The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

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yields of the Cumberland copper mines of the Company of Mines Royal, in which he was a major investor. Humfrey‘s pessimistic assessment of those mines had proved to be incorrect, forcing him to ―certify your honor how small credit was to be given to the yield [of his assay]‖, and to admit his inferiority to the Company‘s German miners. 119 The backwardness of English metallurgical knowledge, as illustrated by Humfrey‘s ignorance of continental metal working techniques, makes Medley‘s expertise all the more remarkable. The results of Medley‘s process mystified Humfrey. Medley insisted, reported Humfrey, that using his secret technique a hundredweight of iron could be ―transmuted by the water drawn from that earth‖ into a greater weight of copper. Humfrey, who had ―neyther redd nor proved of any feasible knowledge that in anything coulde deliver a greater weight than himself and of a better substance then himself‖, skeptically declared the ―matter is beyond the reason of all‖. 120 The explanation for this mystery is that the copper precipitated by Medley‘s process, had a greater atomic weight than the dissolved scrap iron. 121 Medley, as usual, did not help matters: he initially refused an inspection of the Parys Mountain works, fearing that Humfrey would ―depryve him of his arte and laboures‖. 122 Within a few weeks Cecil had calmed the alchemist‘s fears. Medley allowed Humfrey to monitor a demonstration. Humfrey remained at first sceptical about the possibility of multiplying metals and had ―not therfor looked with creadit into such wourke‖. 123 However, Medley‘s demonstration of the efficacy of his technique convinced Humfrey that ―so honorable & marveilouse a wourke ought to be gardid and garnerd to the end that by your great wysdome it might be ordered to unspeakable benyfit‖. 124 Such 119 William Humfrey to Cecil, 23 May 1565, TNA, SP 12/36/58. 120 Lansdowne Vol. 18, f101-2. 121 John Henry Pepper‘s The Playbook of Metals describes water being collected in ponds, scrap iron being cast into the pond, and ―when the usual change of places occurs‖ it dissolves with copper precipitating ―in a dark powdery mass‖. According to Pepper the process was ―conducted with profit at the Paris Mountain Mine, in the island of Anglesea‖, when he was writing in 1846. See John Henry Pepper, The Playbook of Metals: Including Personal Narratives of Visits to Coal, Lead, Copper, and Tin Mines, London, 1861, p. 274. 122 Humfrey to Cecil, Lansdowne Vol. 18, No. 47. 123 William Humfrey to Cecil, 22 December 1574, BL, Lansdowne Vol. 18, No. 48. 124 Ibid. 140
was the potential benefit for the Crown‘s balance sheet that it could not ―but touch your honor being high L[ord] of the Treasure‖. 125 His fears now totally assuaged, Cecil wholeheartedly put his influence behind the creation of a new patent for the Society, with Medley‘s name included. 126 Cecil‘s draft of the new patent was conditional on Medley agreeing not to ―multiply or make any gold or silver, contrary to the lawes of England‖. 127 This condition reflects Cecil belief that Medley‘s process constituted a true form of alchemy, rather than any sort of conventional chemical technique. The clause also potentially allowed Medley to attempt transmutation into gold at a later stage, with the protection of a royal license. The project also attracted the Queen‘s curiosity. Elizabeth placed a condition in the draft patent that, at her request ―the society shall surrendere at the end of xxi yeres their whole interest into [her] highness hands‖. The condition allowed her the future profits of Medley‘s scheme, without immediately depleting the royal coffers. Cecil did not allow such an unfavorable condition to appear in the final patent, which Smith, now Secretary of State, in a remarkable example of conciliar deception, hurried past the Queen by candlelight. 128 Smith assured Cecil that he would ―make all the haste I can to have it passed the signet and the privy seal and so to the Great Seal‖. 129 In return, Smith sought Cecil‘s assurance that he would keep the dilatory Medley on task. 130 By 14 February 1575, with the final patent sealed, all seemed ready to proceed. 131 Yet still Medley delayed, reluctant to travel to the new works until he received further money from the Society to pay his outstanding debts. With Medley procrastinating, Smith feared that others might usurp the project. In early March he complained that ―my Lord Mountjoy hath gotten one of Mr. Medley‘s workmen to him‖ and that ―diverse in the 125 Ibid. 126 Ibid. 127 Draft Second Patent, TNA, SP 15/13/122. 128 Smith to Cecil, 28 January 1575, BL, Harley MS. 6991/56. 129 Ibid. 130 Ibid. 131 Joel Hurstfield (ed.), CPR: 1572-1575, London, 1939, p. 509. 141
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The Alchemical Patronage of Sir Wil
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Abstract This thesis examines the a
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Acknowledgements Thanks must first
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List of Abbreviations APC Acts of t
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Introduction William Cecil, through
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late seventeenth and early eighteen
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economic policy, only cursory exami
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otherwise. The dull, elderly, burea
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y such prolific authors as A. E. Wa
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marginalised the importance of alch
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Many of the distortions in the hist
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difficult to access with microfilm
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Chapter 1: Cecil and Alchemical Phi
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other aspects of medieval knowledge
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explain why alchemy made sense in t
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accuracy of the Aristotelian texts.
