The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

thanked Wotton for his letter detailing the ―woordes and deedes spoken and done by
Medleye‖. 150 The problem was that Wotton had never written such a letter. Wotton
responded that
if the Medleye mentioned in yor letter be not Henrye or Wylliam ... I
neither know the man nor the matter; neyther was I (nor this that I have
said standing trewe, coulde I be), the authoure of the letter that yowe wryt
of. 151
While Wotton was pleased that the Earl has found the contents of the letter useful, he
―wolde have wyshed the partie his selfe under his owne name to have taken the praise and
thanncks of his owne doynge‖. 152 Even Wotton, inexperienced with Court intrigue,
recognised that ―such brutes as tende to the infamie and suche accusations as tende to the
peril of anye personne‖ should be ―neither loved nor lightlie beleeved thone, nor used
thother.‖ 153
As Leicester and Warwick‘s records are now largely lost, it is difficult to determine
the extent of Prestall‘s attempts to discredit Medley. It is unlikely that he limited himself to
just one forged letter. Prestall may have employed Vincent Murphyn, his brother in law
and frequent accomplice, to orchestrate a campaign of forgery against Medley, as he had
against John Dee in 1563. 154
In October 1578, while Medley still languished in prison, fear of occult magic
wracked the Court, eventually destroying Prestall‘s credibility. 155 The discovery of three wax
images, one bearing the name ‗Elizabeth‘, under a dung heap in Islington, amplified the
concerns about conspiracies of the always paranoid Privy Council into full blown panic. 156
Presuming the images were a magical attack upon the Queen—the premise being that as
the wax melted the Queen would grow sick and die—the Councillors looked to Dee to
150 Thomas Wotton to the Earl of Leicester, 2 October 1576, in G. Eland (ed.) Thomas Wotton’s Letter-Book:
1574–1586, London, 1960, p. 12.
151 Ibid.
152 Ibid.
153 Ibid.
154 Parry, The Arch-Conjuror of England.
155 Medley remained in confinement until at least October 1577, as he still languished in the Counter when his
servant, Anthony Egleston, assaulted a Florentine gentleman Piero Capony. It is unclear what motivated the
assault or whether it was related to any of Medley‘s previous problems. See APC Vol. 10 1577–78, p. 393.
156 Parry, The Arch-Conjuror of England.
145