The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

More documents

Recommendations

Info

perform counter magic and to divine the identity of the perpetrators. 157 Seizing the opportunity to vilify his own long time enemy, Dee implicated Prestall in creating the images as part of a Catholic plot. 158 In fact, the images had been created by Thomas Elkes, whose ritual magic was aimed at the husband of an entirely different Elizabeth. 159 Nevertheless, Prestall and his associates were arrested and under torture confessed their roles in the imaginary conspiracy. 160 With Prestall imprisoned for treason, and his allegations against Medley discredited, Medley regained his freedom. Medley‘s re-established reputation, previously overlooked by historians, allowed him to survive another alchemical scandal in August 1580. Cecil suspected that Richard Stanihurst, an Irish Catholic alchemist, was creating alchemical gold to fund Catholic plans for rebellion in Ireland. During a search of Stanihurst‘s house, Robert Beale, clerk of the Privy Council and one of Cecil‘s trusted informants, found that Medley and Stanihurst had been exchanging letters on alchemical matters. 161 Stanihurst clearly shared an interest in the same elements of alchemy as Medley. His Toque De Alchimia (1593), dedicated to the Spanish King Phillip II, would profess his expertise in both alchemical medicine and the alchemical transformation of copper. 162 Stanihurst claimed to have witnessed the transmutation of copper into silver in London in 1578, and although Medley‘s role remains unclear, it was certainly within his field of expertise. 163 So convincing was the demonstration that, as Stanihurst recalled, it ―convinced me of what I had until then thought impossible and led me to apply myself to the practice of this secret science‖. 164 After confronting Medley with the evidence of collusion, Cecil accepted his assurances that while he had been discussing ―mineral matters‖ with Stanihurst, ―he denieth there was any 157 Ibid. 158 Ibid. 159 Ibid. 160 Ibid. 161 Robert Beale to Cecil, 28 August 1580, TNA, SP 12/141/43. 162 Richard Stanihurst, ‗Toque de Alchimia‘, BNM MS. 2058, trans. in David C. Goodman, Power and Penury: Government, Technology and Science in Philip II’s Spain, Cambridge, 2002, p. 43. 163 Ibid. 164 Ibid. 146
intention to have medled with any coining or forging‖. 165 Certainly by this time Medley had restored his standing with the Lord Treasurer. Cecil‘s influence enabled Medley to become an important member of the local gentry in Ely, Cambridgeshire, where he had inherited land from his father. 166 Medley‘s Catholic critics claimed that he received through Cecil‘s ―favour and patronage some kind of civil preferment‖, becoming a justice of gaol delivery (an important type of magistrate). 167 By December 1580, George Shirley, attempting to purchase a wardship from Cecil, considered Medley important enough to be bribed £3, the same as one of Cecil‘s secretaries, if he would further his case. 168 Medley‘s re-established social status allowed him to marry a wealthy widow, Anne Wren, the daughter of Sir Robert Payton, a prominent local landowner, in 1582. 169 This marriage, along with a modest bequest in his brother‘s will in 1585, seems to have alleviated Medley‘s financial situation for a time and in turn reduced his need for alchemical schemes. 170 Medley demonstrated his renewed prosperity and favour with the generous bequest of twenty acres of land to the nearby parish of Tydd St. Mary in 1588. 171 Throughout Medley‘s career as a magistrate in Ely he received a number of rewards from his patron. Cecil, as always, valued clients with alchemical ability. Indeed, despite his local offices, Medley claimed to have been in ―daily attendance‖ on the Lord Treasurer, possibly as a practitioner of alchemical medicine. 172 For his services Medley ―received divers favours‖, including Crown leases. 