You're listening to part two of Unexplained, Season seven, episode eighteen, A Dance with Mister d. It is late October in fifteen fifty eight. Queen Mary is bedbound in her chambers at Saint James's Palace in London. She flitters from bouts of lucidity to states of deep confusion in the grip of some terrible malady. At times, she calls out in the middle of the night in distress, saying that she has gone blind, she is dying. Mary's life had not
been an easy one. As a child, she suffered from constant fevers, depression, and anorexia, not surprising considering the cruelty of her father, Henry the Eighth. When her mother, Catherine of Arrogant, was ostracized after Henry jettisoned her for Anne Boleyn, Mary was forbidden from seeing her, and, as he did with her mother, Henry often threatened Mary with death, and it was no empty threat at that. He called her illegitimate and denied her the right to call herself a princess.
When Mary's mother finally succumbed to illness in fifteen thirty five, Mary was denied the opportunity to say her goodbyes. As Mary lay dying in October fifteen fifty eight, some believed she'd finally succumb to the melancholy that had dogged her all her life, though it is more likely she was suffering from an aspecse vily virulent strain of influenza that
swept across Europe that year. Towards the end, she would come round from bouts of fever to tell of the extraordinary dreams she'd been having and the visions of young angelic children she'd seen dancing around her bed. In the early hours of November seventeenth, a deep gasp escaped her lips, her rib cage expanded for one last time, and then
her body was still. The queen was dead. Earlier that month, the Catholic Mary amended her will to confirm that her sister, the Protestant leaning Elizabeth, would be her rightful successor, and so a week after Mary's death, Elizabeth arrived in London to a rapturous reception from her supporters. As city dignitaries stood in line to greet her, Elizabeth offered her hand to be kissed by each of them. One after another, took it and planted a soft kiss on the outside
of her glove. But when Elizabeth got to Catholic Bishop Edmund Bonner, John Dee's employer and the man who'd done so much to root out Mary's Protestant enemies, she withdrew her hand before he had a chance to take it. Elizabeth herself had at one point been held under arrest in the Tower of London, accused of plotting against Queen Mary. It was not a good sign for Bonner or his
fellow Catholic bishops and their associates. But while many would soon find themselves exiled or imprisoned indefinitely, John d miraculously once again escaped to the worst of it. Chief among Elizabeth's immediate concerns was selecting a date for her coronation, and the stakes could not have been higher. Though she had no immediate realistic challenges to the throne, her position was a precarious one. A deeply unsettled nation was about to welcome its fourth monarch in just over five years.
That Elizabeth was female only made the job of asserting her authority or the more difficult. Many openly despised the sheer idea of women in positions of power or as influential Scottish minister John Knox put it, such a thing was repugnant to nature. On top of that, where a series of strange, unsettling prophecies coming from across channel in France, made by a man named Michel de Nostre Dame or Nostrodamis.
He predicted that when Elizabeth took the throne, England would suffer many calamities, weepings and mournings, with civil unrest in which the lowest in society would rise up against the highest. Like most people of the time, Queen Elizabeth was deeply superstitious and convinced of the power of astrology. She wanted to make sure that the day of her coronation was one that could give her the most luck for a successful reign, one that the very stars in the sky
had picked out for her. She needed not just someone of high learning to calculate it for her, but someone with a suggestion of sorcery and arcane knowledge about them, someone who people felt would bring more more than mere logic to the equation to help prevent the dire predictions from coming true. There was nobody better for it than John d At the time d still lived in Upton, just outside of the city of London. There, the local children was said to run screaming from him in fright.
Such was his growing reputation as a magician and conjurer. Only a few weeks after Mary's death, d received the request to make a judgment on what would be the best day for Elizabeth to begin her reign. No sooner had he received it, d was in his library frantically searching his shelves for any ancient texts to seek out
precedents and auguries of good fortune for the day. Having compiled everything he needed, he drew up a horoscope and concluded that January the fifth, fifteenth fifteen fifty nine was the optimum day. As was explained to the Queen in waiting later on that day, Jupiter would be in Aquarius, which promised impending greatness and statesmanship, while Mars was in Scorpio, meaning that Elizabeth would have the necessary passion and commitment
to be the country's monarch. Elizabeth was impressed. Queen Elizabeth's coronation was an all day spectacle, involving the new queen being taken through the throng streets of London on a golden litter, essentially a large ornate box carried by servants. The parade was embellished with a series of five pageants
designed to be essentially brand establishing propaganda. The pageant themes variously stressed the new monarch's virtuousness, her Englishness, and her descent from a family that had ended years of civil war in England. The fifth pageant drew parallels between her and Deborah, an Old Testament prophet who supposedly rescued the House of Israel, then ruled successfully for forty years, and once again John D was at the center of it all.
