John Blanke

John Blanke was an English trumpeter of the 16th century African origin.

About the living conditions Naked little is known. Maybe he came in 1501 in the wake of Catherine of Aragon to England. Anyway, there are regular payments to him in the records of the Treasurer under the kings Henry VII and Henry VIII. On the Westminster Tournament Roll, an illustrated manuscript about the tournament to celebrate the birth of the son of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Henry Tudor are to see six trumpeters, including a black man, which is highly likely to be the " blackamoor " Blanke. Unlike the other trumpeters he wears a colored headgear, suggesting that certain concessions to the preservation of the culture of their home country made ​​him. He falls into a number of black musicians of the Renaissance period in Europe, which, inter alia, the slave Martino in Naples ( 1470 ) and Abdul from Meknes, who was in the service of Cosimo I de ' Medici, belonged.