You're listening to part three of Unexplained, Season seven, episode eighteen, A Dance with Mister d. Back in March fifteen eighty two,
a story was doing the rounds in London. It was about an event that took place in a park one night under cover of moonlight, on the outskirts of Walton in the Dale, some two hundred miles northwest of the capitol, A long bearded young man wearing a hooded cloak walks gingerly with a cane on his head is a black skull cap pulled down low above the ears, the tops of which just discernible under the soft light of the moon,
have been completely chopped off. The man is accompanied by an associate and Thomas Langton, the local lord of the manor. He is there to conduct a ritual at Langton's request, to determine what the future holds in store for the lord. And so the bearded man strides on into the depths of the park until on finding the perfect spot, he tells the others to stop. Then, taking out a large book from within his cloak, he bids his associate to
light a candle. Under the orange glow of the single flame, the man speaks an incantation into the still night air. It's a message for the devil, or rather a request for the information that Thomas Langton so desperately craves, how long does he have left to live? And in what manner will he die? Precisely with the incantation over, the strange bearded man asks Langton's servant if he knows of
any recent burials at a nearby church. The servant replies yes, as it happens, a recently executed criminal had just been buried there that very afternoon. The man in the cloak asks to be taken there straight away. Moments later, the group are standing next to the fresh burial mount, whereupon Langton's servant is instructed to dig up the body immediately. When the executed man's carcass is finally unearthed, the cloaked man bids his associate to light the candle once more
before continuing the incantation. As the words flow from the man's mouth, much to Langton's horror, the dead man's stiff, rubbery eyelids spring open to reveal two milky eyeballs rolled back in their sockets. Then, from out of the body's grotesque, twisted mouth comes the most hideous voice delivered to them
from the very bowels of Hell. A short time later, a pale and shaking Thomas Langton as all the information he needs, and the bearded, hooded, cloaked man a reputation for necromancy that would precede him from that point on almost everywhere he went. On March eighth, fifteen eighty two, a few hours before that strange display of fiery lights in the sky that John Dee had witnessed at Mortlake, this same man arrived at Dee's home. His name, he said,
was Edward Talbot. Throughout the fifteen seventies, John d was busy with conventional scholarly activities. He edited an addition of Euclid's Elements, writing a famous preface justifying the study of mathematics. D also observed the same supernova in fifteen seventy two that the much revered astronomer Tycho Brahe is often praised for, and in fifteen seventy three he wrote a book outlining the trigonomic methods he used to find the distance to
this new star. Brahey is said to have greatly admired D's work. No one knows for sure, exactly when these scholarly interests began to deviate into more occult realms in his diaries, The first reference to overtly magical and spiritual activities appears in June fifteen seventy nine. D's own term for crystal gazing and his attempts to contact angels was optical science, which he considered no different from any other
scientific observations he made. The principal method he employed was scrying, the act of looking into some kind of material, usually with a dull reflective surface, in which the observer or scria would claim to see other worldly entities or images of the future. Despite these absolute belief in the method, he was never able to see anything himself, and so relied on others to conduct the experiments on his behalf.
