance or Hope was decorated with artificial flowers, pears, and painted heraldic shields, moulded in leather by Simon Glasford, a buckler-maker.

[105] In England, Margaret Tudor attended a Christmas 1516 banquet where a garden of Esperance or Hope was presented as a stage set for a masque inside the hall of Greenwich Palace.

[113] Later Stewart court festivities and drama with African actors and actors portraying Africans, include; the Entry of Mary, Queen of Scots into Edinburgh in 1561, the wedding of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry, Lord Darnley in July 1565,[114] the baptism of James VI at Stirling in December 1566,[115] the Entry of Anne of Denmark to Edinburgh (1590), the baptism of Prince Henry (1594), and The Masque of Blackness (1605).

[121][122] The revels accounts describe the costume as "moryans" or "morryans" fashion, also noting that the black "lumberdynes" fabric was used to cover heads, necks, faces, and arms.

[123] At the court of Edward VI of England actors in masques were dressed as "Mores" with long black velvet gloves reaching above the elbow, with bells attached to costumes made from goat's skins.

[129] A contemporary description of the 1590 Edinburgh event by a Danish observer distinguished between townspeople who wore masks and had painted legs and arms, and "an absolutely real and native blackamoor".

[136] Ellen More is featured in a short animation titled "The Tournament of the African Lady",[137] which also depicts John Blanke, a trumpeter at the English court, written and directed by Jason Young.

[138][139] The story of Ellen More forms the basis of a stageplay James IV: Queen of the Fight, written by Rona Munro for performance in 2022.