It was fashionable, in seventeenth century England, for nobles to have their portraits painted with the novelty of a black-skinned servant at their side. Some of these servants were black children. In 1579, an African girl arrived in England. By 1600, she had grown from a prop in a portrait to the beloved member of the household of the Lord Treasurer of England, the lifelong companion of his ward, the Earl of Southampton, and a maidservant to Queen Elizabeth I. She also became the infamous 'Dark Lady' of Shakespeare's Sonnets. This is her story.
3 parts