But not long after Elizabeth was crowned, D completely disappeared. For several years, There was no historical record of where he went and what he was doing. The most likely explanation is that he returned to Europe in pursuit of a new quest. When known accounts of D resume in February fifteen sixty three, he was staying at an inn called the Sign of the Golden Angel in Antwerp, Belgium.
This time, it seems D's quest was to understand the Kabbalah, a mysterious text containing ancient Hebrew knowledge based on mathematics and mysticism going back to the first century. This text was said to contain the secrets of the universe. Among its most important insights was the apparent role of angels, who were said to provide the key to understanding God. Antwerp was a bustling merchant town as well as home to numerous printing presses and publishing houses, with the booksellers galore,
which was why D was there. He was hunting a rumored copy of one of the most secret valuable manuscripts of the age, of which there were said to be only three or four copies in existence, Called the Steganographia, It was written by a German abbot called Johannes Trithemius and was essentially one of the first ever works on cryptography the science of codes. D finally got his hands on a copy and spent a feverish ten days copying
it out. The book outlined an elaborate system for sending messages between two people, like an early version of the Second World War German code making machine, the Enigma, except rather than utilizing a machine, this system required the user to utilize an incantation to summon spirits, who would then communicate the coded transmissions between sender and recipient. After finding the steganographia, John D was eager to return to England and determined to make his way into Queen Elizabeths in
a circle. He excitedly wrote to one of Elizabeth's key advisers, William Cecil, describing the mysterious book and its rituals. He believed it would be of great use to the nation as it could help decipher other texts like the Book of Souger, thought to contain a divine message from God, which was supposedly written in the first ever language that was spoken by Adam, the first human being. But Cecil, who had no time for or belief in codes that
required invoking help from spirits, was unimpressed. D finally returned to England in June fifteen sixty four and made renewed attempts to secure a post at the Royal Court. He approached William Cecil again and offered to take on the role as the Queen's court philosopher. D described how his years of travel, his great knowledge, and his acquaintance with many of the great thinkers of the day meant that
he was ideal for such a post. He promised to bring the wealth of Renaissance, Europe's finest thinking to England, but again Cecil was uninterested. Under ThReD D made his way to the Queen's court at Greenwich Palace, accompanied by a noble woman who'd offered to reintroduce him to the Queen. A short time later, the tall and slender D, with his long, pointy beard, found himself in the royal presence chamber, surrounded by courtiers who chatted politely among themselves as gentle
music from minstrels suffused the room. Then eventually he was brought before the sumptuously clothed, bejeweled and heavily perfumed Queen. Bowing deeply, John D produced a book from the folds of his gown. It was the Monus Hieroglyphica, a controversial text containing what many considered to be pagan magical ideas, including astrology, cosmology, and mathematics. It was a huge gamble that could easily have repulsed the Queen, but instead, she was intrigued. She asked D to stay and disclose the
book's secrets to her. John D and Queen Elizabeth sat side by side as D patiently took her through the text Elizabeth was entranced as D proceeded to explain all about the strain astrological symbols it contained. After that, D gained regular audiences with the Queen, the kind of access that was most unusual for someone who wasn't of noble birth.
Over the next few years, he was frequently called to court to converse with her, including on matters of some intimacy, such as her proposed marriage to the Duke of Anjou. It was said that the pair developed their own code language to relay messages to one another, and that they even used code names for each other. In his diaries, D used the capital letter E topped with a crown
whenever he wrote about Elizabeth. The Queen who called D at this time her special eyes denoted him with two zeros to represent eyes, followed by D's favorite mystical number seven. D became the first double O seven agent in Her Majesty's service. It was said that Elizabeth had a strong sense of the cosmological forces supposedly acting on her, and that she felt D provided the kind of mystical revelations to help her govern which other members of her administration
could not. She took to referring to D as my philosopher. When a strange wax effigy of the Queen was found under a tree in Lincoln's Inn Fields in the center of London, stuck all over with pig bristles, John D was called on to determine its meaning. When the Queen suddenly fell ill of an undiagnosed mystery illness, D was once again called to determine its severity. And when one night an unusually bright star was observed in the sky, it was D who was asked to decipher what it meant.
