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June 1555.

Hampton Court, near London. Inside this labyrinthine red-brick palace, a man called John D. Paces around his chamber.

It's quiet and claustrophobic. Sunlight slips through small leaded windows, casting shadows on flagstone floors.

Outside, guards flank the chamber door.

John D. isn't being held in a dank, rat-infested dungeon.

There are no chains in sight.

But make no mistake, John D. is a prisoner.

Hampton Court Palace hums with anxious courtiers.

Queen Mary has announced that she's expecting an heir,

so she too is confined to her chambers. Her advisors are watching

John D. closely. They believe that he's a dangerous man, that he poses the utmost threat to his

queen. Perhaps he does.

But John D isn't an assassin, or the leader of an open rebellion.

He's a mathematician.

I'm Tim Harford, and you're listening to Cautionary Tales.

Music and you're listening to Cautionary Tales. Before he was a prisoner, John Dee was a prodigy.

He was born in London in 1527, where his father was a wealthy cloth merchant and courtier.

Roland D. gave his son the best education that money could buy, and at school, the boy's appetite for learning was voracious. On occasion, young John accompanied his father to the

glittering royal palaces, where he glimpsed riches from across the globe,

tapestries, carpets, mirrors, clocks.

...