Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Editorial Procedures
- Introduction
- Part I Roots 1548–1562
- Part II Youth 1562–1571
- 8 London Wardship
- 9 Early Teens
- 10 First Blood
- 11 Restless Youth
- 12 Best Friends
- 13 Necromancer
- 14 Oxford's Letters
- Part III Emancipation 1571–1574
- Part IV Exploration 1574–1576
- Part V Alienation 1576–1579
- Part VI Intrigue 1579–1580
- Part VII Sedition 1580–1581
- Part VIII Release 1581–1585
- Part IX Reiteration 1586–1591
- Part X Renewal 1592–1595
- Part XI Re-engagement 1595–1599
- Part XII Decline 1600–1604
- Part XIII Aftermath 1604–1613
- Notes
- Appendix: Oxford's Letters and Libel Documents
- Bibliography
- Index
- Liverpool English texts and Studies
13 - Necromancer
from Part II - Youth 1562–1571
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Editorial Procedures
- Introduction
- Part I Roots 1548–1562
- Part II Youth 1562–1571
- 8 London Wardship
- 9 Early Teens
- 10 First Blood
- 11 Restless Youth
- 12 Best Friends
- 13 Necromancer
- 14 Oxford's Letters
- Part III Emancipation 1571–1574
- Part IV Exploration 1574–1576
- Part V Alienation 1576–1579
- Part VI Intrigue 1579–1580
- Part VII Sedition 1580–1581
- Part VIII Release 1581–1585
- Part IX Reiteration 1586–1591
- Part X Renewal 1592–1595
- Part XI Re-engagement 1595–1599
- Part XII Decline 1600–1604
- Part XIII Aftermath 1604–1613
- Notes
- Appendix: Oxford's Letters and Libel Documents
- Bibliography
- Index
- Liverpool English texts and Studies
Summary
In 1592 the English necromancer John Dee reported that he kept in his possession (and to his credit) ‘The honorable Erle of Oxford his favorable letters Anno 1570’. That Oxford was engaged in magic about this time is confirmed by Henry Howard's subsequent report that Oxford boasted at table of three distinct acts of necromancy (LIB-3.1/3):
– that he had often tymes copulation with a female spirite in Sir George Howardes house at Grenwiche
– that Charles Tyrrell apperid to him with a whippe after he was dead and his mother in a shete fortelling thinges to come
– that he could coniure [=conjure] and had often conference with Sathan
Charles Arundel offered variations on the same three charges (LIB-4.2/2):
– that Charles Tyrrell appereid to him with a whipp, which had made a better shew in the hand of a carman then of Hobb Gobbline, and this was in vnckle Howards at Grenewidge
– that in the same place he had copulacion with a female spright
– that he had often sene the devell by coniuringe with Parsons of the chappell that died, and by his direction paynetid owte a bo[o]k of prophesies; the coniuringe was in the little howse in the [tiltyard] at Grenewidge
Both lists refer to Oxford's step-father Charles Tyrrell, buried on 7 March 1570 at Kingston-upon-Thames; Howard refers also to Oxford's mother, who had died in December 1568. ‘Parsons of the Chappell that died’ is Robert Parsons, musician of the Chapel Royal, famously drowned in January 1570 crossing the river Trent at Newark. Since the recently dead were aptest for necromantic contact, the conjurations at Greenwich evidently began in the latter half of 1570, following Oxford's return from the North.
Both Howard and Arundel situate Oxford's conjuring at or near the house of Sir George Howard at Greenwich. Sir George, evidently born in the late 1520s, was the third son of Edmund Howard, and younger sibling of Catherine and Margaret Howard. He alone of three brothers prospered in the wake of their sister's execution in 1542, acquiring a knighthood in 1547 and various offices in the 1550s. He participated in a tournament on 25 March 1555, and, as we have seen, in the coronation jousts of 17 January 1559.
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- Monstrous AdversaryThe Life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, pp. 58 - 61Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2003