Special Guest Post by G.J. Williams, Author The Conjuror’s Apprentice Series: The Tudor Rose (Book 1)

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Born with the ability to hear thoughts and feelings when there is no sound, Margaretta Morgan’s strange gift sees her apprenticed to Doctor John Dee, mathematician, astronomer, and alchemist. Using her secret link with the hidden side and her master’s brilliance, Margaretta faces her first murder mystery. Margaretta and Dee must uncover the evil bound to unravel the court of Bloody Mary. The year is 1555. This is a time ruled by fear. What secrets await to be pulled from the water?

John Dee - a splendid mind in a life-long search for splendour.

John Dee (1527 – 1608) was one of the medieval periods most interesting and misunderstood figures. The Dee family arrived in England from Radnorshire, when Bedo Ddu of Nant-y-groes followed Henry VII to Court after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Henry Tudor was a wily leader. 

He did not surround himself with the nobles of England who believed themselves deserving of rank by their blood. He surrounded himself with men of Wales who were grateful for rank and had ability. One of those men was Bedo Dhu. Bedo’s son, Rowland earned a place at Court as a server. He progressed to acquiring the rights to tax wool as a packer and the Dee’s (the name now anglicised from Dhu) were on a trajectory to wealth and position.

John was well educated and entered St John’s College, Cambridge in his fourteenth year. He professed, “I was so vehemently bent to studie, that for those years I did inviolably keep this order: only to sleep four houres every night; to allow to meate and drink (and some refreshing after) two houres every day; and of the other eighteen houres all (except the tyme of going to and being at divine service) was spent in my studies and learning.”

He journeyed to the great universities of Europe and studied with Gerard Mercator, Gemma Frisius, Joannes Caspar Myricaeus, and the Orientalist Antonius Gogava. Several of these men became his friends and his ability to stretch across disciplines of astronomy, mathematics, geography, theology, and languages, earned him the reputation of being ‘the most learned man in Europe.’  He was lauded and engaged as a tutor by the great Welsh families of Court, he presented educational books for King Edward and eventually became advisor, astrologer, scientist and probably confidante to Queen Elizabeth.

 
With such standing, you might think that John Dee would be happy with his station in life. But no. The glory of Royal favour, could not dispel the dark shadows and John Dee had a lifelong battle to earn the respect and standing he knew he deserved.

John Dee (Wikimedia Commons)

The first shadow arrived in 1552, when England faced tumult as young King Edward lay dying and the Dudley and Herbert families conspired to keep England protestant, and themselves in control, through the Lady Jane Grey plot. It was a disaster. Not only did Mary Tudor ride triumphant into London, but the conspirators were rapidly rounded up – and one of them was Rowland Dee. 

He escaped execution, but his fall from grace and prosperity was brutal – stripped of all monies, packer rights, station and income he became desperate and sold plate from the Church in St Dunstan’s. Then he tried to collect taxes from merchants on the London Quayside. The authorities moved in and Rowland Dee fled to Essex. John Dee, lived in shame that his father through such ‘hard dealing…was disabled for leaving unto me due maintenance’.

Then in 1555, Dee, having implored Queen Mary for favour and funds to build her a library, found himself ignored and having to make meagre pay through tutoring and astrology. Foolery, or maybe the thought of re-connection to court, saw him calculate the horoscopes of Mary, her husband and her sister, Elizabeth. But conjuring the queen’s destiny (and maybe the early death he foresaw) was illegal. 

In May, Dee was arrested on charge of conjuring, sorcery and treason. He was imprisoned, sent to the Star Chamber and faced torture and death. Strangely he was ‘rescued’ by Bishop ‘Bloody’ Bonner and emerged a Catholic priest. But his reputation was tainted and his standing damaged.
And here began the lifelong search for greatness and respect.

One of his strategies was to prove his genealogical link to greatness. The British Library holds a six foot hand-written scroll showing the genealogy of the Dee (Dhu) family. In this Dee makes direct lineage back to the Tudors – thereby making him kin of Queen Elizabeth. 

