On this day in Tudor history, 26th March 1609, John Dee, astrologer, mathematician, alchemist, antiquary, spy, philosopher, geographer and adviser to Elizabeth I, died.
John Dee was a fascinating Tudor man and someone who narrowly missed getting into big trouble for his hobbies. Alchemy, talking with angels, mathematics... what wasn't he into?
Book recommendation: "The Arch-Conjuror of England: John Dee" by Glyn Parry.
I go into more detail on Dee in my Claire Chats video.
Also on this day in history:
- 1533 – Convocation was asked to pronounce on the validity of a papal dispensation allowing a man to marry his brother’s widow, the man and widow in question being Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.
- 1546 – Death of Sir Thomas Elyot, humanist scholar and diplomat. He was buried at Carleton Parish Church in Cambridgeshire. Elyot's works include the 1531 treatise “The Boke named the Governour”, the 1536 medical treatise “The Castell of Helth”, his 1538 “Latin Dictionary” and a number of translations.
- 1566 - The Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker, and Bishop of London, Edmund Grindal, summoned one hundred and ten ministers to Lambeth Palace to get them to pledge their willingness to wear vestments, as worn by Robert Cole, a former non-conformist who now complied.
- 1618 – Death of John Bridges, Dean of Salisbury in Elizabeth I's reign and Bishop of Oxford in James I's reign, at Marsh Baldon, Oxfordshire. He was buried there.