Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. We have an episode coming up in
Speaker 1: the near future that's related to alchemy, so we've pulled
Speaker 1: a couple of related classics out of the archive to
Speaker 1: wet everyone's appetites. Today's is about John d who was
Speaker 1: an advisor to Queen Elizabeth the First, possibly also her spy,
Speaker 1: and somebody that is requested from listeners from time to time.
Speaker 1: He is more often remembered not for being a spy
Speaker 1: or an advisor, but for being maybe kind of an
Speaker 1: alchemist sorcerer. So in this episode, Sarah and Deblina got
Speaker 1: into why that is. This originally came out in October
Speaker 1: as one of their Halloween episodes, so enjoy. Welcome to
Speaker 1: Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Deblina Choco Boarding and I'm fair doubting, and we
Speaker 1: promised our listeners some speaking kind of halloweenish episodes in October,
Speaker 1: and it just so happens that I've gotten magic on
Speaker 1: the brain recently because I was visiting with my ten
Speaker 1: year old niece and she is finally requiring me to
Speaker 1: do something that many people have done, which is read
Speaker 1: Harry Potter. Oh, finally, I know. I know you've been
Speaker 1: wanting that for a long time. Yes, been my long
Speaker 1: cherished hope. She in bed and I read Harry hopefain
Speaker 1: that I'll read it. She's wearing a wizard outfit right now. Actually,
Speaker 1: So we wanted to look into some real life examples
Speaker 1: of people who were said to have been involved with
Speaker 1: magic and the occult. And John D, who was a
Speaker 1: mathematician and astronomer from the sixteenth century, really piqued our interest,
Speaker 1: not least of all because there's a new opera about him.
Speaker 1: So this opera, which is called Dr D, premiered at
Speaker 1: the Manchester International Festival in July, and it came about
Speaker 1: when festival organizers approached the graphic novelist Alan Moore, who
Speaker 1: is the creator of V for Vendetta and From Hell,
Speaker 1: approached him to work on a new project about the
Speaker 1: quote life of an obscure but important figure from English history. So,
Speaker 1: more pondering on this, decided to focus on John D.
Speaker 1: Of course, Moore didn't finish the project. He left before
Speaker 1: it was completed. But Damon Albarn, singer and songwriter of
Speaker 1: the band Blur and also guerrillas. He did finish it
Speaker 1: along with director Rufus Norris, and we haven't heard or
Speaker 1: seen it ourselves, but we've we did get kind of
Speaker 1: stuck on that phrase obscure but important figure from English history.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's exactly the type of person we love
Speaker 1: to restuff. He missed in history class exactly, so there's
Speaker 1: no denying that D was important. In addition to being
Speaker 1: an accomplished mathematician, astronomer, geographer and navigator and also book collector,
Speaker 1: he was an adviser to Queen Elizabeth the First and
Speaker 1: probably a spy for her in some capacity, and also
Speaker 1: an early proponent of expanding Britain into an empire. So
Speaker 1: why is this guy with some legitimate resume entrees sometimes
Speaker 1: dismissed as the queen's astrologer and necromancer and a sorcerer.
Speaker 1: Well we're going to take a look at that, but
Speaker 1: first we need to find out how he got to
Speaker 1: work for the queen in the first place. So it
Speaker 1: started with schooling and he was born. John D was
Speaker 1: born July fifty seven in London. His father, Roland, was
Speaker 1: of Welsh descent and was probably some kind of merchant.
Speaker 1: So John D started his studies at a school in
Speaker 1: Chelmsford in Essex in fifteen thirty five, and then went
Speaker 1: on to St John's College in Cambridge in fifteen forty two,
Speaker 1: where he studied a pretty impressive lineup of Greek, Latin philosophy, geometry,
Speaker 1: arithmetic and astronomy. And from the beginning he was really
Speaker 1: dedicated to his studies, especially when you consider how young
Speaker 1: he was at the time. He really seemed to love
Speaker 1: to learn, especially when it came to studying mathematics. And
Speaker 1: just to give you an example of young on Dye's
Speaker 1: typical day. According to his biographer Benjamin Woolley, d would
Speaker 1: work at his studies about eighteen hours a day, leaving
Speaker 1: just four hours for sleep and two hours for meals.
