A tale of alchemy and fleecing a queen
Sir Armagil Waad, possibly Sharon's 11th great grandfather may not have been the "Columbus of England," as we looked at last week, but he was a key participant in a curious incident in which a man who identified himself as an alchemist may well have been trying to run a con on Queen Elizabeth I. I would venture to say that most people associate alchemy with the idea of turning lead into gold, and that will be a key part of this story. But perhaps you're like me and don't know that alchemy goes beyond the idea of turning base metals -- the metals we use and rely on most of the time, such as copper, lead, nickel, tin, iron -- into precious metals. In those days that would mean primarily gold and silver. And you might think that alchemy was a pre-enlightenment fascination mostly centered in Europe. But alchemy has its roots in ancient Egypt, where not surprisingly it was associated religion. From there alchemy spread throughout the world as other nations arouse and ...