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short-sighted match. 44 There is ev
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University in the period. 56 A high
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some tentative conclusions about Ce
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Cecil tended to favour more practic
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Actes and Monuments (1563), ―fata
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Dee and Cecil‘s relationship over
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symbolism, seems tenuous. It ignore
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great pleasure in the workes of Nat
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demonstrated the divine spirit of l
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alchemical knowledge than his geogr
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eports to Cecil are almost exclusiv
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Thynne also affirmed the importance
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From Longleat Thynne wrote for Ceci
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his desperate financial situation.
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no significant records of their pra
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such as John Dee and country gentle
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The late 1560s saw the first signif
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eminently qualified to deal with th
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the patronage of James Blount, Lord
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medicines. Amongst the collection o
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gold into France to fund Catholic e
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in distayne‖. 98 However, it is n
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of a dedicatory epistle to Cecil, f
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home I have not seen‖. 120 Where
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of yeeres before Paracelsus time‖
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Henry Bossevyle suggested practical
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metal and European currencies, furt
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De Lannoy first came to the attenti
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god send it her majesty as trouly a
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perform alchemy. Rather, Waad belie
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and Leicester. 56 De Lannoy promise
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Cecil could not convince the Queen,
Page 97 and 98: the accounts of Elias Ashmole and S
Page 99 and 100: context of Dee‘s failed English C
Page 101 and 102: By March 1589 Dee had left Bohemia
Page 103 and 104: entirely self centred‖. 117 Cecil
Page 105 and 106: Cecil and the Queen‘s demands tha
Page 107 and 108: love and honor vertue and knolledge
Page 109 and 110: Kelley‘s demise. 148 Wotton repor
Page 111 and 112: depryved of his libertye and frends
Page 113 and 114: According to Page, Kelley had not i
Page 115 and 116: a number of attempts to convince Ke
Page 117 and 118: For the Queen and Cecil, Smith‘s
Page 119 and 120: £500 from the company, they were t
Page 121 and 122: payment. Peterson refused them; he
Page 123 and 124: Smith‘s plan, they must have been
Page 125 and 126: Chapter Four: Alchemy and Economic
Page 127 and 128: essays Meta Incognita: A Discourse
Page 129 and 130: y chance she threw and burned in th
Page 131 and 132: y others without trewthe‖. 25 Wal
Page 133 and 134: work did not make this link, and ne
Page 135 and 136: linked. It is, however, significant
Page 137 and 138: laming betrayal, setbacks and decep
Page 139 and 140: to involve cementation rather than
Page 141 and 142: Clearly aware of Cecil‘s rising i
Page 143 and 144: certainly the practical expert, who
Page 145 and 146: new process which ―my Lord Burghl
Page 147: Image 3: An Elizabethan Map of the
Page 151 and 152: Medley ―by commaundement mencyone
Page 153 and 154: thanked Wotton for his letter detai
Page 155 and 156: intention to have medled with any c
Page 157 and 158: and to have received through his fa
Page 159 and 160: again imprisoned, this time almost
Page 161 and 162: was a key investor, attempted to ut
Page 163 and 164: understanding of nature. John Dee,
Page 165 and 166: promised ―an ounce or so of powde
Page 167 and 168: conviction regarding the reality of
Page 169 and 170: ———, Calendar of Patent Rolls
Page 171 and 172: Bennet, Henry, A Famous and Godly H
Page 173 and 174: Szulakowska, Urszula, ‗The Pseudo
Page 175 and 176: Fiddler, Paul A., and Thomas J. May
Page 177 and 178: Matthews, John, (ed.), The Rosicruc
Page 179 and 180: ———, The Life of the Learned
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The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

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