Experten i programmet på den tidens historia är professor Stephen Baxter. Han får frågan om just detta i en intervju av BBC's egna nätpublikation History Extra. Det är kanske som att låta Pravda intervjua Breznjev, men så här svarar Stephen Baxter i alla fall:
Citat:
In episode one of 1066, a black character appeared as an envoy to William of Normandy. Is there precedence in history for a black man to have been in this court and in the employ of William?
The only near-contemporary source to mention an envoy sent by Duke William is William of Jumièges, writing shortly after the conquest, probably in the early 1070s. He says: “Harold immediately seized Edward’s kingdom, thus perjuring the fealty he had sworn to the duke. The duke then instantly dispatched messengers to Harold urging him to renounce this act of folly and with worthy submission keep the faith which he had pledged with an oath.”
Neither this nor any later accounts say anything specific about identity, let alone the ethnicity, of the ambassador.
https://www.historyextra.com/period/...nquer-england/
Det finns alltså inga historiska källor som nämner sändebudets etniska ursprung. Stephen Baxter får inte heller den mest uppenbara av alla följdfrågor: "Men, varför valde ni då att ha en svart skådespelare? Rent statistiskt borde det väl vara helt uteslutet?"