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John Prestall: a Complex Relationship with the Elizabethan Regime

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John Prestall: a Complex Relationship with the Elizabethan Regime John Prestall: A Complex Relationship with the Elizabethan Regime. Michael J. Devine A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Victoria University of Wellington 2009. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks must first go to my supervisor Glyn Parry for his wisdom and generosity in introducing me to John Prestall. Without Glyn‘s invaluable advice and guidance this thesis would not have been completed. Thanks also to my fellow history postgraduate students James Campbell, Malcolm Craig, Michael Gill, Nick Radburn and Sam Ritchie for providing advice and their invaluable friendship. I am grateful to Victoria University‘s History Department for providing a comfortable and accommodating working environment and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences for awarding me a grant to present a paper at the Seventh Australia New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS) conference in Hobart, Australia. Special thanks must go to my parents Kate and Kieran, and my siblings Hilary, Erica and Peter for their encouragement and support throughout my Masters. M. J. Devine Wellington ii ABSTRACT This thesis is the biography of John Prestall (c.1527-c.1598) an unsavoury, nefarious, and spendthrift Catholic gentleman from Elizabethan England. A conspirator, opportunist informer, conjurer, conman and alchemist Prestall‘s biography provides an alternative perspective from which to view Elizabethan history, exposing the dark fringe of the Elizabethan Court and the murky political underworld it attracted. In the polarised politico-religious ferment of late Tudor England Prestall, perennially in debt, utilised his occult powers for his own ruthless self-interest and preservation. In exploring Prestall‘s use of magic, this thesis demonstrates the important influence magic had on Elizabethan political conspiracies and Court politics. Within a society whose belief system held magic to be an inherent part of the natural world Prestall became a player in Elizabethan politics by using his astrological and alchemical talents to whatever ends he thought would provide the biggest payoff. He oscillated between using magic in conspiracies against both Mary I and Elizabeth I, and trading alchemical promises with members of the Elizabethan establishment for patronage, royal pardons, and safe passage from exile. Prestall‘s self-interest as the motivating factor for his actions presents an interesting contrast with those, such as his fellow conspirators and members of the Elizabethan government, whose actions were often dictated by their ideological views on the Catholic-Protestant clash. Through an examination of primary manuscripts and printed materials, this thesis situates Prestall in the broader context of Tudor England and uses his life as a conduit to link a sequence of previously unrelated plots, conspiracies and patronage relationships. iii CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Contents iii Abbreviations iv Note on Editorial Policy vi Introduction 1 Chapter One Prestall Family‘s Origins 22 Chapter Two 1560s: Conjuring Conspiracy 46 Chapter Three 1570s: Conspiring to Conjure 79 Chapter Four 1580s – 1590s: An Ambiguous End 124 Conclusion 138 Bibliography 142 iv ABBREVIATIONS Add. MSS Additional Manuscripts, British Library. APC J. R. Dasent, (eds.), Acts of the Privy Council of England, New Series, London, 1890-1964. BL British Library. C Chancery Records. Cotton MS(S) Cotton Manuscripts, British Library. CPR Elizabeth I Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Elizabeth I, London, 1939- 1984. CRS Catholic Record Society. CSP Spanish Calendar State Papers Relating to the Negotiations Between England and Spain Preserved in The Archives at Simancas and Elsewhere, London, 1862-1954. CSP Venetian Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts Relating to English Affairs Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice and in Other Libraries of Northern Italy, London, 1864-1947. DU Dudley Manuscripts. f(f). Folio(s). HoP Commons, 1509-1558 S. T. Bindoff (ed.), History of Parliament, The House of Commons, 1509-1558, 3 Vols, London 1982. HoP Commons, 1558-1603 P.W. Hasler (ed.), History of Parliament: House of Commons 1558-1603, 3 Vols, London, 1981. HMC Salisbury Historical Manuscripts Commission, Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Most Hon. The Marquis of Salisbury, K.G. preserved at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, London, 1883-1976. KB Kings Bench Court Records. v Lansdowne MS(S) Lansdowne Manuscripts, British Library. Longleat House MS(S) Manuscripts belonging to the Marquis of Bath. LP Henry VIII J.S. Brewer, J. Gardiner, R.H. Brodie et al (eds.), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, London, 1862-1932. ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Online Edition, 2008, [http://www.oxforddnb.com]. PC Privy Council Registers. PROB Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Will Registers. REQ Court of Request Records. sig(s). Signature(s). SP State Papers. SR A. Luders, T. E. Tomlins, J. France, W. E. Taunton and J. Raithby (eds.), Statutes of the Realm, from Original Records and Authentic Manuscripts, London, 1810-1828. TNA The National Archives, United Kingdom (formerly the Public Record Office (PRO)). vi NOTE ON EDITORIAL POLICY All manuscript sources quoted in this thesis are presented in the original spelling, grammar and punctuation. Spelling elisions and contractions are expanded and shown in parenthesis where required for clarity, though the sixteenth century usage of ‗matie‘ for ‗Majesty‘, ‗tht‘ for ‗that‘, ‗wch‘ for ‗which‘, ‗wth‘ for ‗with‘, and ‗ye‘ for ‗the‘ have been left. To prevent confusion ‗Mr‘ has been changed where it meant ‗Master‘, but left where it stood for ‗Mr‘. Personal names have been left in the favoured contemporary form, except where consistency is required. Manuscripts quoted in this thesis are predominantly of English origin or predate the Gregorian calendar‘s introduction in Catholic Europe in 1582; therefore all dates are given in the Julian calendar style. The New Year is taken as beginning on 1 January rather than 25 March, the date of New Year ‘s day in England unitl 1752. As such date- years have been adjusted where necessary. 1 INTRODUCTION In 1603, John Norden published A Pensive Soules Delight (1603), which in grovelling, trite verses reviewed 'the sundry daungers, that have bene, and are daily plotted and practised, against her highnesse most innocent person, and Royall state‘.1 In response Norden recounted ‗Elizaes grace‘ and ‗Elizaes lenitie‘, not omitting the fact that ‗Heavens Angels spred their still protecting tent,/And guard her sacred person innocent‘.2 The roll-call of ‗Locust Catholickes‘ and their treasonous plot Norden expected his readers to recognise included many well-known to history, such as the 1569 Northern Rebellion and the Throckmorton Plot, and others less famous but still widely remembered, such Dr John Story, the canon lawyer kidnapped from the Netherlands in 1571 and subsequently executed for his conspiring from exile. Amongst the plots and plotters, which ‗All men well know‘, Norden assumed his readers would remember the career of a Catholic plotter named ‗Prestall‘.3 Although at the time prominent enough for Norden to name him amongst the Catholic traitors, he has subsequently slipped into historical ambiguity, largely ignored by historians. Norden claimed that Antichrist, in the person of the Pope and his Catholic minions, practised ‗darknesse in the darke,/As devilish witchcraft, and the Magicke arts‘, against Elizabeth, ‗And for his Nigromanticall practises/Pickes out infernall instruments for fact‘.4 He names this Prestall as one such instrument, to whom ‗The divel assured 1 John Norden, A Pensive Soules Delight. The Contents whereof, is shewen in these verses following. 1. The Pensive Soule recounteth in this place/Elizaes troubles, and Elizaes grace./2. Here are expressed the stratagems of foes,//Elizaes conquests, and their falls that rose./3. Here is set forth Elizaes lenitie,/And Locust-Catholickes super bitie, London, 1603, HEHL 62792. 2 Norden, A Pensive Soules Delight, sigs. title page and B2r. 3 Norden, A Pensive Soules Delight, sig. D4r-v. 4 Norden, A Pensive Soules Delight, sig. D4r. 2 them Elizaes death/(He loves to lye) believe not what he saith‘.5 Yet despite his necromantic plotting ‗Prestall found a fayrer day,/Elizaes mercy, her revenge exceedes:/Though mercy in this case might well say nay‘.6 In the official version spouted by Norden, Prestall‘s Catholic use of magic against Elizabeth I received mercy instead of the traitor‘s death such treason deserved. This locust Catholic named Prestall is John Prestall and Norden‘s tale is a simplified version of his life, pitching sinister Catholics against the firm but benevolent Protestant Queen, in a story thought suitable for public consumption. In reality, Prestall‘s story was far more complex and multifaceted, because he played both sides off against the middle with concern only for himself. This thesis is the biography of John Prestall, a gentleman from Elizabethan England. However as Norden‘s barbed prose suggest, a gentleman in social rank only. He spent his life egotistically peddling his magical abilities to members of Elizabeth I‘s Court, and conspiring to replace Elizabeth with those disaffected by her Protestant rule. John Prestall‘s life weaves through the perverse and often baffling political underworld that existed on the penumbra of the salubrious Elizabethan Court. This thesis provides the most complete picture of John Prestall to date, placing him and his use of magic in the wider context of Elizabethan politics. Born in 1527 and dying around 1598, John Prestall‘s life spans a fascinating time in England‘s history, where political and religious changes were interwoven. Prestall‘s biography opens an alternative view into this well trodden period of history, revealing aspects rarely examined by historians, especially the important influence magical and occult beliefs had in politics. Prestall has been described as having ‗a complex and ambivalent relationship with the English government‘.7 Prestall used his occult powers 5 Norden, A Pensive Soules Delight, sig. D4r. 6 Norden, A Pensive Soules Delight, sig.
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