Speaker 1: So a busy child, and by all accounts he was
Speaker 1: an extremely talented scholar. Some even call him a genius.
Speaker 1: So I guess all that hard work of has really
Speaker 1: paid off. He got both his bachelor's and master's degrees
Speaker 1: from St John's in fifteen forty five and fifteen forty
Speaker 1: eight respectively. In fifteen forty six he was made one
Speaker 1: of the founding fellows of Trinity College in Cambridge, but
Speaker 1: then he switched stuff up a little bit. He left
Speaker 1: England from fifteen forty eight to fifteen fifty one. He
Speaker 1: continued his scientific education on the continent, and he studied
Speaker 1: with a variety of top experts and a number of
Speaker 1: different fields, including cartography and mathematics. He published astronomy texts
Speaker 1: and lectured on Euclid's elements. Euclid, of course, was a
Speaker 1: Greek mathematician and sometimes called the father of geometry and
Speaker 1: d is sometimes credited with popularizing Euclidean geometry and academic circles.
Speaker 1: He was also said to be an early supporter of
Speaker 1: Copernicus's heliocentric model of the universe. So he was out
Speaker 1: promoting sort of revolutionary He was out learning and kind
Speaker 1: of yeah, thinking about and talking about cutting edge ideas.
Speaker 1: It was interesting, though he turned down to mathematical professorships,
Speaker 1: one at the University of Paris in fifteen fifty one
Speaker 1: and another one that was offered to him at the
Speaker 1: University of Oxford in fifteen fifty four. It's unclear exactly
Speaker 1: why he did this. He seems to have had designs
Speaker 1: on landing a position with the English crown, though as
Speaker 1: we'll see later, probably hoped that that setup would result
Speaker 1: in financial support or patronage that would allow him to
Speaker 1: pursue his own research, so that seemed to work at first.
Speaker 1: He was aiming higher. Yeah, it did seem to work
Speaker 1: at first, And when d returned to England in fifteen
Speaker 1: fifty one, he was able to associate himself at the
Speaker 1: Royal court and he offered his math instruction to courtiers
Speaker 1: and to navig gators, and that same year he was
Speaker 1: presented to King Edward the six who granted him a
Speaker 1: pension of one hundred crowns, which D later exchange for rectorship,
Speaker 1: which had a nice comfortable living associated with it. Um,
Speaker 1: So yeah, it seems like he was doing well for himself.
Speaker 1: He made friends at court, he received the patronage of
Speaker 1: a couple of them, including the Duchess of Northumberland, and
Speaker 1: soon he started to get caught up in things though,
Speaker 1: the intrigue that was going on at the time regarding
Speaker 1: Queen Mary's ascension to the throne and the tensions going
Speaker 1: on in England between the Catholics and the Protestants. But
Speaker 1: Deep played his cards right, and at least at first
Speaker 1: he didn't appear to take sides, which obviously during this
Speaker 1: time could mean a swift execution. Yeah. So when Queen
Speaker 1: Mary the First, who was Catholic, took the throne, de
Speaker 1: served as a consultant and astrologer to her. So we
Speaker 1: should stop here, though and talk about it a little bit,
Speaker 1: because you're probably thinking, whoa wait a second, astrology. I
Speaker 1: thought you said D was into astronomy. I have a
Speaker 1: whole different opinion of him now. But before you go
Speaker 1: judging him, we have to give you a little background
Speaker 1: by way of explanation. Around this time, there wasn't such
Speaker 1: a distinct line between astronomy and astrology. Many people like
Speaker 1: D put stock in both. In fact, even though people
Speaker 1: were coming out of the Dark Ages in the sixteenth century,
Speaker 1: reason and science still existed right alongside superstition and magic.
