The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

others, he must have known the news would get back to England. 95 The angels, through
Kelley, told Dee that Francis Garland was ―an espy upon us from the Lord Treasurer of
England‖. 96 Whilst there is no further evidence of this, Francis was certainly
communicating information to Francis Walsingham, the head of the Elizabethan
intelligence network. 97
By late November 1587 Cecil and the Queen, through the courtier Edward Dyer,
began their efforts to convince Kelley to return home to perform alchemy for the English
Crown. 98 A member of the Earl of Leicester‘s retinue, Dyer studied alchemy and
metallurgy with Dee after his arrival at Court in 1566. 99 The high cost of Court attendance,
along with the notorious expense of alchemical experimentation, perhaps explain why Dyer
remained mired in debt throughout his life. 100 When, in July 1580, Dyer travelled to
Bohemia on Cecil‘s behalf, he made it clear that the English Court‘s interests lay in Kelley‘s
alchemical abilities. The Court‘s preference for Kelley was a blatant sub to Dee; he
recorded in his diary that ―Dier did injure me unkindly‖. 101 With the Spanish Armada
anchored in Calais, the English government wanted Kelley‘s gold making abilities to fund
their defence against the coming invasion. Although Dyer was unable to convince Kelley to
return, Dee must have realised that his chances of English favour relied on his former
assistant. Attaching himself to Kelley‘s coattails, Dee wrote to Queen Elizabeth in
November 1588, congratulating her on the English victory over the Armada and accepting
her invitation ―calling me, Mr Kelley, and our families home, into your British earthly
paradise‖. 102
95 John Dee quoted in Parry, The Arch-Conjuror of England.
96 Dee, Casaubon (ed.), A True & Faithful Relation, second pagination p. 12.
97 John Dee to Francis Walsingham, 17 June 1587, TNA, SP 15/30/30.
98 Parry, The Arch-Conjuror of England.
99 Sargent, The Life and Lyrics, p. 40
100 Ibid. pp. 150-55.
101 Dee, The Private Diary, p. 28.
102 John Dee to Queen Elizabeth, November 1588, reproduced in Henry Ellis (ed.), Original Letters of Eminent
Literary Men of the 16 th , 17 th and 18 th Centuries, London, 1843, pp. 45-46.
92