Speaker 1: You're listening to part three of Unexplained, Season seven, episode eighteen,
Speaker 1: A Dance with Mister d. Back in March fifteen eighty two,
Speaker 1: a story was doing the rounds in London. It was
Speaker 1: about an event that took place in a park one
Speaker 1: night under cover of moonlight, on the outskirts of Walton
Speaker 1: in the Dale, some two hundred miles northwest of the capitol,
Speaker 1: A long bearded young man wearing a hooded cloak walks
Speaker 1: gingerly with a cane on his head is a black
Speaker 1: skull cap pulled down low above the ears, the tops
Speaker 1: of which just discernible under the soft light of the moon,
Speaker 1: have been completely chopped off. The man is accompanied by
Speaker 1: an associate and Thomas Langton, the local lord of the manor.
Speaker 1: He is there to conduct a ritual at Langton's request,
Speaker 1: to determine what the future holds in store for the lord.
Speaker 1: And so the bearded man strides on into the depths
Speaker 1: of the park until on finding the perfect spot, he
Speaker 1: tells the others to stop. Then, taking out a large
Speaker 1: book from within his cloak, he bids his associate to
Speaker 1: light a candle. Under the orange glow of the single flame,
Speaker 1: the man speaks an incantation into the still night air.
Speaker 1: It's a message for the devil, or rather a request
Speaker 1: for the information that Thomas Langton so desperately craves, how
Speaker 1: long does he have left to live? And in what
Speaker 1: manner will he die? Precisely with the incantation over, the
Speaker 1: strange bearded man asks Langton's servant if he knows of
Speaker 1: any recent burials at a nearby church. The servant replies yes,
Speaker 1: as it happens, a recently executed criminal had just been
Speaker 1: buried there that very afternoon. The man in the cloak
Speaker 1: asks to be taken there straight away. Moments later, the
Speaker 1: group are standing next to the fresh burial mount, whereupon
Speaker 1: Langton's servant is instructed to dig up the body immediately.
Speaker 1: When the executed man's carcass is finally unearthed, the cloaked
Speaker 1: man bids his associate to light the candle once more
Speaker 1: before continuing the incantation. As the words flow from the
Speaker 1: man's mouth, much to Langton's horror, the dead man's stiff,
Speaker 1: rubbery eyelids spring open to reveal two milky eyeballs rolled
Speaker 1: back in their sockets. Then, from out of the body's grotesque,
Speaker 1: twisted mouth comes the most hideous voice delivered to them
Speaker 1: from the very bowels of Hell. A short time later,
Speaker 1: a pale and shaking Thomas Langton as all the information
Speaker 1: he needs, and the bearded, hooded, cloaked man a reputation
Speaker 1: for necromancy that would precede him from that point on
Speaker 1: almost everywhere he went. On March eighth, fifteen eighty two,
Speaker 1: a few hours before that strange display of fiery lights
Speaker 1: in the sky that John Dee had witnessed at Mortlake,
Speaker 1: this same man arrived at Dee's home. His name, he said,
Speaker 1: was Edward Talbot. Throughout the fifteen seventies, John d was
Speaker 1: busy with conventional scholarly activities. He edited an addition of
Speaker 1: Euclid's Elements, writing a famous preface justifying the study of mathematics.
Speaker 1: D also observed the same supernova in fifteen seventy two
Speaker 1: that the much revered astronomer Tycho Brahe is often praised for,
Speaker 1: and in fifteen seventy three he wrote a book outlining
Speaker 1: the trigonomic methods he used to find the distance to
Speaker 1: this new star. Brahey is said to have greatly admired
Speaker 1: D's work. No one knows for sure, exactly when these
Speaker 1: scholarly interests began to deviate into more occult realms in
Speaker 1: his diaries, The first reference to overtly magical and spiritual
Speaker 1: activities appears in June fifteen seventy nine. D's own term
Speaker 1: for crystal gazing and his attempts to contact angels was
Speaker 1: optical science, which he considered no different from any other
Speaker 1: scientific observations he made. The principal method he employed was scrying,
Speaker 1: the act of looking into some kind of material, usually
Speaker 1: with a dull reflective surface, in which the observer or
Speaker 1: scria would claim to see other worldly entities or images
Speaker 1: of the future. Despite these absolute belief in the method,
Speaker 1: he was never able to see anything himself, and so
Speaker 1: relied on others to conduct the experiments on his behalf.
