Would it be possible for a royal political marriage to occur between a major european monarch and a princess from a powerful black african kingdom with a pod of 1500 A.D.? Also, the marriage should occur before 1900. I was thinking that the first step would be to have a powerful black monarchy somewhere, probably Kongo or Ethiopia, but after that I'm not sure what needs to change.
Plausibility Check: Interracial Royal Marriage
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With a member of an India Royal family might be more likely. During the Raj white British women would sometime marry high caste / royal Indian men.
However if it is pre-plantation slavery when Black Africans would just have been forigners dynastic considerations might be of higher concern.
The problem might be how the two kingdoms came into contact and what common interest would be advanced by the marriage
However if it is pre-plantation slavery when Black Africans would just have been forigners dynastic considerations might be of higher concern.
The problem might be how the two kingdoms came into contact and what common interest would be advanced by the marriage
I don't think skin colour would be a problem, certainly not for countries like Spain and Portugal which weren't as bad as England for racism.
However, it's hard to get any African monarchy to be powerful enough that it's worth it for a major European monarch to want to do it. It would be a serious knock to prestige.
Perhaps you could do it with a minor country, although you'd need the African monarchy to be Christian first.
However, it's hard to get any African monarchy to be powerful enough that it's worth it for a major European monarch to want to do it. It would be a serious knock to prestige.
Perhaps you could do it with a minor country, although you'd need the African monarchy to be Christian first.
Preferably, as I think that is the hardest one to achieve, although I'd be interested in seeing other pairings too. Africa and Europe is just interesting me at the moment because there were times when they had similar intereste, shared a religion, and had good diplomatic relations (especially the Portuguese), but there were never any dynastic marriages. I imagine that the Portuguese just didn't feel it was necessairy, and that they could just push their African allies into whatever deal without a marriage, but if we had, for instance, a powerful Catholic Kongo that could defend itself from Portuguese interests and was interested in a dynastic union for prestige purposes, then perhaps we have a Portugal that is willing to marry off someone fairly high on their line of succession to secure a profitable deal.
With a POD in 1500, you could easily have different race relations. In that timeframe, religion still trumped skin colour.
Will Kürlich Kerl
Banned
With a member of the Indian royalty or the Japanese royalty are much more plausible.
Before the 20th century it's possible but tough to gather the right conditions...
This CAN'T happen much after the debut of the Transatlantic slave trade when the loss of prestige of the black people and consequent birth of modern racism gradually started to kick in.
The King of Portugal quickly established himself as de facto overlord of the King of Kongo so I can't see a reason to ship royals overseas in this context. Not that it would be unthinkable but IOTL no one ever even thought of that.
My best bet would be if Prester John turns out to be half as powerful and useful as an ally to outflank the Infidels as it was thought he would be and he would be willing to go Catholic. Those are big ifs but in this case a black Queen of Portugal or a white Empress of Ethiopia would be very natural... and awesome.
This CAN'T happen much after the debut of the Transatlantic slave trade when the loss of prestige of the black people and consequent birth of modern racism gradually started to kick in.
The King of Portugal quickly established himself as de facto overlord of the King of Kongo so I can't see a reason to ship royals overseas in this context. Not that it would be unthinkable but IOTL no one ever even thought of that.
My best bet would be if Prester John turns out to be half as powerful and useful as an ally to outflank the Infidels as it was thought he would be and he would be willing to go Catholic. Those are big ifs but in this case a black Queen of Portugal or a white Empress of Ethiopia would be very natural... and awesome.
Byzantine x Ethipian nobilities like an ethiopian princess maybe... albeit not if they lost Egypt, perhaps....
MarshalBraginsky
Banned
Yuri of Moscow's marriage to Konchaka, sister of Ozbeg Khan might count as an interracial royal marriage since it's basically uniting a pair of European and Asian royal houses.
In some cases, any Christian Mongol marriage to either the Rus', Byzantine or any other Christian royal house in either Egypt, Armenia or the Balkans could also count.
In some cases, any Christian Mongol marriage to either the Rus', Byzantine or any other Christian royal house in either Egypt, Armenia or the Balkans could also count.
If we're looking at "race" as a concept, then they would be considered two different races.
This already happened to an extent with Seretse Khama of Botswana and his white British wife. It was very controversial at the time, amongst his own people and particularly the Apartheid South Africans. It's a remarkable story and in the end the people of Botswana were won over to their love. Although he ended up renouncing his chieftainship, he became Prime Minister of Botswana through winning elections and went on to rule as a very successful ruler. In fact, because of his enlightened rule Botswana is one of the few success stories of post-colonial Africa.
EDIT: Sorry I didn't read the OP properly. It asked for a major European Royal Marriage which this example does not meet.
EDIT: Sorry I didn't read the OP properly. It asked for a major European Royal Marriage which this example does not meet.
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What about Saladdin's brother and Richard the Lionheart's sister, Joan of England, Queen of Sicily? Interracial and interfaith.
In Shakespeare's "The Tempest," the main characters are returning from a wedding between an Italian noble woman and the Tunisian king. If that's any indication of the prevailing attitudes of Europeans at the time, I don't see why it isn't possible for a Christian European royal to marry a Muslim North African royal.
It depends who you ask, really. The United States census would say yes, while a survey of French-Algerian relations would suggest not - It really underscores the fluidity of racial categorization. I've seen Egyptians who could pass as white and Egyptians who could pass as black, with everything in between.