Shortly before Edward Talbot showed up at his door, d had just parted ways with one supposed squire, Barnabas Saul, who he no longer trusted. When he and Talbot had dinner together the day after they were first introduced, Talbot was quick to twist the knife in He told D that Barnabas Saw was a well known commat among the fraternity of squires. And Mediums of England. D quickly warmed
to Talbot. Despite the man's reputation, D had not heard of him before, but was impressed to learn that he'd been a student at Oxford University, the nation's highest seat of learning, so when Talbot offered to demonstrate his prowess the following day, D was more than happy to take
him up on the offer. It isn't known what D made of Edward Talbot exactly at that first meeting, whether he noticed the cropped ears under Talbot's skullcap or the many unusual scars on his face, all signs that the man had endured numerous punishments for committing crimes, or what he made of the young man's lameness as D led him through the narrow halls of his home the next day and into his private study, as Talbot walked stiffly
and uncomfortably behind him with his cane. Once inside the study, D closed the double doors behind them and beckoned Talbot to join him by his desk. Then he picked up the crystal ball in which Barnabas saw claimed he'd seen the archangel Michael, and placed it on the desktop. At the mere sight of it Talbot collapsed to his knees,
his apparent lameness seemingly completely gone. The crystal ball glinted darkly on top of John Dee's desk as Talbot began to pray loudly for the power to contact the spirits. Sensing a shift in the atmosphere, D hurried into an adjoining chamber and began his own prayers, asking for what he called good creatures to appear and help them in their quest. Fifteen minutes later, Talbot called him back to the study. A figure was beginning to emerge inside the ball,
he said. As Talbot continued to gaze at the orb with intense concentration, he relayed the figure's description to D and then its name, Uriel. This, as D knew well, was the angel said to have buried the body of Adam with the archangel Michael, and to have warned Noah of the great flood. D stared into the ball, but once again could see only the flickering reflected light from
the room around them. He looked back to Talbot, whose face was now screwed up with an increasing intensity, his eyes not deviating once from the ball, Sensing the moment might be over any minute, D blurted out a series of questions for Talbot to ask Uriel. Talbot duly complied, hastily relaying them back to the apparent angel, until finally he was seemingly released from the crystal ball's grip. Breathlessly, he apologized to d Uriel had not been able to
answer the questions. They would need to make contact with the archangel Michael. They agreed to reconvene that afternoon. Elsewhere in the house, D's third wife, Jane Frommond, was looking after the couple's two young children. As is typical with many accounts of men's life from this period, there are few recorded details of John D's wives. The first was Catherine Constable, who died in fifteen seventy four. The name
of his second wife is not known at all. She died a year after they were married, in fifteen seventy six, possibly during childbirth. Neither were survived by children. D's third wife, Jane, had been an assistant or lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth the first. She was twenty three when they married in fifteen seventy eight, D was fifty one. On spying D's latest assistant, Jane asked for a word with her husband. The strange man made her feel uncomfortable. She said he
shouldn't trust him, but D waived her concerns away. Later, as D and Talbot prepared for their second seance of the day, Talbot turned suddenly serious. Ever since first stepping inside D's home, he said he'd been aware of an evil presence, and now he was certain the house had been possessed by an evil spirit named Lundrum Gupher, and it was threatening the safety of D and his family. But there was nothing to be worried about. He said
he would take care of it the following day. By the middle of the afternoon, John D's whole house swirled with acrid, yellowish fumes. Throughout the property, small piles of brimstone or sulfur had been set alight to smoke out the evil spirit. While back in D's study and Talbot sat once again gazing into the crystal ball, Talbot let out a gasp. He could see something. He said. It was some kind of creature clothed in gold and purple robes, a glowing garland on its head, and sparkling eyes. Just
then a second figure appeared. It was the angel Uriel, Talbot said. He continued on excitedly telling D everything that was apparently happening inside the crystal ball, and how Uriel then threw the spirit into a great pit before a third, even more awesome creature appeared in the crystal, blowing like the sun, while seated in a resplendent chair, surrounded by a host of angels. This spirit, Talbot claimed, was the archangel Michael. Three days later, D and Talbot convened for
yet another seance. This time, Talbot described how a new figure of a man, his identity hidden by a long hooded robe, joined the angels Uriel and Michael. Talbot then described how the angels took off this man's robe, dressed him in silk, placed a laurel wreath on his head, then commanded him to kneel before the archangel Michael, who then held up a sword and dubbed the man as if making him a knight. The kneeling man is now rising to stand, explained Talbot excitedly. He's turning now I