Speaker 1: So he wasn't the only one to feel this way
Speaker 1: or to have these beliefs. And they'll get too upset
Speaker 1: about Dark Ages people. I know everyone sometimes gets riled
Speaker 1: up with that, but I think it's a good illustrative
Speaker 1: term for discussing coming out of this real superstitious, magical time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's illustrative. So just to give you an example of
Speaker 1: what D's beliefs were like, he believed that the positions
Speaker 1: of the planets at the moment of a person's birth
Speaker 1: would affect their future, so like astrology, but he was
Speaker 1: driven to find scientific explanation for this, and it was
Speaker 1: this need to understand it all that really shaped his
Speaker 1: whole career. So we're gonna two essentially, and so he
Speaker 1: was asked to use these astrology skills for Queen Mary.
Speaker 1: He was asked to cast horoscopes for her and for
Speaker 1: her husband, Philip the second of Spain. Around that time, though,
Speaker 1: D also started a correspondence with the Protestant Princess Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: Mary's half sister, and he did an astrological chart for
Speaker 1: her too. Soon after this, maybe coincidentally, maybe not. In
Speaker 1: May a, fifteen fifty five, D was arrested and imprisoned
Speaker 1: at Hampton Court, a week or so before Elizabeth faced
Speaker 1: a similar similar situation, and the charge against him may
Speaker 1: be different depending on what source you look at. I've
Speaker 1: seen it as conjuring, and then I've seen it in
Speaker 1: other places as simply calculating just to explain that, and
Speaker 1: mathematics was kind of considered a form of black magic
Speaker 1: by some at that time, so that's why calculating would
Speaker 1: have been a criminal charge. He was acquitted after this
Speaker 1: and released soon after though, and he went back to
Speaker 1: work for Mary, which kind of amazes me. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: kept on working for Mary, and he was loyal to
Speaker 1: her until she died in fifty eight, and then when
Speaker 1: Elizabeth the First became queen after that, d immediately shifted
Speaker 1: his allegiance to her. It's likely most people think that
Speaker 1: he may have supported her all along, but regardless, it's
Speaker 1: interesting to see that he showed loyalty to kind of
Speaker 1: whoever was in power because it was best for him,
Speaker 1: especially since it seems like it would be difficult for
Speaker 1: an astrologer to show loyalty to two people. What are
Speaker 1: you going to tell somebody that there their cards don't
Speaker 1: look so great or their stars aren't aligned. Maybe just
Speaker 1: avoid the conversation. It would be a it would be
Speaker 1: a tricky conversation to have. So with Elizabeth, he became
Speaker 1: kind of a scientific and medical advisor to her, known
Speaker 1: officially as the Queen's Intelligencer or the Royal Astrologer, and
Speaker 1: she him to use his astrological skills to pick the
Speaker 1: data for coordination, and obviously it worked out, so she
Speaker 1: was happy with the result and She promised him security,
Speaker 1: but always kind of kept him at arm's length, like
Speaker 1: she didn't want to be too closely associated with his
Speaker 1: involvement in the occult. But de still had that dream
Speaker 1: of royal patronage, and especially a dream of creating this
Speaker 1: huge royal library that would be available to everyone with
Speaker 1: the goal of advancing learning. But he couldn't get official
Speaker 1: support for that, so finally he just decided to build
Speaker 1: his own private library and spent several years abroad collecting
Speaker 1: books for it. By the mid fifteen sixties he had
Speaker 1: set up a laboratory and a library near London, and
Speaker 1: the library had more than four thousand books in it
Speaker 1: and was the largest private library in England at the time.
