CHAPTER XVI

ALCHEMISTS AND ROYALTY

ALCHEMY appears to have assumed its highest import¬
ance in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when the
lure of the Philosopher’s Stone attracted so many to its pursuit,
but in the thirteenth century Alfonso X of Castile had written
an alchemical treatise entitled The Key of Wisdom. It is little
wonder that later many of the reigning kings and princes of
Europe became interested in the art of gold-making in the hope
of increasing their wealth.

The alchemist, owing to the powers he claimed to possess,
began to play an important part in State affairs, and in the
fifteenth century he had a place in nearly every Court in Europe,
and often became the confidential adviser of the ruler of the
country. This being an age when human credulity was easily
impressed, the influence he exerted, as may be imagined, was
often misused, and the fraud and imposture to which alchemy
gave rise resulted in laws being made to stop its practice.

The pursuit of alchemy was regarded by the State as a
possible source of revenue as early as 1330, for we find that
Thomas Cary was ordered to bring before King Edward III
John le Rous and Master William de Dalby, who were said to be
able “to make silver by alchemy, with the instruments and other
things needful to their craft.”

In 1414, during the reign of Henry IV, an Act was passed
forbidding the use of the craft in its efforts to multiply gold,
and the penalty for contravening it was considerable. On the
other hand, the practice of alchemy was legalized pursuant to
letters patent, and various persons were granted permission or
licences to carry on the art of transmuting metals. Thus we
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ALCHEMISTS AND ROYALTY

find that in 1444 one Richard Cope was authorized “to trans¬
mute the imperfect metals of their own kind by the art of
Philosophy and to transubstantiate them into gold or silver.”

Two years later licences were granted to Edmund Trafford
and Sir Thomas Ashton for a like purpose, and in the same
year (1446) John Faunceby, John Kirkeby, and John Rayney

LICENCE GRANTED TO JOHN ARTEC TO PRACTISE ALCHEMY AND CONTINUE

HIS WORK OF TRANSMUTATION
Sixteenth century

received the royal permission to search for the Philosopher’s
Stone and the Elixir of Life and to transmute metals. It is
supposed that the necessity for this royal licence is based on the
sovereign’s claim to all mines and therefore to all other sources
of the precious metals.

In 1463 King Edward IV granted to Sir Henry Grey, of
Codnor, in Derbyshire, the authority to “labour by the cunning
of philosophy for the transmutation of metals with all things
requisite to the same at his own cost, provided that he answered
to the King if any profit grow therefrom.” Apparently Sir
Henry did not reap much profit for his royal patron, for it is

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LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

recorded that two years later the King decided that he had had
sufficient time for his experiments and called upon him to render
an account of his gains. He did not, however, answer to the
summons, so his case was postponed from term to term for five
years. At length a date was fixed for him to appear at Court in
the middle of October 1470, but, says the chronicler,

before that date the Lord King, certain necessary and urgent
causes moving him, made a journey from this realm of England to
foreign parts leaving no regent or guardian in the same realm,
wherefore the Barons of the Exchequer did not come to hear pleas.

So Sir Henry apparently escaped being called to account.
Edward IV, however, still continued to have belief in alchemy,
and in 1476 he licensed David Beaupee and John Merchaunt to
practise for four years “the natural science of the generation of
gold and silver from mercury,” but the results of their experi¬
ments do not appear to have been recorded.

His predecessor, Henry VI, also had dealings with alchemists
and granted several licences of a similar kind, while Henry VIII,
who was more interested in medicine, has left a manuscript book
of recipes recommended for various diseases, several of the
formulae having been “devysed by the King’s Majestie.”

Queen Elizabeth was not only a patroness of alchemists, but
also a believer in the art. She had dealings with John Dee and
his confederate, Edward Kelly, with regard to transmutation,
and had more than one alchemist in her employ. According
to a manuscript now in the British Museum and other records
in the Calendar of State Papers, on February 7, 1565, Cornelius
Alvetanus, otherwise Cornelius de Lannoy, was engaged by the
Queen to produce 50,000 marks of pure gold annually at a
moderate charge. He was allotted a room in Somerset House
to use as a laboratory, and there, after writing a treatise entitled
De conficiendo divino Elixir e sive lapidephilosophico , which he dedi¬
cated to Queen Elizabeth, he began his operations in making gold.