Speaker 1: Shortly before Edward Talbot showed up at his door, d
Speaker 1: had just parted ways with one supposed squire, Barnabas Saul,
Speaker 1: who he no longer trusted. When he and Talbot had
Speaker 1: dinner together the day after they were first introduced, Talbot
Speaker 1: was quick to twist the knife in He told D
Speaker 1: that Barnabas Saw was a well known commat among the
Speaker 1: fraternity of squires. And Mediums of England. D quickly warmed
Speaker 1: to Talbot. Despite the man's reputation, D had not heard
Speaker 1: of him before, but was impressed to learn that he'd
Speaker 1: been a student at Oxford University, the nation's highest seat
Speaker 1: of learning, so when Talbot offered to demonstrate his prowess
Speaker 1: the following day, D was more than happy to take
Speaker 1: him up on the offer. It isn't known what D
Speaker 1: made of Edward Talbot exactly at that first meeting, whether
Speaker 1: he noticed the cropped ears under Talbot's skullcap or the
Speaker 1: many unusual scars on his face, all signs that the
Speaker 1: man had endured numerous punishments for committing crimes, or what
Speaker 1: he made of the young man's lameness as D led
Speaker 1: him through the narrow halls of his home the next
Speaker 1: day and into his private study, as Talbot walked stiffly
Speaker 1: and uncomfortably behind him with his cane. Once inside the study,
Speaker 1: D closed the double doors behind them and beckoned Talbot
Speaker 1: to join him by his desk. Then he picked up
Speaker 1: the crystal ball in which Barnabas saw claimed he'd seen
Speaker 1: the archangel Michael, and placed it on the desktop. At
Speaker 1: the mere sight of it Talbot collapsed to his knees,
Speaker 1: his apparent lameness seemingly completely gone. The crystal ball glinted
Speaker 1: darkly on top of John Dee's desk as Talbot began
Speaker 1: to pray loudly for the power to contact the spirits.
Speaker 1: Sensing a shift in the atmosphere, D hurried into an
Speaker 1: adjoining chamber and began his own prayers, asking for what
Speaker 1: he called good creatures to appear and help them in
Speaker 1: their quest. Fifteen minutes later, Talbot called him back to
Speaker 1: the study. A figure was beginning to emerge inside the ball,
Speaker 1: he said. As Talbot continued to gaze at the orb
Speaker 1: with intense concentration, he relayed the figure's description to D
Speaker 1: and then its name, Uriel. This, as D knew well,
Speaker 1: was the angel said to have buried the body of
Speaker 1: Adam with the archangel Michael, and to have warned Noah
Speaker 1: of the great flood. D stared into the ball, but
Speaker 1: once again could see only the flickering reflected light from
Speaker 1: the room around them. He looked back to Talbot, whose
Speaker 1: face was now screwed up with an increasing intensity, his
Speaker 1: eyes not deviating once from the ball, Sensing the moment
Speaker 1: might be over any minute, D blurted out a series
Speaker 1: of questions for Talbot to ask Uriel. Talbot duly complied,
Speaker 1: hastily relaying them back to the apparent angel, until finally
Speaker 1: he was seemingly released from the crystal ball's grip. Breathlessly,
Speaker 1: he apologized to d Uriel had not been able to
Speaker 1: answer the questions. They would need to make contact with
Speaker 1: the archangel Michael. They agreed to reconvene that afternoon. Elsewhere
Speaker 1: in the house, D's third wife, Jane Frommond, was looking
Speaker 1: after the couple's two young children. As is typical with
Speaker 1: many accounts of men's life from this period, there are
Speaker 1: few recorded details of John D's wives. The first was
Speaker 1: Catherine Constable, who died in fifteen seventy four. The name
Speaker 1: of his second wife is not known at all. She
Speaker 1: died a year after they were married, in fifteen seventy six,
Speaker 1: possibly during childbirth. Neither were survived by children. D's third wife, Jane,
Speaker 1: had been an assistant or lady in waiting to Queen
Speaker 1: Elizabeth the first. She was twenty three when they married
Speaker 1: in fifteen seventy eight, D was fifty one. On spying
Speaker 1: D's latest assistant, Jane asked for a word with her husband.
Speaker 1: The strange man made her feel uncomfortable. She said he
Speaker 1: shouldn't trust him, but D waived her concerns away. Later,
Speaker 1: as D and Talbot prepared for their second seance of
Speaker 1: the day, Talbot turned suddenly serious. Ever since first stepping
Speaker 1: inside D's home, he said he'd been aware of an
Speaker 1: evil presence, and now he was certain the house had
Speaker 1: been possessed by an evil spirit named Lundrum Gupher, and
Speaker 1: it was threatening the safety of D and his family.