Speaker 1: But d kept to his original intention. He was really
Speaker 1: generous with it. He made it accessible to scholars. He
Speaker 1: had a pretty significant collection of astronomic cole instruments, a
Speaker 1: collection of globes, so this was all suddenly um at
Speaker 1: the fingertips of England scholars, which was a great boon
Speaker 1: for them and for him too. During the next twenty
Speaker 1: years or so, D was involved in a number of
Speaker 1: let's say practical or more scientific compared yes. He edited,
Speaker 1: for example, the first English translation of Euclid's Elements in
Speaker 1: fifteen seventy. He also observed Tico Brahe's Supernova fifteen seventy two,
Speaker 1: and if you would like to know a little bit
Speaker 1: more about that, you can reference art Tico Brahy podcast
Speaker 1: from last December. So he observed this as well, and
Speaker 1: he offered some trigger a metric methods for fighting its
Speaker 1: distance from Earth. So he kind of helped to the
Speaker 1: discussion absolutely, and he recommended that England adopt the Gregorian
Speaker 1: calendar in eighty two, although no one really listened to
Speaker 1: him at the time. And during this entire period he
Speaker 1: was also helping lay the groundwork for English exploration by
Speaker 1: preparing just also sorts of nautical information, including maps and
Speaker 1: charts for navigation in the polar regions, as well as
Speaker 1: teaching ship captains and crews about the principles of navigation
Speaker 1: and giving them navigational instruments. So this allowed them to
Speaker 1: venture out on routes that were away from the coast
Speaker 1: and really encouraged exploration. I kind of see him as
Speaker 1: a coach almost to all of these advisors. You know,
Speaker 1: somebody who's got the brains and knows all of the
Speaker 1: specifics for all of these diverse sciences and can help
Speaker 1: the people actually making the decisions make the correct decision.
Speaker 1: And just a little side note if you're interested in
Speaker 1: such things. Uh D was probably an advisor on Sir
Speaker 1: Francis Drake's voyages as well, so that's another impressive entry
Speaker 1: for his resume. But along those same lines, D was
Speaker 1: a really big advocate of building a British empire, and
Speaker 1: that sort of makes sense if you consider his involvement
Speaker 1: in all the navigation stuff. He expressed those views, those
Speaker 1: views for an empire in a work called Perfect of Navigation.
Speaker 1: But just because he was working on navigation and empire
Speaker 1: building didn't mean that he had left math and physics
Speaker 1: and astrology and magic um to just linger there and
Speaker 1: not be worked on. He published something called the Propa
Speaker 1: Dumata Afrostica in fiftifty eight, which contained his views on
Speaker 1: those subjects math and physics and magic and things like that,
Speaker 1: and that's not all he had going on. Many sources
Speaker 1: also suggest that throughout this period D was working with
Speaker 1: none other than Sir Francis Walsingham as a spy for
Speaker 1: the English crown, and uh that's kind of it's kind
Speaker 1: of a surprise, isn't it It is, It just takes
Speaker 1: the story in a completely different direction. An article in
Speaker 1: Military History by Adam Mandelbaum, for example, suggests that it
Speaker 1: was D, along with Walsingham, who founded the British Secret
Speaker 1: Intelligence Service. I mean, talk about having an entry on
Speaker 1: your resume. That's somethinging that you wouldn't expect for someone
Speaker 1: who's labeled a sorcerer and a conjuror not at all.
Speaker 1: But he was probably able to use both his scientific
Speaker 1: and his more supernatural skills to act as a spy
Speaker 1: and to work in this capacity because for the more
Speaker 1: scientific part of things. Mondel Bomb suggests that D was
Speaker 1: kind of like a sixteenth century version of James Bond
Speaker 1: gadget master Q. He would create all kinds of cool devices,
Speaker 1: including this mechanical flying bird, which might not have been
Speaker 1: used for spying, but it still sounds pretty neat. Um.
Speaker 1: So you know that that very practical side of him
Speaker 1: had an outlet in this. Speaking of James Bond, there
Speaker 1: is another James Bond connection here that's kind of interesting,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't really find it in any great academic
Speaker 1: sources or anything, so I thought I'd just put it
Speaker 1: out there that if you happen to look up D
Speaker 1: and double oh seven on the Internet, you might find
Speaker 1: some interesting stuff there. Some say that he actually used
Speaker 1: that double oh seven sign and his secret correspondence to
Speaker 1: the Queen. The two ohs would symbolize his eyes and
Speaker 1: the seven was just a sacred or lucky number to him.
Speaker 1: I like that. Maybe some tutor experts can let us
Speaker 1: know if there's any truth behind that. Here's what we
Speaker 1: do know, though. D also discovered this work while he
Speaker 1: was searching for books abroad, and it was the Staganigraphia
Speaker 1: of Johannas Trauthemius, a German abbott and magician of the
Speaker 1: late fifteenth century. It was divided into three books, all
Speaker 1: of which were apparently concerned with the evocation of angels,
Speaker 1: and this was a topic that D was very interested in.