The Princess Cecilia, daughter of Gustavus I of Sweden, was at
this time living as an exile in London and lodged near Somerset
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ALCHEMISTS AND ROYALTY

House, where she sought out de Lannoy. She was heavily in
debt and entered into negotiations with the alchemist, with the
result that he signed a bond on January 20, 1566, to lend the
Princess the sum of £10,000 on the following May 1, to be repaid
in thirteen yearly instalments of £1000 each, in consideration of
a payment of £300 to de Lannoy. By some means the story
of this transaction came to the ears of the Queen, and she
was highly incensed that others were attempting to reap the
benefit of her protection. She at once forbade de Lannoy to
hold any further communication with the Princess, meanwhile
placing him under observation. De Lannoy, aware that he had
aroused the Queen’s suspicions, wrote to Sir William Cecil,
stating that ‘ ‘our great and glorious design has fallen into
suspicion, but I swear on the Holy Gospels that I will carry it
through successfully and promise to hold no communication
with the Princess.” He, however, proved faithless to his pro¬
testations and promise, and on Cecil hearing that he was pre¬
paring to leave England with the Princess he was at once
arrested and lodged in the Tower.

In July 1566 the discomfited alchemist addressed a letter to
the Queen in which he said :

I know how grievous this delay must be to you. I have nothing
to offer you in this kingdom but my life, which would be a heavy
loss to my innocent wife. As to the business of transmuting metals
and gems to greater perfection, either the work has been disturbed
or some wicked man has been present or I have erred through
syncopation. Pray permit me to write to my friends for help, for
I can indubitably perform what I have promised.

On August 3, 1566, he made a declaration that, if it should
please the Queen to release him from confinement, he would
without delay put into operation that wonderful elixir for
making gold for her Majesty’s service. Apparently no notice
was taken of this appeal, for on August 13 he wrote from the
Tower of London to both the Earl of Leicester and Cecil, asking
them to intercede for him and imploring the Queen’s mercy.

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LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

Apparently their intercession was successful, for thirteen days
later Sir F. Jobson and Armigill Waad wrote to Cecil saying
that they had conferred with Cornelius and that requisitions
were being made by him for carrying on his alchemical opera¬
tions, for which a little money would be required. Whether the
unfortunate alchemist was actually liberated or not we are not
told, but Cecil records in his diary in January 1567 that “ Cor¬
nelius de la Noye was sent to the Tower for abusing the Queen’s
Majesty in Somerset House in promising to make the Elixir,”
and again on February 10 of the same year he wrote that de
Lannoy abused many in promising to convert any metal into gold.

The last reference to de Lannoy among the State Papers
appears to be a letter which he wrote to Cecil on March 13,
1567, in which he again promises to perform the things men¬
tioned in his offers to the Queen and solemnly engages to pro¬
duce gold and gems by a chemical process. He may have
ended his days in the Tower, for we hear nothing further of him
or his wonderful process for making gold.

In spite of this and other disappointments Queen Elizabeth
continued to have faith in alchemy, for in a document dated
February 20, 1594, we find the following instructions to

Rob4 Smith of Yarmouth sent by the Queen to Lubec. He hav¬
ing received the Queen’s reply to a letter from Ruloff Peterson of
Lubec, is to repair thither, deliver the letter and receive the three
glass bodies and bring them to her Majesty. He is to ascertain
from Peterson whether the materials therein were considered by
Ouldfield to be brought to full perfection, and if anything is lack¬
ing what is it? Also, to recover any books or papers of Ouldfield
relating thereto, or other of his books which treat of alchemy;
also a secret menstruum, without which the materials aforesaid can
hardly be brought to perfection. All these things are to be brought
to her Majesty in order to ascertain their value and either detain
them or return them on the consideration mentioned (viz., £500)
if she kept them.

What mysterious operation was here involved we can only con¬
jecture, but the reference to the “secret menstruum” doubtless
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ALCHEMISTS AND ROYALTY

indicated the Philosopher’s Stone, for which Elizabeth was ap¬
parently willing to risk £500 !

