John Dee

A mathematician and prodigy who was held as a prisoner at Hampton Court Palace under suspicion of being a threat to the Queen.

“John Dee isn't being held in a dank, rat-infested dungeon. There are no chains in sight. But make no mistake, John Dee is a prisoner. [gentle music] Hampton Court Palace hums with anxious courtiers. Queen Mary has announced that she's expecting an heir, so she…”

A brilliant scholar and astrologer who navigated religious persecution to become a key advisor to the British monarchy.

“Dee was examined before a tribunal of Mary's most staunch allies, but the evidence against him was thin and the charges didn't stick. Perhaps his interrogators were mindful of his elite connections. In the end, they let him go. But his ordeal wasn't over. Susp…”

A scholar who provided navigational advice, intellectual support, and financial investment for Frobisher's Arctic expeditions.

“Around the same time, Dee seized a new work opportunity. In England, there was a growing fascination with the Northwest Passage, a waterway believed to cut through the Arctic. At that time, English merchants could only access the spices, silk, and precious met…”

A philosopher, astrologer, and advisor to the Crown who maintained a massive library in Mortlake.

“Under the new regime, John Dee consolidated his influence. As the Queen's favourite astrologist, he was a sought-after advisor. He moved into foreign policy too, counselling the Crown on the arithmetic, geometry and trigonometry at play in navigation.”

A Renaissance mathematician and scholar whose work in geometry and algebra was often misunderstood as sorcery.

“In Tudor England, maths was a deeply suspect discipline, seen as a slippery slope to the dark arts. Pythagoras himself was believed in some quarters to have been a magician, and the Tudor authorities had burned many mathematical texts, condemning them as conju…”

A mathematician and astrologer who faced treason charges for casting horoscopes predicting the death of Queen Mary.

“Against this backdrop, John Dee did something risky. He cast a natal reading, a detailed horoscope charting the planets at the moment of an individual's birth in order to predict their lifespan. First, he mapped the destiny of Queen Mary, then of her husband, …”

A scholar and advisor whose reputation suffered after his support for Frobisher's failed expedition.

“John Dee was broke. And perhaps even worse, the mission's failure was embarrassing for him. He had put his intellectual weight behind Frobisher, who'd found nothing.”

A scholar and mathematician who believed he could map the universe and communicate with angels through a divine cipher.

“This wasn't just an occult project. It was a mathematical one, too. Dee believed that the angelic language was encrypted in a divine cipher. The same skills that had helped him map the stars and build a mechanical beetle could also reveal the source code for t…”

A historical figure who used strategic forecasting and predictions to influence the British court.

“When Dee wrote about King Arthur and a British empire, was he manipulating the court or did he truly believe in Britain's providential destiny? The answer is probably both. Dee was sure of his own logic, but he also knew that a well-timed prediction might nudg…”

An Elizabethan scholar and mathematician who bet his career and reputation on the pursuit of the philosopher's stone.

“A glass vessel shaped like an egg sits atop a furnace. A young man wearing a cowl hunches over it, feeding charcoal into the stack. He's been doing this for weeks now at regular and frequent intervals. In the time before thermometers, controlling temperature i…”

An occultist and scholar who fled England with Edward Kelley after being misled by Prince Lasky.

“It got worse. Lasky started claiming that he was related by blood to Queen Elizabeth and spreading pamphlets about his own popularity. As suspicion of the Polish prince grew, Dee realized that he'd hitched his wagon to a falling star. He decided not to quit, b…”

The central figure who returned to England after his partnership with Kelley ended, finding his life in ruins.

“As for John Dee, he returned to London and lived into his 80s, buried by manuscripts, white-haired, penniless. He worked with scryers until his very last days, ever convinced that the universe would give up its deepest secrets if he only knew how to ask.”

A brilliant polymath who allowed his belief in angels and his need for patronage to be exploited by Edward Kelley.

“John Dee was a once in a generation polymath. He was phenomenally intelligent, yet he made choices that were decidedly foolish. He fretted about Kelley's checkered past, and he knew that he was a liar, but he still chose to trust him. He followed Kelley into i…”

An occult scholar who seeks to communicate with angels to recover lost knowledge and understand the universe.

“It was more transgressive, though, to actively seek their advice. The people who did this were called scryers. They would speak to angels and spirits by looking into a shiny show stone, such as a mirror or a crystal ball. Since scrying meant bypassing the chur…”

A scholar who was manipulated by Edward Kelley and eventually lost his status and possessions.

“time he reached Bohemia, Dee was too bought in to see the hoax in front of him. Because the more you give up for a vision, the more you have to believe it. To admit that Edward Kelley was a fraud would mean admitting that John Dee was no longer a brilliant sch…”

The central figure who chooses to continue his occult work with Kelly despite personal and financial turmoil.

“Dee agreed that Kelly's deceit was abominable, but it was also true that a fake name didn't automatically make him less talented. Quite the opposite, in fact, skill at scrying often went hand in hand with peculiarity. Dee now faced a dilemma. On the one hand, …”

The scholar who attempted to deliver an angelic ultimatum to Emperor Rudolf II and later pursued the philosopher's stone.

“Dee was appalled. But what choice did he have? Dee climbed to the imperial castle, where he was ushered past displays of dissected frogs and magical amulets, and admitted to Rudolf's privy chamber. The emperor had been told that the clever visitor from England…”

An occultist who was deceived by his scrier Edward Kelly regarding his identity and spiritual visions.

“In Wartlake, fifteen eighty-two, John Dee had made a discovery. His scrier's name wasn't Edward Talbot, but Edward Kelly, and he certainly wasn't related to the Talbot Earls of Shrewsbury. He'd given his master a fake identity. Talbot, or rather Kelly, defende…”

His wife Jane Dee received an opulent gold necklace from Edward Kelley.

“And as Kelley's reputation grew, so too did his wealth. In early fifteen eighty-seven, he returned from a trip with an opulent gold necklace valued at a staggering three hundred ducats. He didn't give it to his own wife. He gave it to Jane Dee.”

Described as the head of intelligence for Queen Elizabeth I and a practitioner of Enochian magic who inspired the character of James Bond.

“So John Dee was, he was basically, like, the head of intelligence for Queen Elizabeth right at the beginning of the, uh, British Empire.”

Described as a wizard who allegedly made a deal with spirits to secure the power of the British Empire.

“... he was working with spirits, and the s- the theory is, and tem- basically, the Shakespearean Tempest play is inspired from John Dee as the, the, the wizard in the story is basically John Dee, um, that he essentially made the deal for the British Empire to …”

Mentioned as a figure who allegedly made a deal to secure British naval dominance.

“No, it's, it's so right. Um, so that brings us to the United States, which is the heir to the British Empire. So if the British Empire was the product of th- this deal that John Dee made to bring the Tempest to”