Speaker 1: We'll tell you more about that later. But the first
Speaker 1: two parts actually turned out to be hoaxes. They were
Speaker 1: really the subject of them was really secret codes, and
Speaker 1: only the third part was actually about contacting spirits. So,
Speaker 1: according to mondel Baouma's article, D used this code to
Speaker 1: communicate with Walsingham and disguise the intelligence he'd gathered throwing
Speaker 1: some symbols associated with alchemy in there too. That was
Speaker 1: in the mix so that people would think that they
Speaker 1: were magical writings. It's why some people think of him
Speaker 1: more as a master spy than necessarily a magician. And
Speaker 1: I really love this detail. I mean, I imagine somebody
Speaker 1: intercepting a letter and it looks like it's all about magic.
Speaker 1: And to add to that, you know, there are these
Speaker 1: weird symbols thrown in and it's from old John D.
Speaker 1: Really there's important communications contained. I think that's such an
Speaker 1: interesting tactic for a spy to take. I know, we
Speaker 1: when we talked about Civil War spies, we talked about
Speaker 1: one who would visit the hospitals and fame being crazy
Speaker 1: and this is this reminded me of that. Almost just
Speaker 1: a personality disguise. Almost yeah, something that has the ability
Speaker 1: to tarnish your reputation, but as further in at the
Speaker 1: same time dismiss what you're what you're working on. So
Speaker 1: D did also employ his psychic abilities and occult knowledge
Speaker 1: in this. Walsingham, for example, asked him to cast horoscopes
Speaker 1: to evaluate the queen's marriage options, and he used this
Speaker 1: to determine that neither the Duke Gianjou or his brother
Speaker 1: were suitable marriage partners for the queen, So what other
Speaker 1: intelligence to d obtain? Well, for one thing, he gathered
Speaker 1: a lot of information about Spain, which was England's big
Speaker 1: expansionist rival. He found out about the Armada, the Spanish
Speaker 1: fleet that was designed to overthrow Elizabeth, long before it
Speaker 1: was launched, and in fact, it said that D predicted
Speaker 1: violent storms in eight He used his math and astronomy
Speaker 1: knowledge to predict the weather, I guess, and spread that
Speaker 1: around and Spain had some trouble because of that, because
Speaker 1: of those rumors, they had trouble drumming up volunteers for
Speaker 1: this venture. And then of course the predictions proved to
Speaker 1: be true. Story did destroy many of the Armadas ships.
Speaker 1: And some have wondered if that prediction that he made
Speaker 1: was actually just psychological warfare by the English, or if
Speaker 1: it was actually just that he knew it was really psychic.
Speaker 1: But between those scientific pursuits and the spying, you think
Speaker 1: that d would really have his work cut out for him.
Speaker 1: But he also had some side jobs going on. He
Speaker 1: told fortunes for money. He practiced necromancy with real corpses.
Speaker 1: Basically attempting to communicate with the dead or even raise
Speaker 1: the dead. And on top of that, he would also
Speaker 1: teach the occult arts and alchemy to students for a fee,
Speaker 1: basically as a magician for hire. But one other thing
Speaker 1: that was a real passion of deeds was his efforts
Speaker 1: to communicate with angels. I mean, this guy has so
Speaker 1: much going on, but that was a really strong interest
Speaker 1: of his. He said to have conducted occult experiments with
Speaker 1: crystal gazing that he called scrying the ether and began
Speaker 1: conversing with angelic intelligences this way, and d got more
Speaker 1: and more involved in this. So while some of these
Speaker 1: pursuits seemed pretty well balanced from most of his life,
Speaker 1: this started to take over the other ones from the
Speaker 1: fifteen eighties onward until it really began to dominate his
Speaker 1: life almost entirely. And a lot of people think that
Speaker 1: he changed his focus because he was just so frustrated
Speaker 1: that he couldn't gain a comprehensive understanding of the universe.