can see his face. D waited with bated breath. My God, gasped Talbot, he has your face, Sir John D's eyes widened in disbelief and grew damp. He had been anointed by the great archangel Michael himself. It was the realization of one of his wildest dreams. Over the next several months, D and Talbot carried out numerous seances. Talbot was the communicator with the spirit realm as he gazed into the
crystal while D asked the questions. All manner of angels, including Raphael and Gabriel, supposedly spoke to Talbot in sweet, booming voices that D was sadly unable to hear. Sometimes the angels would spell out characters to Talbot, which D would transcribe. At one point, the apparent angel Gaines Abriel was said to have provided the recipe for a medicine
which healed D's wife of a vicious ailment. D and Talbot then embarked on a quest to find the names of what were said to be the forty seven Good Angels. But first, according to Talbot, D would need to gain fluency in their language, which was called Inochian, in order to communicate properly with the angelic realm. To do this, Talbot told him they had to craft an angel scrying station. It consisted of a nine inch wide carved wax seal
placed at the center of a square wooden table. Each leg of that table was also placed on wax, and the whole table anointed with oil. Talbot would then speak these questions into the crystal ball, and the apparent angels would reply through his fingers make them move along the patterns of the wax seal. The resultant messages would be written down in the form of elaborate tables, each cell
containing a number and a letter. Each table purported to explain topics such as the gain and trade of merchandise, the motion of the air, and divine government, and in this way, varied and elaborate instructions were apparently conveyed to the men by the angels. Some instructions related to contemporary events around the world, including wars, rumors of wars, and the predicted coming of an emperor who would purge corruption
and unify Christendom. The archangel Michael himself was also said to have revealed an important message about the relationship between divine and earthly powers. Although Edward Talbot's supposed angelic transmissions were sometimes only semi coherent, It's believed that Dee told Queen Elizabeth's key adviser, William Cecil, among others of the
most important insights. Though it isn't known exactly what was conveyed in these meetings, they just so happened to coincide with one of the greatest periods of English imperial expansion. Throughout this period, John Dee, who was still revered for his intellect and skills in cartography, developed close friendships with several explorers, including Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh.
For the most part, it seems the authorities were well aware of John De's magical dabblings, sometimes it said, taking action based on his predictions, while turning a blind eye to the inherent illegality of D's seances. Around that time, there were also several failed plots to overthrow Queen Elizabeth, including most famously from the Catholic Mary Stuart, better known as Mary, Queen of Scots, who'd emerged as a rival
for the English throne in the fifteen sixties. It may have been for this reason that d received several visits from one of Elizabeth's most sinister spies, Charles sled who was perhaps keen to know the extent of D's Catholic sympathies. D had, after all, worked for the Catholic Queen Mary the First and Bishop Edmund Bonner until just weeks before Elizabeth ascended to the throne. D claimed that he had in fact been working under cover for Elizabeth when he
was employed by Bishop Bonner. Whether this was true or not, it was enough to convince Sled to leave him alone for the time being. Meanwhile, back at Mortlake, things had begun to sour between D and his new scria, Edward Talbot, whose presence at his home was beginning to affect D's marriage. In May fifteen eighty two, D's wife Jane spent an entire night raging against Talbot, who she was now utterly convinced was a fraud. Most of all, she hated the
lecherous way in which he looked at her. A short time later, a man named William Poll revealed the truth to D about his new scria. Firstly, his name wasn't Edward Talbot, but rather Edward Kelly, and as Poll went on to explain, he had not only been convicted previously of forging money, but he was presently on the run for stealing D had no choice but to cut him
loose and dismissed him from his home immediately. John d couldn't argue with the facts about Edward Kelly and his lies, but he also couldn't help but feel there was more to the man. After all, he'd seen it himself up close. He may have hidden the truth about who he was, but as far as D was concerned, his mediumistic prowess was never in doubt. In truth, he deeply missed the time they'd spent together with the angels and had found no one better to communicate with them in the meantime.
When Talbot returned six months later, having reverted to his original name, Edward Kelly, d forgave him, saying that a medium such as Kelly could be expected to be sensitive and exhibit petulant childlike behavior from time to time, and so the seances continued. In one, Kelly broke off suddenly from a communication and directed D to a crystal that had apparently just appeared on the ground. It had been sent to them by a spirit named King Camera, he said.