Speaker 1: But there was nothing to be worried about. He said
Speaker 1: he would take care of it the following day. By
Speaker 1: the middle of the afternoon, John D's whole house swirled
Speaker 1: with acrid, yellowish fumes. Throughout the property, small piles of
Speaker 1: brimstone or sulfur had been set alight to smoke out
Speaker 1: the evil spirit. While back in D's study and Talbot
Speaker 1: sat once again gazing into the crystal ball, Talbot let
Speaker 1: out a gasp. He could see something. He said. It
Speaker 1: was some kind of creature clothed in gold and purple robes,
Speaker 1: a glowing garland on its head, and sparkling eyes. Just
Speaker 1: then a second figure appeared. It was the angel Uriel,
Speaker 1: Talbot said. He continued on excitedly telling D everything that
Speaker 1: was apparently happening inside the crystal ball, and how Uriel
Speaker 1: then threw the spirit into a great pit before a third,
Speaker 1: even more awesome creature appeared in the crystal, blowing like
Speaker 1: the sun, while seated in a resplendent chair, surrounded by
Speaker 1: a host of angels. This spirit, Talbot claimed, was the
Speaker 1: archangel Michael. Three days later, D and Talbot convened for
Speaker 1: yet another seance. This time, Talbot described how a new
Speaker 1: figure of a man, his identity hidden by a long
Speaker 1: hooded robe, joined the angels Uriel and Michael. Talbot then
Speaker 1: described how the angels took off this man's robe, dressed
Speaker 1: him in silk, placed a laurel wreath on his head,
Speaker 1: then commanded him to kneel before the archangel Michael, who
Speaker 1: then held up a sword and dubbed the man as
Speaker 1: if making him a knight. The kneeling man is now
Speaker 1: rising to stand, explained Talbot excitedly. He's turning now I
Speaker 1: can see his face. D waited with bated breath. My God,
Speaker 1: gasped Talbot, he has your face, Sir John D's eyes
Speaker 1: widened in disbelief and grew damp. He had been anointed
Speaker 1: by the great archangel Michael himself. It was the realization
Speaker 1: of one of his wildest dreams. Over the next several months,
Speaker 1: D and Talbot carried out numerous seances. Talbot was the
Speaker 1: communicator with the spirit realm as he gazed into the
Speaker 1: crystal while D asked the questions. All manner of angels,
Speaker 1: including Raphael and Gabriel, supposedly spoke to Talbot in sweet,
Speaker 1: booming voices that D was sadly unable to hear. Sometimes
Speaker 1: the angels would spell out characters to Talbot, which D
Speaker 1: would transcribe. At one point, the apparent angel Gaines Abriel
Speaker 1: was said to have provided the recipe for a medicine
Speaker 1: which healed D's wife of a vicious ailment. D and
Speaker 1: Talbot then embarked on a quest to find the names
Speaker 1: of what were said to be the forty seven Good Angels.
Speaker 1: But first, according to Talbot, D would need to gain
Speaker 1: fluency in their language, which was called Inochian, in order
Speaker 1: to communicate properly with the angelic realm. To do this,
Speaker 1: Talbot told him they had to craft an angel scrying station.
Speaker 1: It consisted of a nine inch wide carved wax seal
Speaker 1: placed at the center of a square wooden table. Each
Speaker 1: leg of that table was also placed on wax, and
Speaker 1: the whole table anointed with oil. Talbot would then speak
Speaker 1: these questions into the crystal ball, and the apparent angels
Speaker 1: would reply through his fingers make them move along the
Speaker 1: patterns of the wax seal. The resultant messages would be
Speaker 1: written down in the form of elaborate tables, each cell
Speaker 1: containing a number and a letter. Each table purported to
Speaker 1: explain topics such as the gain and trade of merchandise,
Speaker 1: the motion of the air, and divine government, and in
Speaker 1: this way, varied and elaborate instructions were apparently conveyed to
Speaker 1: the men by the angels. Some instructions related to contemporary
Speaker 1: events around the world, including wars, rumors of wars, and
Speaker 1: the predicted coming of an emperor who would purge corruption
Speaker 1: and unify Christendom. The archangel Michael himself was also said
Speaker 1: to have revealed an important message about the relationship between
Speaker 1: divine and earthly powers. Although Edward Talbot's supposed angelic transmissions
Speaker 1: were sometimes only semi coherent, It's believed that Dee told
Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth's key adviser, William Cecil, among others of the
Speaker 1: most important insights. Though it isn't known exactly what was
Speaker 1: conveyed in these meetings, they just so happened to coincide
Speaker 1: with one of the greatest periods of English imperial expansion.
