Royal Hobbies - Was Alchemy popular among royals?
Alchemy is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and proto scientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Middle East, and Europe. The goals of alchemy included the creation of a divine body and immortality. The philosopher's stone of European alchemists can be compared to the Grand Elixir of Immortality sought by Chinese alchemists.
Nicolas Flamel is a well-known alchemist, but a good example of pseudepigraphy, the practice of giving your works the name of someone else, usually more famous.Although the historical Flamel existed, the writings and legends assigned to him only appeared in 1612.
Flamel was not a religious scholar as were many of his predecessors, and his entire interest in the subject revolved around the pursuit of the philosopher's stone.
I learned more about Alchemy by watching the first Harry Potter movie:
The Philosopher's stone.
However which royals did like Alchemy? Who hired an alchemist on their royal court?
Huge time to travel back in time.
Austria
In 1508 Agrippa travelled to Spain to work as a mercenary. He continued his travels by way of Valencia, the Baleares, Sardinia, Naples, Avignon, and Lyon. He served as a captain in the army of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, who awarded him the title of Ritter or knight.
Agrippa's academic career began in 1509, by receiving the patronage Margaret of Austria, governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (1552-1612) was more intrigued by occult learning such as astrology and alchemy, which was mainstream in the Renaissance period.
Countess Barbara of Oettingen studied alchemy intensively and is considered one of the most important women who worked in this field. She employed several alchemists and corresponded extensively on this subject with her nephew, Augustus, Count Palatine of Sulzbach. Barbara also performed numerous experiments for Emperor Rudolf II in his residence in Prague, until she was expelled from the court
In his laboratory in the cellars of the Kaisershaus in Vienna, Emperor Francis carried out an experiment to melt down several small diamonds into a large one ...
Bavaria
France
After another visit to Italy, Nostradamus began to move away from medicine and toward the "occult". Following popular trends, he wrote an almanac for 1550, for the first time in print Latinising his name to Nostradamus. He was so encouraged by the almanac's success that he decided to write one or more annually. Taken together, they are known to have contained at least 6,338 prophecies, as well as at least eleven annual calendars, all of them starting on 1 January and not, as is sometimes supposed, in March.
It was mainly in response to the almanacs that the nobility and other prominent persons from far away soon started asking for horoscopes and "psychic" advice from him, though he generally expected his clients to supply the birth charts on which these would be based, rather than calculating them himself as a professional astrologer would have done. When obliged to attempt this himself on the basis of the published tables of the day, he frequently made errors and failed to adjust the figures for his clients' place or time of birth.
He then began his project of writing a book of one thousand mainly French quatrains, which constitute the largely undated prophecies for which he is most famous today.
The quatrains, published in a book titled Les Prophéties (The Prophecies), received a mixed reaction when they were published. Some people thought Nostradamus was a servant of evil, a fake, or insane, while many of the elite evidently thought otherwise. Catherine de' Medici, wife of King Henry II of
France, was one of Nostradamus's greatest admirers. After reading his almanacs for 1555, which hinted at unnamed threats to the royal family, she summoned him to Paris to explain them and to draw up horoscopes for her children.
At the time, he feared that he would be beheaded, but by the time of his death in 1566, Queen Catherine had made him Counsellor and Physician-in-Ordinary to her son, the young King Charles IX of France.
England
King Henry VIII (1491- 1547) made ointments, mixtures and concoctions himself.
John Dee was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to queen Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy. As an antiquarian, he had one of the largest libraries in England at the time. As a political advisor, he advocated for the founding of English colonies in the New World to form a "British Empire", a term he is credited with coining.
Arthur Dee, the son of John Dee worked for King Charles I of England.
Germany
John was the eldest son of Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg and Elisabeth of Bavaria-Landshut (1383–1442), daughter of Frederick, Duke of Bavaria, and his second wife Maddalena Visconti.
John was poorly received by the populace of Brandenburg, as his administration was incompetent, leading to unrest in the countryside. Rather than governing, John was more interested in artificially creating gold through alchemy, thereby receiving the cognomen "the Alchemist". In 1433, a revised version of the alchemical treatise Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit of Ulmannus was prepared for John. Realizing the danger Brandenburg was in, Frederick I granted John Franconian lands in Brandenburg-Kulmbach on June 7, 1437, territory rich with mines that furnished materials for the Alchemist's hobby. The governance of Brandenburg passed to Frederick I's second-oldest son, Frederick II.
Johann Christoph von Wöllner (19 May 1732, Döberitz, Margraviate of Brandenburg – 10 September 1800, Grossriez near Beeskow) was a Prussian pastor and politician under King Frederick William II. He inclined to mysticism and joined the Freemasons and Rosicrucians.
Wöllner, whom Frederick the Great had described as a "treacherous and intriguing priest," had started life as a poor tutor in the family of General August Frederick von Itzenplitz, a noble of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. After the general's death and to the scandal of king and nobility, he married the general's daughter, and with his mother-in-law's assistance settled down on a small estate. By his practical experiments and by his writings he gained a considerable reputation as an economist; but his ambition was not content with this, and he sought to extend his influence by joining first the Freemasons and afterwards the Rosicrucians. Wöllner, with his impressive personality and easy if superficial eloquence, was just the man to lead a movement of this kind. Under his influence the order spread rapidly, and he soon found himself the supreme director (Oberhauptdirektor) of several circles, which included in their membership princes, officers and high officials. As a Rosicrucian Wöllner dabbled in alchemy and other mystic arts, but he was also zealous for Christian orthodoxy as well as the Enlightenment concept of religion as an important factor in maintaining public order.
Italy
Agrippa remained in Italy for seven years, partly in the service of William IX, Marquess of Montferrat, and partly in that of Charles III, Duke of Savoy, probably occupied in teaching theology and
practicing medicine.
Liechtenstein
Ottoman Empire
Russia
Arthur Dee, the eldest son of John Dee worked for Tsar Michael I of Russia.
Tsar Peter the Great (1672-1725) had interest in alchemy and dentistry.
Alchemists also worked at the court of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia.
Scotland
James IV of Scotland was especially interested in surgery and medicine, and also other sciences which are now less creditable. At Stirling Castle, he established an alchemy workshop where alchemist
John Damian looked for ways to turn base metals into gold. The project consumed quantities of mercury, golden litharge, and tin. Damian also researched aviation and undertook a failed experiment to fly from the battlements of Stirling Castle, an event which William Dunbar satirised in two separate poems.
Tunisia
Conclusion
Thank you
A big thank you, Geert Janssens, for your splendid help!!
Source pictures: Wikipedia
Comments