Despite John D's devotion to the Queen and what some believed was a magical hold over her, he was never offered the official position of court philosopher that he so desired. Nonetheless, D continued his studies of astronomy, astrology, alchemy and magic, with the ultimate goal of understanding the truth of the universe. In fifteen sixty six, D moved in with his mother, who lived in a ramshackled, sprawling cottage in Mortlake, a village by the Thames about eight miles west of London.
On moving in, D set about arranging the massive collection of books and manuscripts he'd amassed on all his train. Among them was Johannes de Burgo's occult text Treatise on Magic and Secretum Secretorum are treatise on the Nature of Immortality attributed to Aristotle. Before long, D's mother's cottage was transformed into one of the largest libraries in Europe. It was so big, D even added extensions to the building, as well as acquiring neighboring buildings to house all the material.
Neighbours spoke of laboratories that he'd also set up, full of all kinds of apparatus containing unknown substances that bubbled away mysteriously. No one saw his inner sanctum, though, D's most private study, where he stored his magical equipment and books like Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's fifteen thirty one Tome Diaculta
for Low Sophia about the powers of magic. This was a time of growing interest in alchemy, a medieval type of chemistry which its adherents insisted could transform elements and materials into other elements and materials. The major focus was to find a method of converting base metals into gold via a secret ingredient known as the fabled Philosopher's Stone not an object as such, but rather a chemical concoction. If one could establish the correct recipe for it, they
could be wealthy beyond their dreams. It was also rumored to make anyone who drank it immortal, though no one knows exactly what D was doing in his laboratory. In the early fifteen seventies, he fell seriously ill. Much of alchemy revolved around the use of mercury, which is a high toxic substance. D would eventually recover, but by the time he was well enough to continue his work, he
was broke once again. In desperation, he wrote to the Queen's court and was granted another patronage of a few hundred pounds per annum, But it wasn't enough because D had set his sights on a new series of experiments. For these, he would need enough money to dedicate months and months of his time concentrating solely on the task at hand. If successful, he would have the power to
grant anybody whatever they wanted. In November fifteen seventy seven, something strange appeared suddenly in the night sky, as bright as the moon. It was some kind of celestial object that seemed to shimmer from a burning fire inside a dazzling cloud, with a vast dusty tail stretching out behind it. Observers all over the world were mystified and horrified in equal measure. To a number of the Queen's advisers, it
was a clear portent of doom. A few days later, Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's chief spy, uncovered an Austrian plot to unseat the queen. As the Queen and her courtiers debated how best to respond, John d attempted to speak with the Queen once again to request a recognition as her court's official philosopher to raise more money for his new experiments. Dee was forced to wait his turn for an audience, and by the time he got it it
was clear his chance gone. However, visiting the Queen at the same time was a rather loud, stout, and sturdy looking man with a fetching mustache. The man was Francis Drake, a slave trader, privateer, and a constant thorn in the side of King Philip the Second of Spain, whose nation was the leading colonial power of the time. Drake had come to update the Queen on an epic voyage he was preparing to embark on that she and a number
of her associates were financing. The plan was to complete a circumnavigation of the globe to discover what other lands might exist in the world that they could exploit, while taking out as many Spanish vessels as they could along the way. John d saw a golden opportunity. With all his knowledge and experience of cartoggraphy and being close to some of the world's greatest cartographers, he offered his services
in assisting the voyage with the Queen's full attention. Once again, he outlined a scheme for England to lay claim to the fabled New World in a direct challenge to the King of Spain. As he told the Queen, it was based on some historical and magic research that he'd been apparently carrying out for a while. It revealed that now was the time for her reign to shift into a new expansionist phase in pursuit of what he called a new British Empire. The Queen couldn't help but be impressed.
A short time later, Dee presented her with his Britannity Imperial Limiter, the limits of the British Empire. In it, he predicted that the English Navy would become the key weapon with which he could challenge the King of Spain's global supremacy. D's immediate financial future was once again secured. It was time to start the next phase of his experiments. Thick velvet curtains are drawn across the windows of a wood paneled study to keep out the chill of the
midwinter night. At its center stands a great wooden desk, surrounded on all sides by endless bookshelves stuffed with books and papers. Stacks of books and manuscripts litter the desk in untidy heaps or pushed to one side. In their place are two tall, white, flickering candles, the only light in the room besides that cast by glowing embers smoldering
in a large stone fireplace. Two bearded men sit across from each other, both gazing intently into a large crystal orb on the floor between them that scatters sparkles of light across the dim chamber. The men are John d and his associate Barnabas Saw, and they are sitting in D's in a sanctum. It's mid December of fifteen eighty one, but in that moment, time seems to have completely stopped. Huh, I see him clearly, says Saul in a hushed voice.