Speaker 1: Throughout this period, John Dee, who was still revered for
Speaker 1: his intellect and skills in cartography, developed close friendships with
Speaker 1: several explorers, including Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh.
Speaker 1: For the most part, it seems the authorities were well
Speaker 1: aware of John De's magical dabblings, sometimes it said, taking
Speaker 1: action based on his predictions, while turning a blind eye
Speaker 1: to the inherent illegality of D's seances. Around that time,
Speaker 1: there were also several failed plots to overthrow Queen Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: including most famously from the Catholic Mary Stuart, better known
Speaker 1: as Mary, Queen of Scots, who'd emerged as a rival
Speaker 1: for the English throne in the fifteen sixties. It may
Speaker 1: have been for this reason that d received several visits
Speaker 1: from one of Elizabeth's most sinister spies, Charles sled who
Speaker 1: was perhaps keen to know the extent of D's Catholic sympathies.
Speaker 1: D had, after all, worked for the Catholic Queen Mary
Speaker 1: the First and Bishop Edmund Bonner until just weeks before
Speaker 1: Elizabeth ascended to the throne. D claimed that he had
Speaker 1: in fact been working under cover for Elizabeth when he
Speaker 1: was employed by Bishop Bonner. Whether this was true or not,
Speaker 1: it was enough to convince Sled to leave him alone
Speaker 1: for the time being. Meanwhile, back at Mortlake, things had
Speaker 1: begun to sour between D and his new scria, Edward Talbot,
Speaker 1: whose presence at his home was beginning to affect D's marriage.
Speaker 1: In May fifteen eighty two, D's wife Jane spent an
Speaker 1: entire night raging against Talbot, who she was now utterly
Speaker 1: convinced was a fraud. Most of all, she hated the
Speaker 1: lecherous way in which he looked at her. A short
Speaker 1: time later, a man named William Poll revealed the truth
Speaker 1: to D about his new scria. Firstly, his name wasn't
Speaker 1: Edward Talbot, but rather Edward Kelly, and as Poll went
Speaker 1: on to explain, he had not only been convicted previously
Speaker 1: of forging money, but he was presently on the run
Speaker 1: for stealing D had no choice but to cut him
Speaker 1: loose and dismissed him from his home immediately. John d
Speaker 1: couldn't argue with the facts about Edward Kelly and his lies,
Speaker 1: but he also couldn't help but feel there was more
Speaker 1: to the man. After all, he'd seen it himself up close.
Speaker 1: He may have hidden the truth about who he was,
Speaker 1: but as far as D was concerned, his mediumistic prowess
Speaker 1: was never in doubt. In truth, he deeply missed the
Speaker 1: time they'd spent together with the angels and had found
Speaker 1: no one better to communicate with them in the meantime.
Speaker 1: When Talbot returned six months later, having reverted to his
Speaker 1: original name, Edward Kelly, d forgave him, saying that a
Speaker 1: medium such as Kelly could be expected to be sensitive
Speaker 1: and exhibit petulant childlike behavior from time to time, and
Speaker 1: so the seances continued. In one, Kelly broke off suddenly
Speaker 1: from a communication and directed D to a crystal that
Speaker 1: had apparently just appeared on the ground. It had been
Speaker 1: sent to them by a spirit named King Camera, he said.
Speaker 1: When he peered into this new magic lens, as he
Speaker 1: called it, Kelly claimed to have even more elaborate visions
Speaker 1: another time, in the middle of another series of supposed
Speaker 1: angel communications, Kelly fell to the floor, suddenly flailing his
Speaker 1: limbs about wildly. He screamed at D that he was
Speaker 1: being attacked by four evil spirits. He pulled up his sleeves, where,
Speaker 1: much to D's horror, were a series of red welts
Speaker 1: and scrapes where the spirits had apparently beaten him. D
Speaker 1: quickly grabbed a stick and attempted to beat away the
Speaker 1: malevolent beings, swinging the weapon repeatedly through the empty air
Speaker 1: as Kelly cowered behind a chair. Over the next few days,
Speaker 1: the seances became increasingly chaotic. D began quarreling with Kelly,
Speaker 1: who in turn was getting fed up of a man
Speaker 1: he was beginning to consider a demanding and tiresome client.
Speaker 1: Kelly said he felt that he was wasting his life away.
Speaker 1: He wanted to travel, He wanted adventures and new scenery
Speaker 1: and more money. As it would transpire, those very things
Speaker 1: would soon be at hand, not just for Kelly, but
Speaker 1: for the entire D House. In the spring of fifteen
Speaker 1: eighty three, the catalyst of that change arrived in London.
