In early modern Europe, many princes saw enormous value in supporting natural knowledge at court, regularly supporting experts who could extend the power of the state over nature and sustain the health of the sovereign. In the mid-sixteenth century, however, a disturbing cluster of incidents at several courts in the Holy Roman Empire suggested that expertise with nature was as likely to destabilize princely rule as it was to bolster it. In Gotha, an imperial knight named Grumbach was said to have used a potion in the 1560s to bewitch his patron, convincing him that angels wanted him to mount a military campaign against the Holy Roman Emperor. In Berlin, the elector died unexpectedly in 1571when his (Jewish) Master of the Mint Lippold supposedly gave him poison-laced wine, while in 1575, at the ducal court in Wolfenbüttel, the alchemist Anna Zieglerin reportedly attempted to poison the duchess and to win the duke’s favors with love magic. Although each of these shocking assaults was an isolated event, observers saw a through-line: treacherous courtiers deploying magic, poison, and alchemy to manipulate the affections of—if not kill—their patrons. In this paper, I will examine the implications of these terrifying instances of patronage gone awry for the practice of alchemy in central Europe, arguing that they highlighted the fragility of princely rule and reframed the court alchemist’s knowledge of nature as a potential threat, not a boon, to the body of the sovereign and the early modern state.
