aka The John Dee Chronicles
J.A. Downes 
The Greatest Heist in Theatre History: How Shakespeare Stole His Own Playhouse Imagine dismantling an entire timber-framed building in the dead of winter, hauling it across a frozen river, and reassembling it on the other side, all under the cover of darkness and against the explicit wishes of your landlord. This is not the plot … Read more
Tudor London’s Population Explosion: How a City of 50,000 Became a Metropolis of 200,000 Imagine stepping into London in the year 1500. The city is bustling, certainly, but it remains a manageable medieval town of roughly 50,000 souls, its boundaries still largely defined by ancient Roman walls, its rhythms shaped by guild halls, parish churches, … Read more
From Absolution: A Question of Conviction: “She dropped the page as though it burned, a hand shooting to her mouth. My God! Bending forward from the waist, she sucked in lungfuls of air, spots swimming before her eyes. She struggled to her feet, feeling faint, and staggered to a wall cabinet where she stored a … Read more
Anne Boleyn and the English Bible: How a Queen Changed the Course of Religious History When most people think of Anne Boleyn, they picture the second wife of Henry VIII, a woman whose rise and fall defined one of the most dramatic chapters in Tudor history. Yet there is a dimension to Anne that popular … Read more
The Miscarriage That Changed Tudor History: Anne Boleyn’s Tragedy of January 1536 In the bitter cold of January 1536, a single medical event sent shockwaves through the Tudor court and ultimately sealed the fate of one of England’s most fascinating queens. Anne Boleyn, the woman Henry VIII had moved heaven and earth to marry, suffered … Read more
How Anne Boleyn’s French Education Shaped a Queen and Changed England Forever What if the woman who would one day bring down a queen, captivate a king, and reshape the religious landscape of an entire nation had never left England? It is one of history’s most tantalising counterfactuals. Anne Boleyn’s formative years spent abroad, first … Read more
During a recent visit to North Yorkshire, England, I took 50+ photos of Whitby Abbey with my iPhone 15 Pro. I basically walked around the abbey ruin, taking a photo every 15 or 20 yards, trying to get as much into the photo as possible whilst avoiding the fishpond and other boggy areas. The abbey … Read more
Elizabeth I and the Golden Age of English Renaissance Culture: How a Queen Became a Muse Imagine a court so dazzling with intellectual brilliance that it inspired some of the greatest works of literature the English language has ever produced. At the centre of this extraordinary cultural flowering stood one woman: Elizabeth I of England, … Read more
From Divination: A Conspiracy of Blood: “Dee’s candle burned low as he worked, his quill scratching across parchment as he attempted to recreate some of the calculations that Kopernik had so casually performed. It was well past midnight when he finally set his work aside and retired to his bed. As he drifted toward sleep, … Read more
Elizabeth I and the Smallpox Crisis of 1562: The Illness That Changed a Queen Forever In the autumn of 1562, England came terrifyingly close to losing its queen. Elizabeth I, just four years into her reign and not yet thirty years old, contracted smallpox at Hampton Court Palace and fell so gravely ill that her … Read more