The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

great pleasure in the workes of Nature & Arte [a common euphemism for alchemy]‖. 133
Elizabeth Spiller argues that Whalley may have hoped to use alchemy to finance Somerset‘s
restoration. 134 If so, it is remarkable that Whalley, a close associate of Cecil, would pin his
political hopes to Eden‘s alchemical success. Inevitably however, within two years the pair
had fallen out over the lack of progress. As alchemically multiplying metals without a
licence was illegal, Eden confessed their activities to the authorities. 135 Whilst Whalley was
imprisoned, the Privy Council, including Cecil, let Eden off with a promise to refrain from
unlicensed transmutation in the future. 136 The episode reveals an interest in philosophical
and practical alchemy at the Edwardian Court not appreciated by previous historians.
Surviving the failure of his alchemical schemes, Eden sought to strengthen his ties
to the newly knighted Sir William Cecil, becoming his private secretary in 1552. 137 Most
have attributed Eden‘s appointment as an attempt to publicise the Earl of
Northumberland‘s planned voyages to America and the Far East. While the publication of
Eden‘s translation A Treatyse of the Newe India in 1553 suggests that Cecil valued Eden as a
publicist for the developing imperial agenda of the period, Eden‘s intellectual and
alchemical interests would have also appealed to the privy counsellor. 138 He certainly knew
of Eden‘s experiments for Whalley. Eden probably ended his employment as private
secretary sometime after 1554, as ―in the time of Queen Mary, he was again placed in the
treasury of King Phillip, through the favour of certain Spanish nobles‖. 139 His fawning
admiration for the Spanish empire in his translation of The Decades of the Newe World or West
India (1555) likely reflects this favour. However, coming under suspicion of heresy near the
end of 1555, Eden was forced to surrender his office. 140
133 Ibid.
134 Elizabeth Spiller, Science, Reading, and Renaissance Literature: the Art of Making Knowledge, 1580-1670,
Cambridge, 2004, p.187n.
135 Kitching, ‗‗Alchemy in the Reign of Edward VI‘, p. 309.
136 John Roche Dasent (ed.), APC, Volume IV: A.D. 1552–1554, London, 1892, p. 279.
137 Hadfield, ‗Eden, Richard‘.
138 Richard Eden, Treatise on the Newe World or West India, London, 1555.
139 Eden, in Arber, The First Three English Books on America, p. 408.
140 Ibid.
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