Dr John Dee, the astrologer and mathematician, records in
his diary that “E.K[elly] made projection with his powder in
the proportion of one minim upon an ounce and a quarter of
mercury and produced nearly an ounce of best gold.” The
news of Kelly’s success reached the ears of Lord Burleigh, who
wrote to him for “a specimen of his marvellous art,” and it was
afterward reported that a warming-pan from the copper or
brass lid of which a piece had been cut and transmuted into gold
and replaced was sent to the Queen. Even Elias Ashmole was
deceived by Kelly’s tricks, for he writes that from “a very
credible person (who had seen them) Kelly made rings of gold
wire twisted twice round the finger which he gave away to the
value of £4000.”

The lure of the Philosopher’s Stone also drew many high
dignitaries of the Church in the quest for gold, and among them
was Sir Thomas Ellis, who was Prior of Leighs, in Essex. He
was reputed to have had such skill in transmuting metals that he
was suspected of coining, and was at last called upon by the
authorities to give an account of how he came to practice al¬
chemy. He told them that he had become interested in the art
by reading of it in books, and, being desirous of acquiring a
knowledge of the science, he had entered into communication
with one Crawthorne, a goldsmith who lived in Lombard Street,
London, who introduced him to a priest called Sir George, who
was said to be cunning in these matters. This priest intro¬
duced him to Thomas Peter, a clothworker, who “sayed he had
the syens of alkemy as well as eny man in Yngland.” The prior
promised to pay Peter £20 for instruction in the art and gave
him twenty nobles in advance ; whereupon Peter gave him some
silver and quicksilver with directions how to treat them. They
were to be sealed hermetically in a glass vessel, which was to be
placed in an earthen pot of water which had to be kept hot for ten
weeks or more. Sir Thomas Ellis says :

K

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LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

Master Peter came from time to time to see how matters were
progressing with the prior’s experiment, but before the ten weeks
were up he managed to break the glass vessel. The prior, in dis¬
gust, then sold the silver for what it would fetch and refused to
pay Peter the balance of the £20. The latter threatened an action
for the debt, but as it chanced that twenty marks was paid at this
time to the prior for the lease of a rectory, he handed the money
over to Master Peter to settle his claim. I never medelyd with
him syne nor with the crafte nor never wyll. God wyllyng.

Charles II had a well-equipped laboratory in his palace at
Whitehall, where he carried on experiments in chemistry, in
which he was much interested. Burnet alludes to it in 1685,
and states that when the King was unable to walk he spent much
of his time in his laboratory and was running a process for fixing
mercury. Pepys in his Diary mentions on January 15, 1668,
that he went to see “the King’s Elaboratory underneath his
closet. A pretty place, and there saw a great many chemical
glasses and things, but understood none of them.”

Charles was also interested in several medicinal preparations,
some of which he made in his own laboratory. One of these,
which acquired a considerable reputation, was known as ‘ King
Charles’ Drops.’ Dr Martin Lister, in referring to it in 1694,
says:

The late King Charles not only communicated to me the process,
but very obligingly showed it to me himself by taking me alone
into his elaboratory at Whitehall while the distillation was going on.
Mr Chevins on another occasion showed me the materials for the
drops which were newly brought in — viz., raw silk in great quan¬
tity. One pound of raw silk yielded an incredible quantity of
volatile salt and in proportion the finest spirit I ever tasted, and
what recommends it is that when rectified it is of far more pleasant
smell than that which comes from sal ammoniac or hartshorn, while
the salt refined with any well -scented chemical oil makes the ‘ King’s
Salt,’ as it used to be called.

The versatile Prince Rupert was also an enthusiastic student
of chemistry, and in a manuscript now in the British Museum
which is attributed to him are recorded several interesting
146

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ALCHEMISTS AND ROYALTY

processes. They include formulae for making “the regulus of
antomony, crocus martis, and a process to blanch and sublime
sal ammoniac.’ ’ Attached to the manuscript is the following
letter, apparently addressed to his instructor:

I intreate you to do me a favour because my glasse pott is
broken in which I melt my medicines and till I get another I am
destitute.

Your friend and student

Prince Augustus of Saxony attained quite a reputation as an
alchemist during the second half of the sixteenth century. One
of his assistants was David Benter, who on failing to produce
gold to satisfy his master was thrown into prison at Leipzig.
His endeavours to escape proving unsuccessful, he inscribed on
the walls of his cells, “ Caged cats catch no mice,” which is said
to have so amused the Prince that, after Benter had renewed his
promises to make gold, he was set at liberty so that he could
renew his operations. But again he was unsuccessful, so he
poisoned himself, thus ending his days without accomplishing
his task.

