THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF PRINCESS BRITANIA

During a period of civil unrest in his country in 1600, the King of Morocco – a member of the wealthy Saadian Dynasty – fearing for the safety of his daughter, despatched her to an overseas refuge.

Upon resumption of peace, he sent a ship to bring her home, but on route the ‘Blackamore Lady’ was captured by the English, given the name Britania and brought to Wiltshire to be left in the care of Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford at Tottenham House and Wolfhall.

When the King discovered the whereabouts of his daughter, he sent his brother to negotiate for her release, but it appears that the Princess was unwilling to return. A compromise was reached. The Earl agreed that if the King offered financial support, he would provide Britania with an estate commensurate with the amount received.

The King sent gold and silver to the value of £1,000 plus jewels, rings ‘and other choice things’ worth £200 more. In the Elizabethan period such a sum, worth millions today, could have purchased and maintained a stately home befitting a Princess.

However, although the Princess remained, the Earl never fulfilled his promise. Perhaps he was loathe to part with these new found riches, or maybe Britania was ignorant of the deal and happy with her circumstances – either way, her father died in 1603 unaware of the deception.

Before his death in 1621, Edward Seymour seemed to have a fit of conscience and requested his grandson William to provide an estate for the Princess to the value of £1,200. But William failed to fulfil his grandfather’s request – it was up to his son, John Seymour 4th Duke of Somerset, to finalise matters.

Seventy years had passed since the capture of the Princess. Under the name of Britania Artiax, she had married John Long and after she died, left a daughter called Alice and a son Anthony.

The 4th Duke was a gambler and plagued by debt for most of his life. He divorced from the Duchess and it was she who had the Somerset Almshouses built at Froxfield. The settlement document of 1673 feigned generosity but its overly miserly intent is obvious.

In lieu of gold, silver and jewels, he gave Alice and her descendants ‘a cottage between Brimslade and Burbage in Easton Parish worth two shillings a year, two loads of bricks, two loads of straw, one ton of very good timber, four tons of billet wood, ten couple of very good rafters per year, forty bushels of wheat yearly and forever, common land for three cows and a bullock, five loads of fuel, heath and furze each year plus timber to make two gates and posts’.

The document ends ‘through these presents the said twelve hundred pounds which the King of Morocco sent to his daughter shall be satisfied and repayed for I the said John Seymoure have done my endeavour to discharge my conscience before God’.

It seems that like his ancestors, John was never preoccupied by moral principles. These paltry gifts were almost valueless in comparison with the riches received from which could have purchased villages and manors at the time.

Alice Long died in 1675, two years after John Seymour’s settlement and is buried in the churchyard at Easton Royal.

Perhaps there are other local records of this event yet to be discovered. A Blackamore Lady and her family living in the Savernake area in the 17th century would have been conspicuous.

Artiax was used as a middle name by her female descendants in the Highett, Hawkins and Westbury families between 1772 and 1968. There is a property called the Long House just south of Wootton Rivers, although this could refer only to its architecture.

Maybe there are descendants still living here and perhaps it might be possible to trace the valuable gold plate sent by the King of Morocco from which the Seymours and not the Princess Britania Artiax had derived the true benefit.

Abd ei-Ouahad ben Messaoud

Principal Secretary to the Moroccan king, painted in London when ambassador to the Elizabethan court in 1600