The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

eventually complained to the Emperor when his debts remained unpaid. 178 Kelley had fled
Prague to avoid his angry creditors, it was suggested, rather than to evade a Court
conspiracy or return to England to perform alchemy for the Crown. This and similar
reports were unlikely to inspire confidence in the alchemically sceptical Robert Cecil.
During the last months of Kelley‘s imprisonment William Cecil made one last
attempt to ascertain the alchemist‘s intentions. Cecil‘s clerk recorded a payment to William
Hall to courier a message from the Lord Treasurer to Kelley on 28 August 1593. 179
Unfortunately no record remains of the message‘s contents. Perhaps Kelley‘s response was
not to his liking, as from this point onwards Cecil seems to have given up on the rogue
alchemist. Whilst Robert Cecil‘s informants continued to pass on snippets of information
detailing Kelley‘s fluctuating fortunes, English interest in his alchemical potential
diminished. 180
The exact circumstances of Kelley‘s demise are much debated. John Dee recorded
Kelley‘s death on November 25 1595, whilst R.J.W. Evans cites Czech documents showing
that Kelley was alive as late as 22 May 1597. 181 The muddled accounts of Kelley‘s death
describe his death from injuries suffered during an attempted prison escape, and are often
confused with tales of the death of the fictitious Scottish alchemist, Alexander Seton. 182 Jan
Backlund suggests that these English accounts, uncorroborated by any Czech sources, may
have been the result of deliberate misinformation, possibly from Kelley himself. 183
Regardless, Cecil‘s expectations for the alchemical profits of Edward Kelley are
nothing short of remarkable. He sincerely believed that Kelley‘s transmutation could be
the key to saving England from Spanish aggression. This belief justified Cecil orchestrating
178 Ibid.
179 Wilding, ‗A Biography of Edward Kelly‘, p. 73.
180 Seth Cocks to Robert Cecil, 8 April 1595, TNA, SP 881/1 f.221.
181 Halliwell (ed.), The Private Diary, p. 54; Evans, Rudolf II, p. 227.
182 See Rafal T. Prinke, ‗The Twelfth Adept: Michael Sendivogius in Rudolphine Prague‘ in John Matthews
(ed.), The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited, New York, 1999.
183 Jan Backlund, ‗In the Footsteps of Edward Kelley‘, p. 298.
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