John Dee

John Dee (1527 to 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, teacher, astrologer, occultist and alchemist. Born in London to a family of Welsh descent, he entered St John College, Cambridge, at fifteen and became an original fellow of Trinity College in 1546, then studied at Leuven under Gemma Frisius and befriended the cartographers Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius. He served Elizabeth I as court astronomer and adviser, assembled one of the largest private libraries in England, and argued for English colonies in the New World, a policy for which he is credited with coining the term British Empire. In later life he left royal service for the occult, worked with several men who may have been charlatans, was accused of spying, came home to find his library vandalised, and died in poverty in London.