Welcome a Nal, he says with a dramatic flourish. An Ale was said to be one of the seven Angels of creation. D was convinced he was the angel of Intelligence who roared over the entire world. On the way Saul describes the entity he's claiming to see in the orb, D isn't so sure it's him. Ask him to identify himself, urges D, gazing into the ball, where, sadly, unlike Saul,
he sees nothing. Saul hesitates for a moment. Barnabas Saul, a self proclaimed Scria crystal gazer and channeler of spirits and angels, arrived at Mortlake a few days before, claiming to have rare books to sell to D. D had enough knowledge of books and booksellers to doubt he had anything he needed, but was impressed by the man's apparent sensitivity for the occult. At the time, D was on the lookout for a partner to help him with his latest experiment, the thing he'd been building up to all
this time. An attempt to contact angels. Though D had the material knowledge of what was required, he knew deep down that he wasn't possessed with the kind of psychic sensitivity that he believed was needed to make contact. What he needed was a scria, someone with the supposed power to communicate with other entities. So D took a chance on Saul and asked him to stay at his house
and assist him. Before long, they were ensconced in his study, chanting incantations into the air as they worked through spell after spell from these many occult texts. Back in the study on that mid December night, Saul's face contorts strangely. Aha, a second spirit has now appeared, he exclaims. D stares harder into the crystal orb, though he still can't see anything other than the reflected flames of the candles. He senses the light glitter and flash even brighter as it
dances in the darkness above the men's heads. This one is very beautiful, continued Saul. He's clothed in glittering gold robes. Beams of light blazed from his head. He has eyes of fire as Barnabas Saul continues to describe the entity in the crystal orb, D can feel the hairs rise up on the back of his neck. Now this sounded
more like a nail. I can see characters writ upon the crystal in shining gold, explained Saul, who hurriedly scribbles them down and passes the paper to D. It's Hebrew, says D, taking excitedly ask him if any angel is assigned to this stone, presses D, grabbing one of the other smaller crystals nearby and placing it next to the orb. Saul. Julia reports that this second crystal would in due course reveal the archangel Michael, as named in the Holy Scriptures.
A nail foretells that Michael shall appear to thee after Christmas, says Saul. He says, thou must prepare thyself to prayer and fasting, and in the name of God, be secret. D laps it all up. I am a nail. I will take my leave now, says Saul, spelling out the name letter by letter A N N A E L. D frowns. The angel's name was spelt with only one N. Either the angel didn't know how to spell its own name, or Saw had been mistaken, or he'd been making the
whole thing up all along. Early in the new year, Barnabas Saul was accused of committing the crime of consulting with spirits. It's unclear why D was not included in the charge. Perhaps Saul had been less secretive in his work for other clients. At his hearing the following month, Saul was acquitted due to a lack of evidence, But on returning from court, perhaps fearful of another prosecution, Saul admitted to D that he neither saw or heard spiritual
creatures anymore. D was once again on his own, but the news was out that he was looking for a spiritual partner to fulfill his ambition. Then, on the afternoon of March eighth, there came a knock at his door. Waiting for him. On the doorstep was a mister Clerkson, an agent for men purporting to be spirit mediums looking for wealthy clients. Clerkson had brought with him a so called friend of his, who he introduced as twenty six year old Edward Talbot. Perhaps he could be the man
that D was looking for, Clerkson suggested. D. Agreed to meet them for dinner the following day to discuss the idea further. Later that evening, as it approached midnight, D was poring over a manuscript in his study when he sensed a shift in the air. All about the room was ablaze with a strange red ambient light. D rushed outside and stared up in disbelief. The entire night sky appeared to be burning in fiery flames, as though a great fire had just risen above the earth. D should
have taken it as a sign. You've been listening to Part two of Unexplained Season seven, episode eighteen, A Dance with Mister D. Part three will be released next Friday, April fifth. This episode was written by Diane Hope and Richard McClain smith. Unexplained as an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained.
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