173 In June 1588, Cecil wrote to Lord North, Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, and ordered him to spare Medley from his previous 165 Beale to Cecil, SP 12/141/43. 166 ‗Will of George Medley, PROB 11/46; Louise J. Wilkinson (ed.), CPR (1589-1590), C 66-1337-1361, London, 2004, p. 242. 167 William Weston, Philip Caraman (ed.), William Weston: The Autobiography of an Elizabethan, Philip Caraman (trans.), London, 1955, p. 192. 168 Joel Hurstfield, The Queen’s Wards: Wardship and Marriage under Eilzabeth I, London, 1973, pp. 265-266. 169 Robert Edmond Chester Waters, Genealogical Memoirs of the Extinct Family of Chester of Chicheley: their Ancestors and Descendants, London, 1878, pp. 211-212. 170 ‗Will of Henry Medley of Tilty, Essex‘, TNA, PROB 11/68, proved 8 May 1585. 171 Anon., Abstract of the Returns of Charitable Donations for the Benefit of Poor Persons, Made by the Ministers and Churchwardens of the Several Parishes and Townships in England and Wales, London, 1816, p. 672. 172 Roberts (ed.), CMS, Vol.8, p. 421. 173 Ibid.; Christine Leighton (ed.), CPR, Part I to Part X: C 66/1395-1404, London, 2000, p. 75. 147
Page 1 and 2:
The Alchemical Patronage of Sir Wil
Page 3 and 4:
Abstract This thesis examines the a
Page 5 and 6:
Acknowledgements Thanks must first
Page 7 and 8:
List of Abbreviations APC Acts of t
Page 9 and 10:
Introduction William Cecil, through
Page 11 and 12:
late seventeenth and early eighteen
Page 13 and 14:
economic policy, only cursory exami
Page 15 and 16:
otherwise. The dull, elderly, burea
Page 17 and 18:
y such prolific authors as A. E. Wa
Page 19 and 20:
marginalised the importance of alch
Page 21 and 22:
Many of the distortions in the hist
Page 23 and 24:
difficult to access with microfilm
Page 25 and 26:
Chapter 1: Cecil and Alchemical Phi
Page 27 and 28:
other aspects of medieval knowledge
Page 29 and 30:
explain why alchemy made sense in t
Page 31 and 32:
accuracy of the Aristotelian texts.
Page 33 and 34:
short-sighted match. 44 There is ev
Page 35 and 36:
University in the period. 56 A high
Page 37 and 38:
some tentative conclusions about Ce
Page 39 and 40:
Cecil tended to favour more practic
Page 41 and 42:
Actes and Monuments (1563), ―fata
Page 43 and 44:
Dee and Cecil‘s relationship over
Page 45 and 46:
symbolism, seems tenuous. It ignore
Page 47 and 48:
great pleasure in the workes of Nat
Page 49 and 50:
demonstrated the divine spirit of l
Page 51 and 52:
alchemical knowledge than his geogr
Page 53 and 54:
eports to Cecil are almost exclusiv
Page 55 and 56:
Thynne also affirmed the importance
Page 57 and 58:
From Longleat Thynne wrote for Ceci
Page 59 and 60:
his desperate financial situation.
Page 61 and 62:
no significant records of their pra
Page 63 and 64:
such as John Dee and country gentle
Page 65 and 66:
The late 1560s saw the first signif
Page 67 and 68:
eminently qualified to deal with th
Page 69 and 70:
the patronage of James Blount, Lord
Page 71 and 72:
medicines. Amongst the collection o
Page 73 and 74:
gold into France to fund Catholic e
Page 75 and 76:
in distayne‖. 98 However, it is n
Page 77 and 78:
of a dedicatory epistle to Cecil, f
Page 79 and 80:
home I have not seen‖. 120 Where
Page 81 and 82:
of yeeres before Paracelsus time‖
Page 83 and 84:
Henry Bossevyle suggested practical
Page 85 and 86:
metal and European currencies, furt
Page 87 and 88:
De Lannoy first came to the attenti
Page 89 and 90:
god send it her majesty as trouly a
Page 91 and 92:
perform alchemy. Rather, Waad belie
Page 93 and 94:
and Leicester. 56 De Lannoy promise
Page 95 and 96:
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 and 148: Image 3: An Elizabethan Map of the
Page 149 and 150: was the potential benefit for the C
Page 151 and 152: Medley ―by commaundement mencyone
Page 153: thanked Wotton for his letter detai
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
show all

The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?