Speaker 1: Lord Albert Laski was a Polish prince and a powerful,
Speaker 1: dangerously unpredictable man. A committed but unorthodox Catholic. In fifteen
Speaker 1: seventy five, Laski had attempted to seize the Polish throne.
Speaker 1: He was also interested in alchemy and magic, having sponsored
Speaker 1: famed Swiss alchemist Paracelsius to write his first book. Now
Speaker 1: he was in England, and one man he was especially
Speaker 1: keen to see was John D. One morning in June
Speaker 1: fifteen eighty three, a fanfare of trumpets echoed stentoriously across
Speaker 1: the south banks of the River Thames at Mortlake, announcing
Speaker 1: the arrive of a royal barge. Elaborate penance decorating the
Speaker 1: vessel fluttered in the breeze as several noblemen of the
Speaker 1: Queen's court stepped off it along with Prince Laski. Laski
Speaker 1: was a handsome man in his mid fifties, who spoke
Speaker 1: several languages fluently and had a talent for charm. D,
Speaker 1: who had in fact met him briefly once before, greeted
Speaker 1: him warmly and invited him to join him in his study.
Speaker 1: Laski's reason for his visit was to pose some questions
Speaker 1: to the spirits, how much longer would the current king
Speaker 1: of Poland live, would he Laski be the successor to
Speaker 1: the throne, and would he gain possession of Moldovia in
Speaker 1: the process. However, Edward Kelly, whom D needed to carry
Speaker 1: out the task, was not at D's home when Laski visited.
Speaker 1: He claimed to have gone fishing, possibly because at the
Speaker 1: time there was a warrant out for his arrest. Either way,
Speaker 1: when Kelly returned, he and D got straight to work.
Speaker 1: As they sat once more in D's study, Kelly gazed
Speaker 1: into the crystal ball as D waited patiently for him
Speaker 1: to make contact. The spirit he claimed to see on
Speaker 1: this occasion was a young girl no more than nine
Speaker 1: years old called Medimi. When D relayed Laski's questions to
Speaker 1: her via Kelly, she supposedly replied that Laski would indeed
Speaker 1: become the future king of Poland and Moldovia. Laski was
Speaker 1: overjoyed by the news, but wanted to see it all
Speaker 1: for himself, so on June nineteenth, another seance was arranged,
Speaker 1: which this time he was invited to attend. The Polish
Speaker 1: Prince was led into D's study at five p m. There,
Speaker 1: he sat patiently watching on as D and Kelly worked
Speaker 1: their magic. Moments later, Kelly claimed he'd summoned a white
Speaker 1: robed angel into the crystal boar. Just then, a man
Speaker 1: appeared at the door to D's study. It was William Tanfield,
Speaker 1: one of the Queen's courtiers, with a message for Laski.
Speaker 1: D looked up just in time to catch him staring
Speaker 1: down at them from the doorway. Tanfield had an unobstructed
Speaker 1: view of D and Kelly consulting the crystal. D hastily
Speaker 1: brought the session to an end, but the damage was
Speaker 1: already done. Though many of the Queen's allies knew about
Speaker 1: D's occult activities, a great deal more did not, especially
Speaker 1: those he considered to be his adversaries. Now he was
Speaker 1: terrified that Tanfield would report his magical activities back to them.
Speaker 1: Things were only made worse when, over the next few days,
Speaker 1: Edward Kelly claimed to receive a series of calamitous predictions
Speaker 1: from one spirit after another, warning of impending doom for D.
Speaker 1: The young girl's spirit Maddimi, had even returned to say
Speaker 1: that the Queen's key advisers, William Cecil and Francis Walsingham,
Speaker 1: had now turned against him. They adjoined together and they
Speaker 1: hate thee Trust them not, she said. According to Kelly,
Speaker 1: by mid September, D's fears had escalated. It was clear
Speaker 1: that his only hope now was to take his wife
Speaker 1: and children and flee the country. It was a journey
Speaker 1: that would lead him into new geographical and spiritual territory
Speaker 1: and would change his life forever. It was a journey
Speaker 1: from which Edward Kelly would never return. You've been listening
Speaker 1: to part three of Unexplained Season seven, episode eighteen, A
Speaker 1: Dance with Mister D. The fourth and final part will
Speaker 1: be released next Friday, April twelfth. This episode was written
Speaker 1: by Diane Hope and Richard mc lain smith. Unexplained as
Speaker 1: an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard mc clan smith.
Speaker 1: All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are
Speaker 1: also produced by me Richard mc lean smith. Unexplained. The
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