The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

Parkin‘s role as an English agent. An anonymous account states that, having saved Cecil‘s
grandson from danger in Rome, the Lord Treasurer had ―procured [Parkins] to be
employed sometime abroad as ye Q[ueen‘s] agent‖ and that he may well have involved
himself in some plot in order to ―cozen ye Preestes and Jesuites‖. 110 Nevertheless the
accusation certainly troubled Parkins, who wrote to Walsingham describing Kelley as an
―evell meaninge man as common fame reportyth‖. 111 Walsingham in turn replied to his
―loving friend‖ that without clear evidence from Kelley, he did not doubt that Parkins was
―armed with the innocence of a clear conscience‖. 112 Such attacks on English informers
doubtless did not endear Kelley with Walsingham and his network of agents.
As Walsingham‘s health deteriorated in the two years leading up to his death in
April 1590, Cecil increasingly took control over European intelligence gathering. 113 This
coincided with rising English interest in Kelley. As the informal head of the European
network of English informants, Cecil monitored Kelley‘s meteoric rise, seeking proof of his
ennoblement by obtaining a copy of his knighthood. 114 An unknown messenger delivered
to Cecil ―a boxe with the ower and [p]owder of the silver mynes‖ on 9 March 1590. 115
Whether this was a sample of Kelley‘s supposedly alchemical powder, or an example of the
more practical benefits of his alchemical skills is unclear, but it clearly piqued Cecil‘s
interest. He amended his letter to the Italian financier and English informant Sir Horatio
Palavicino, written the day before, adding that he would also like to know ―how Sir Edward
Kellyes profesion may be credited‖. 116 By 15 August Cecil had received a reply by way of a
letter forwarded from another Italian informant, Francesco Pucci. A former collaborator
with Dee and Kelley in angelic scrying, Pucci described the alchemist as ―inconstant in
matters of religion, long in promises but short in deeds; vain and intolerably haughty;
110 Ibid.
111 Christopher Parkins to Francis Walsingham, 12 March 1590, TNA, SP 12/231/17.
112 Walsingham to Parkins, 16 March 1590, BL, Harley MS 6994 f.209r.
113 Read, Lord Burghley, p. 464.
114 A Copy of Edward Kelley‘s Patent of Ennoblement, 23 February 1590, BL, Lansdowne Vol. 66 No. 60.
115 Anon. to Cecil, 9 March 1590, as quoted in Sargent, The Life and Lyrics, p. 106.
116 Cecil to Horatio Palavicino, 8 March 1590, TNA, SP 81/6 f.9v.
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