The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

After the 1572 St. Bartholomew‘s Day massacre of French Protestants, from which
the Vidame and Eden barely escaped, Eden returned to England. In 1573 the Vidame
petitioned the Queen, to admit her former servant as a Poor Knight of Windsor, an order
set up to maintain impoverished military veterans. 167 An attached autobiography was
evidently intended to support this application, asserting that Eden had made much
progress in unlocking the secrets of nature. 168 Assuming the Queen‘s interest in alchemy,
Eden complained that one could not ―compound the admirable medicaments of Paracelsus
from metals and minerals ... without immediately incurring from ignorant calumniators the
infamy and peril of practising alchemy‖. 169 Therefore he also requested a royal licence
exempting him from the ban on the multiplication of metals, since in England many
―foreigners freely practise [alchemy]; that the same will, with more justice, be granted to me
by the royal authority‖. 170 Elizabeth never granted any such authority, and Eden died
shortly after, in 1576. Late in his life Eden continued to maintain an interest in alchemy
and believed his alchemical knowledge to be of as much value as his translation of the
―several books useful to the State‖ that have formed his posthumous reputation. 171
Eden‘s historical importance has always been tied to his role as propagandist for a
new British empire, rather than his alchemical interests. However, the various pursuits of
his private, intellectual career reflected the mentality of Elizabethan intellectuals. Eden‘s
letters, if not his published works, show an ongoing fascination with both the practical
challenge and philosophical implications of alchemy. Not only was a serious interest in the
occult sciences compatible with the imperial outlook so often assigned to Elizabethans, for
men like Eden it embodied the humanist attempt at recovering a unified understanding of
nature. Eden believed Cecil, whom he had known for decades, shared this fascination. His
167 Arber (ed.), The First Three English Books on America, pp xlv.
168 Ibid., pp. xlv–xlvi.
169 Ibid., pp xlvi.
170 Ibid.
171 Ibid.
44