John Stacy (alchemist)
{{Short description|15th-century alchemist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
John Stacy (died 1477) was an English alchemist,{{sfn|Hughes|2002|p=289}} alleged astronomer and {{lang|la|magnus necromanticus}}, or great sorcerer. In his time, it was believed he had successfully predicted the death of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk. He was later implicated in a conspiracy against Edward IV, the king of England, and executed for treason.
Prediction of the death of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk
Contemporaries suspected him of practising the dark arts,{{sfn|Saunders|2010|p=76}} and it was known he had predicted the death of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk.{{sfn|Saunders|2010|p=76}} Stacy had warned Suffolk to beware of "the tower".{{sfn|Kittredge|1929|p=139}} Writing to John Paston in 1450, William Lomner reported how Stacy had advised Suffolk that "if he might escape the danger of the Tower, he should be safe".{{sfn|Gairdner|2010|p=147}} Suffolk, impeached in 1450 was therefore relieved that, instead of being sent to the Tower, he was exiled. But when he sailed from England, his ship was boarded by a privateer; he was murdered and his body dumped near Dover. The name of the ship that had attacked his own was Nicholas of the Tower.{{sfn|Bartlett|2020|pp=346–347}}{{sfn|Gairdner|2010|p=147}}
Accused of treason and executed
Stacy was implicated in a treasonable conspiracy against Edward IV of England in 1477. Under {{Lang|la|acerrimum examen}}, literally, 'severe examination' (i.e., torture){{Sfn|Kelly|2001|p=231}}{{Sfn|Kittredge|1929|p=138}}—he implicated Thomas Burdet of Arowe,{{sfn|Scofield|1967|p=188}} a retainer of George, Duke of Clarence's household.{{sfn|Cook|2014|p=40}} Following Stacy's confession, Burdet and another Oxford clerk, Thomas Blake, were arrested. The commission condemned all three.{{sfn|Scofield|1967|p=188}} In what the historian Charles Ross has called a "staged political trial",{{sfn|Ross|1974|p=241}} and Anne Crawford a "justly conducted, if political, trial", on 10 May 1477{{sfn|Scofield|1967|p=189}} they were found guilty of "'imagining and compassing' the king's death".{{sfn|Given-Wilson|Brand|Phillips|Ormrod|2005}} This was high treason.{{sfn|Crawford|2007|p=100}} Blake was reprieved after a petition from the Bishop of Norwich,{{Sfn|Young|2022|p=133}} but Burdet and Stacy, still protesting their innocence, were taken to Tyburn the following day and hanged, drawn and quartered.{{sfn|Lander|1967|p=6}}{{sfn|Scofield|1967|p=189}}
The medical historian Jonathan Hughes argues that Stacy's involvement in the events of 1477 indicate how "infiltration of black magic into the affairs of state" was unprecedented.{{sfn|Hughes|2002|p=290}}
References
{{Reflist|20em}}
= Bibliography =
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
- {{Cite book |last=Bartlett |first=R.|title=Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe |date=2020|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-10849-067-2 |location=Cambridge}}
- {{Cite book |last=Cook |first=D. R.|title=Lancastrians and Yorkists: The Wars of the Roses |date=2014|edition=repr.|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-31788-097-4 |location=Abingdon}}
- {{Cite book |last=Crawford |first=A.|title=The Yorkists: The History of a Dynasty |date=2007|publisher=Hambledon|isbn=978-1-84725-197-8 |location=London}}
- {{Cite book |last=Gairdner |first=J.|orig-year=1904|title=The Paston Letters: 1422-1509|volume=II|edition=New Library (repr.)|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-51171-648-5|location=Cambridge}}
- {{Cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/parliament-rolls-medieval/january-1478|title=Introduction: Edward IV: January 1478|date=2005|editor-last=Given-Wilson|editor-first=C.|editor2-last=Brand|editor2-first=P.|archive-url=https://archive.today/20250111181636/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/parliament-rolls-medieval/january-1478|access-date=11 January 2025|archive-date=11 January 2025|url-status=live|website=British History Online|series=Parliament Rolls of Medieval England|location=Woodbridge|editor3-last=Phillips|editor3-first=S.|editor4-last=Ormrod|editor4-first=M.|editor5-last=Martin|editor5-first=G.|editor6-last=Curry|editor6-first=A.|editor7-last=Horrox|editor7-first=R.}}
- {{Cite book |last=Hughes |first=J.|title=Arthurian Myths and Alchemy: The Kingship of Edward IV |date=2002 |publisher=Sutton |isbn=978-0-75091-994-4 |location=Stroud}}
- {{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=H. A. |title=Inquisitions and Other Trial Procedures in the Medieval West |date=2001|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-04024-281-0 |location=Abingdon}}
- {{Cite book |last=Kittredge |first=G. L.|title=Witchcraft in Old and New England |date=1929|oclc=1544433|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, MA}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Lander |first1=J. R. |title=The Treason and Death of the Duke of Clarence: A Re-Interpretation |journal=Canadian Journal of History |date=1967 |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=1–28 |doi=10.3138/cjh.2|doi-broken-date=24 January 2025 }}
- {{cite book|last=Ross|first=C. D.|title=Edward IV|year=1974|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|oclc=1259845}}
- {{Cite book |last=Saunders |first=C. J.|title=Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval English Romance |date=2010 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-84384-221-7 |location=Woodbridge}}
- {{Cite book |last=Scofield |first=C. L.|title=The Life and Reign of Edward the Fourth, King of England and of France and Lord of Ireland |date=1967|volume=II |publisher=Cass|edition=New impr.|oclc=310646653|location=London}}
- {{Cite book |last=Young |first=F.|title=Magic in Merlin's Realm: A History of Occult Politics in Britain |date=2022|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-31651-240-1 |location=Cambridge}}
{{refend}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stacy, John}}
Category:15th-century English astronomers
Category:15th-century alchemists
Category:People executed under the Plantagenets by hanging, drawing and quartering
Category:People executed under the Plantagenets for treason against England
Category:People executed under the Yorkists