Beyond that he, charts back to Rhodri Mawr (Rhodri the Great) and before that to Rex Britanicus or the great kings of early England. In effect, Dee was claiming descent from Arthur, and in doing so aligning himself with the Tudors who also claimed descent.

Part of John Dee’s manuscript roll held in the British Library

His next attempt was to claim kinship with the power-brokers of Elizabeth’s Court. His main target was William Cecil, Lord Burghley. It is true that the Cecils had Welsh origin and had started as the Sytsyll’s. They also arrived in England under Henry VII and were keenly aware of their Welsh roots. Cecil, being the puppet master that he was, used John Dee for many a gain - a scientist, an advisor, an academic, treasure hunter and even a spy. But he was careful to never raise John Dee to his own level and kept him in check by promising money which rarely arrived. Letters from Dee to Cecil demonstrate the imploring frustration of the scholar when his worth was undervalued.

Another reluctant claimed kin was Blanch ap Harri, niece of Lady Troy, Elizabeth’s first governess. Blanche was brought to Elizabeth’s household when the princess was a baby. She started as lady of the cradle and was, no doubt, being trained as a future governess. It was a good solution - Blanche was educated, intelligent, loyal as a dog and trustworthy. She was also firmly behind the Tudors as a Welsh dynasty. 

Unfortunately, Thomas Cromwell preferred the easily manipulated Kat Astley and Blanch was side-lined. But that did not take away her influence. Blanche never left Elizabeth’s side and was awarded great position – keeper of the jewels, the library, all papers and records. Once Elizabeth was queen, Blanche became Royal gatekeeper and would filter applications for the Queen’s ear. John Dee decided to insist she was his cousin. It failed – Blanche was never going to align herself with a man who had been accused of sorcery. Even when made godmother to John Dee’s first born son, Arthur, she sent a Mistress Awbry as deputy.

Then in 1582, Dee began his final and most disastrous scramble for fame and fortune, when he aligned with the charlatan Edward Kelly in the pursuit of conversing with Angels. Dee turned to the kings and nobles of Europe for money and respect. It failed. After a nomadic few years in which he became associated with the dark occult rather than academic brilliance, he returned to England not only poor but as a man to be avoided.

 
Dee died in Mortlake in 1608, poor, reviled, cared for by his daughter who broke his heart by selling his last few books for funds weeks before he died. By now, all his former admirers – Burghley, Elizabeth, the academics of the mid-century were long gone. Far from rich and famous, Dee was a figure of suspicion and fun, probably being the source of Shakespeare’s Prospero and Christopher Marlow’s Dr Faustus – dark figures who belie the brilliance that was the real John Dee.
Link to the Author’s work

John Dee’s life-long striving for fame and recognition is a key back-theme of The Conjuror’s Apprentice. In this first book in the Tudor Rose Murders series, John Dee is the detective aided by his strange apprentice, Margaretta. When a body is hauled from the Thames it raises fears for Princess Elizabeth and the Tudor dynasty. 

John Dee and Margaretta must deploy brilliance and a little supernatural to find the serial killer who ritually binds his victims in yellow wool, before England falls to the clutches of Spain.
The approach of the author is to take real events, real people and to throw a plot and several bodies into the mix. As the series progresses you will meet all the characters named above and more – and you will witness John Dee’s relentless and twisted pursuit to return his family name to the standing his father had lost.

 

G.J. Williams

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About the Author

After a career as a business psychologist for city firms, G.J. Williams has returned to her first passion – writing tales of murder, mystery and intrigue. Her psychology background melded with a love of medieval history, draws her to the twists and turns of the human mind, subconscious powers and the dark-side of people who want too much. She lives between Somerset and London in the UK and is regularly found writing on a train next to a grumpy cat and a bucket of tea.  Follow her on Twitter @GJWilliams92