Dr Dee who is he?
Dr John Dee was one of the greatest English Renaissance scholars. It is unfortunenate that he got involved with Edward Kelly, famous for sleeping with his astrological clients. It was with Kelly that Dr Dee became involved in necromancy and the dubious practice of making gold through alchemy. Anyway Dr Dee was a court astrologer to good Queen Bess, Elizabeth the first, and set up the secret service for her. (Dee's code name was interestingly enough 007) He coded his messages in what he called 'Angelic Conversations' which have often been mistaken for the ramblings of deranged mind and are instead highly sophisticated cyphers sent to warn Elizabeth about hostile action by the French and Spanish. In particuler one of these ramblings revealed how the sneaky Spanish intended to burn down the New Forest and thus disable the whole of the English ship building industry! Well there we go, clever bastard wasn't he. Another thing he is known for is attempting to set up a national library 250 years before the British Library was set up and also inventing the term "the British Empire. Absolutely amazing!
Anyway he died a poor man...so it goes. Check out some of his things at the British museum in ""...
also read Peter Ackroyds book "The House of Dr Dee" if you want to get a feel for the guy and the period in which he lived.
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