Speaker 1: Up until that point. That was what he was striving
Speaker 1: for all along, as we mentioned earlier, to try to
Speaker 1: reconcile the magical aspects of life with the practical aspects
Speaker 1: and the secrets of the universe make it all makes sense,
Speaker 1: and he was frustrated he couldn't do this despite his
Speaker 1: long hours, despite his intelligence, and thought that maybe the
Speaker 1: angels could explain it all it could help him out.
Speaker 1: Another major influence that played a part in this, though,
Speaker 1: was a man named Edward Kelly, not to be confused
Speaker 1: with Ned Kelly another not Ned It's not another Australian podcast,
Speaker 1: But Edward Kelly came to D's life in fifteen eighty
Speaker 1: two and he's often referred to as D's and medium.
Speaker 1: Acording to Encyclopedia Britannica, Kelly was a convicted counterfeiter and
Speaker 1: he claimed that he could contact angels and spirits by
Speaker 1: gazing into a crystal ball. He and D held seances together,
Speaker 1: and D became pretty convinced that Kelly's abilities were actually real.
Speaker 1: The two traveled on the continent together for several years
Speaker 1: in the fifteen eighties, doing displays of magic at various courts,
Speaker 1: and they recorded a language for communicating with angels, which
Speaker 1: is now referred to as a Nokian, and he basically
Speaker 1: claimed that the angels had revealed this language to them.
Speaker 1: Many historians suggest that Kelly was pretty much a con artist,
Speaker 1: doing this for fame and for wealth. According to d
Speaker 1: biographer Wooley, he eventually made a play Ford's wife and
Speaker 1: that's what sort of broke them apart. But D seems
Speaker 1: to have really been sincere in his belief of the stuff,
Speaker 1: and that didn't help him win any friends, and by
Speaker 1: the time he returned to England in fifteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: his reputation had been very much tarnished by his involvement
Speaker 1: in the accall Alton. He found that his library had
Speaker 1: been ransacked and his books and scientific instruments had been stolen,
Speaker 1: and that that great reputation as a practical mind, as
Speaker 1: somebody who was intelligent and and capable of performing all
Speaker 1: these sciences, was really gone. And ultimately the financial support
Speaker 1: that D had longed for from Queen Elizabeth the First
Speaker 1: and that she had sort of promised him to never
Speaker 1: really materialized. She did give him a job, she appointed
Speaker 1: him Warden of Manchester College in fift but that didn't
Speaker 1: pay enough to support D and support his family, and
Speaker 1: was honestly probably just a way to get him out
Speaker 1: of London um away from from giving her a bad
Speaker 1: rap by association. So his friends managed to raise some
Speaker 1: money for him, but still his final years were pretty
Speaker 1: much spent in poverty. He was miserable in Manchester, and
Speaker 1: in sixteen oh five, to add insult to injury, the
Speaker 1: area was hit by plague, killing his wife and several
Speaker 1: of his children too. He of actually returned to London
Speaker 1: and died there in December. He basically spent the end
Speaker 1: of his life trying to fight off the reputation of
Speaker 1: being a conjuror, and that's what many remember him as,
Speaker 1: even though he did so many other things. They're kind
Speaker 1: of faded into the background now. The British Museum, though,
Speaker 1: has some artifacts associated with him that you can check out,
Speaker 1: including a mirror that he probably used in his occult research.
Speaker 1: And for all of the literary minded people out there,
Speaker 1: d is also thought to be Some people actually say
Speaker 1: he's almost certainly the inspiration for a very famous literary
Speaker 1: conjur Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest. So in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways, and some people have said this before, he
Speaker 1: was the quintessential magician and therefore I think it's okay
Speaker 1: submission for Halloween months, even though he wasn't that scarier,
Speaker 1: spooky Thank you so much for joining us on the Saturday.
Speaker 1: If you have heard an email address or a Facebook
Speaker 1: you are l or something similar over the course of
Speaker 1: today's episode, since it is from the archive that might
Speaker 1: be out of date. Now, you can email us at
Speaker 1: history podcast at how stuff Works dot com, and you
Speaker 1: can find us all over social media at missed in
Speaker 1: History and you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: Google podcasts, the I heart Radio app, and wherever else
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts. Stuff You Missed in History Class
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.