The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

Medley ―by commaundement mencyoned in a special warrant in wryttinge, under the
handes of the right honourable Erles of Warwick and Leycester, for what cause we do not
knowe‖. 140 Cecil, however, had clearly not given up on the alchemical abilities of his
kinsman, and requested Medley‘s bail in order to discuss the project with him further. The
sheriffs replied that unfortunately this would not be possible due to ―another specyall
warrant signed by their honors to kepe the said Meadley more closer prisoner‖. 141 This
personal intervention by Leicester and Warwick challenges historians‘ assumptions that
Medley was imprisoned for debt arising from the Society‘s operation. Cecil, not in a strong
position, and likely not particularly pleased with Medley himself, decided not to antagonise
the powerful Dudleys, and dropped the matter.
While Medley may have brought Leicester‘s fury on himself, evidence also suggests
that his loss of patronage made him vulnerable to one of the campaigns of slander, forgery
and intrigue which plagued Elizabethan politics. It may be that Medley‘s monopoly of
alchemical patronage antagonised others who relied on alchemical promises. A letter from
Lady Mary Sydney to Cecil exposes the identity of Medley‘s adversary. 142 Lady Sydney, wife
of Sir Henry Sydney and sister of Leicester and Warwick, had developed a friendship with
Medley during her husband and brothers‘ involvement in the alchemical project. Strype
presumed that Cecil ignored her opinion, ―knowing better than she what kind of man he
[Medley] was‖. 143 Lady Sydney‘s letters, however, reveal that Medley‘s imprisonment
resulted from the
contineulle mallisius persecutinge the same, by [John] Prestall, [Thomas]
Curtes, and souche other, who wer but envyuys only to Med[ley] upon
some old grudge amoungth them. 144
John Prestall, a Catholic gentleman and conspirator who spent his life in and out of prison
on treason charges, would have resented Medley‘s monopoly on alchemical patronage.
140 Edward Osborne and Wolstan Dixie to Cecil, 12 September1576, Hatfield House, Cecil Papers, M485/42.
141 Ibid.
142 Mary Sidney to Cecil, 29 September 1576, BL, Lansdowne Vol. 23, No. 81.
143 Strype, The Life of the Learned Sir Thomas Smith, p. 105.
144 Sidney to Cecil, Lansdowne Vol. 23, No. 81.
143