When he peered into this new magic lens, as he called it, Kelly claimed to have even more elaborate visions another time, in the middle of another series of supposed angel communications, Kelly fell to the floor, suddenly flailing his limbs about wildly. He screamed at D that he was being attacked by four evil spirits. He pulled up his sleeves, where, much to D's horror, were a series of red welts
and scrapes where the spirits had apparently beaten him. D quickly grabbed a stick and attempted to beat away the malevolent beings, swinging the weapon repeatedly through the empty air as Kelly cowered behind a chair. Over the next few days, the seances became increasingly chaotic. D began quarreling with Kelly, who in turn was getting fed up of a man he was beginning to consider a demanding and tiresome client. Kelly said he felt that he was wasting his life away.
He wanted to travel, He wanted adventures and new scenery and more money. As it would transpire, those very things would soon be at hand, not just for Kelly, but for the entire D House. In the spring of fifteen eighty three, the catalyst of that change arrived in London. Lord Albert Laski was a Polish prince and a powerful, dangerously unpredictable man. A committed but unorthodox Catholic. In fifteen seventy five, Laski had attempted to seize the Polish throne.
He was also interested in alchemy and magic, having sponsored famed Swiss alchemist Paracelsius to write his first book. Now he was in England, and one man he was especially keen to see was John D. One morning in June fifteen eighty three, a fanfare of trumpets echoed stentoriously across the south banks of the River Thames at Mortlake, announcing the arrive of a royal barge. Elaborate penance decorating the vessel fluttered in the breeze as several noblemen of the
Queen's court stepped off it along with Prince Laski. Laski was a handsome man in his mid fifties, who spoke several languages fluently and had a talent for charm. D, who had in fact met him briefly once before, greeted him warmly and invited him to join him in his study. Laski's reason for his visit was to pose some questions to the spirits, how much longer would the current king of Poland live, would he Laski be the successor to the throne, and would he gain possession of Moldovia in
the process. However, Edward Kelly, whom D needed to carry out the task, was not at D's home when Laski visited. He claimed to have gone fishing, possibly because at the time there was a warrant out for his arrest. Either way, when Kelly returned, he and D got straight to work. As they sat once more in D's study, Kelly gazed into the crystal ball as D waited patiently for him to make contact. The spirit he claimed to see on this occasion was a young girl no more than nine
years old called Medimi. When D relayed Laski's questions to her via Kelly, she supposedly replied that Laski would indeed become the future king of Poland and Moldovia. Laski was overjoyed by the news, but wanted to see it all for himself, so on June nineteenth, another seance was arranged, which this time he was invited to attend. The Polish Prince was led into D's study at five p m. There, he sat patiently watching on as D and Kelly worked
their magic. Moments later, Kelly claimed he'd summoned a white robed angel into the crystal boar. Just then, a man appeared at the door to D's study. It was William Tanfield, one of the Queen's courtiers, with a message for Laski. D looked up just in time to catch him staring down at them from the doorway. Tanfield had an unobstructed view of D and Kelly consulting the crystal. D hastily brought the session to an end, but the damage was
already done. Though many of the Queen's allies knew about D's occult activities, a great deal more did not, especially those he considered to be his adversaries. Now he was terrified that Tanfield would report his magical activities back to them.
Things were only made worse when, over the next few days, Edward Kelly claimed to receive a series of calamitous predictions from one spirit after another, warning of impending doom for D. The young girl's spirit Maddimi, had even returned to say that the Queen's key advisers, William Cecil and Francis Walsingham, had now turned against him. They adjoined together and they hate thee Trust them not, she said. According to Kelly,
by mid September, D's fears had escalated. It was clear that his only hope now was to take his wife and children and flee the country. It was a journey that would lead him into new geographical and spiritual territory and would change his life forever. It was a journey from which Edward Kelly would never return. You've been listening to part three of Unexplained Season seven, episode eighteen, A Dance with Mister D. The fourth and final part will
be released next Friday, April twelfth. This episode was written by Diane Hope and Richard mc lain smith. Unexplained as an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard mc clan smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced by me Richard mc lean smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook, with stories never before featured on the show, is now availe to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon,
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