The Prince worked in his laboratory at Dresden, which was
known to the citizens as the “Gold House,” and here, in 1577,
he believed he had discovered the great secret, for he wrote to
Francesco Forense, the Italian alchemist, “I have now reached
such perfection in transmutation that I can make daily three
ounces of good gold from eight ounces of silver.” But the
Prince in his enthusiasm had evidently deceived himself, for in
1585 he engaged the services of Sebald Schweitzer, who claimed
to have found the tincture and demonstrated his ability before
the Elector by transmuting three marks of quicksilver into
gold.

The Director of the Treasury calculated that the tincture had
transmuted 1024 times its weight of metal, and Schweitzer
undertook to make ten marks of gold daily, but the death of
the Elector put an end to the operations. On leaving Dresden

H7

LURE S? ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

Schwertzer went to Prague, which at that time was the Mecca of
the alchemists, and there was cordially received by the Emperor
Rudolph, who eventually appointed him director of the Imperial
mines at Joachimsthal.

The most famous of all the royal alchemists of the sixteenth
century was the Emperor Rudolph II of Germany, who was
born in Vienna in 1552. On the death of his father in 1576
he succeeded to the throne and became King of Hungary and
Bohemia and went to live in the great Hradschiner Palace at
Prague. Deeply interested in the occult sciences, he became an
enthusiastic student of alchemy and astrology, and so attracted
to his Court from all parts of Europe the men who professed to
practise those arts in order to secure his patronage.

Most of these pseudo-alchemists were mere cunning pre¬
tenders who travelled from country to country in search of
credulous patrons or any who would lend an ear to their roman¬
tic stories. It was chiefly men of this type who flocked to
Prague in the hope of enlisting the sympathy and help of the
Emperor Rudolph, whose pursuits will be described in the
following chapter.

The Emperor Ferdinand III is said to have purchased the
secret of making the Philosopher’s Stone from Richthausen,
of Vienna, who is said to have transmuted three pounds of
mercury into two and a half pounds of gold by means of his
red powder on January 15, 1648. A medal was made from
this gold which was preserved in the Treasury at Vienna, and
Richthausen was made a baron. (See page 157.)

Among other royal alchemists Leopold I and Frederick
William I and his successor, Frederick William II, Kings of
Prussia, were firm believers in alchemy ; several of the Kings of
France were also deeply interested in the art, including Charles
VI, Charles VII, and Charles IX. The first-named was one of
the most credulous monarchs of his day, and his Court is said
to have swarmed with alchemists, astrologers, and charlatans of
every description. The King himself made several attempts to
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ALCHEMISTS AND ROYALTY

discover the Stone, and wrote a treatise called Royal Work of
Charles VI of France and the Treasure of Philosophy. Charles
VII is said, when at war with England, to have been enticed
by an alchemist named Le Cor into the production of large
quantities of counterfeit gold, with which, in the form of coinage,
he inundated the neighbouring countries of Europe. Christian
IV of Denmark and Charles XII of Sweden did not disdain to
enlist the aid of the alchemists of their times to fill their trea¬
suries by means of the Philosopher’s Stone.

Among the prisoners of war taken by the troops of Charles
XII at Warsaw in 1705 was a Saxon lieutenant named Paykull,
who claimed to be an adept in alchemy. He was condemned
to death, but the King promised him a respite, the condition
being that he should make two million dollars’ worth of gold
each year. To this Paykull agreed, and he is said to have
transmuted lead into gold by means of a ‘tincture’ which
he had made from a secret formula. In the presence of
Hamilton, the Master of Ordnance, he is also stated to have
changed six ounces of lead into gold which was declared to be
worth 147 ducats. From this gold two medals were struck
which were inscribed, “Hoc aurum arte chemica conflavit
Holmiae. 1706. O. A. v. Paykull.” In spite of his endeavours
and his alleged success, the sentence upon Paykull was even¬
tually carried out.

The Cardinal Prince de Rohan was one of the last great
Church dignitaries to be bitten with the craze for alchemy.
About 1780 he equipped and furnished a fine laboratory at his
magnificent palace at Saverne, where he entertained Cagliostro
in splendid style. Here they carried on their operations with
great secrecy and apparent success, for the Cardinal afterward
declared to the Baroness d’Oberkirch that “ Cagliostro had made
not less than five or six thousand livres of gold.”

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