Emperor Tiberius used to hurl his astrologers off the cliff top. Even today, we like to preface some things with, "Please don't kill the messenger."

Many Roman Emperors, including Hadrian (pictured below) were themselves skilled astrologers.


Emperor Hadrian of Rome

Towards the end of the Middle Ages, when learning had virtually stopped, Charlemagne, founder of the Holy Roman Empire, was a skilled astrologer, at least by legend, and had as his personal astrologer, the English monk Alcuin [also known as Alcinus] whom he brought from England. Charlemagne learned to read Latin and some Greek but apparently did not master writing. He said something I treasure, "To know another language is to possess another soul." At meals, instead of having jesters perform, Charlemagne listened to men reading from learned works.

As a sign of the times, the following passage is taken from the Medieval Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history, a project of Paul Halsall at Fordham University.

This excerpt is taken from The Life of Charlesmagne by Einhard, translated by Samuel Epes Turner (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1880)

Omens of Death

Very many omens had portended his approaching end, a fact that he had recognized as well as others. Eclipses both of the sun and moon were very frequent during the last three years of his life, and a black spot was visible on the sun for the space of seven days. The gallery between the basilica and the palace, which he had built at great pains and labor, fell in sudden ruin to the ground on the day of the Ascension of our Lord. The wooden bridge over the Rhine at Mayence, which he had caused to be constructed with admirable skill, at the cost of ten years' hard work, so that it seemed as if it might last forever, was so completely consumed in three hours by an accidental fire that not a single splinter of it was left, except what was under water. Moreover, one day in his last campaign into Saxony against Godfred, King of the Danes, Charles himself saw a ball of fire fall suddenly from the heavens with a great light, just as he was leaving camp before sunrise to set out on the march. It rushed across the clear sky from right to left, and everybody was wondering what was the meaning of the sign, when the horse which he was riding gave a sudden plunge, head foremost, and fell, and threw him to the ground so heavily that his cloak buckle was broken and his sword belt shattered; and after his servants had hastened to him and relieved him of his arms, he could not rise without their assistance. He happened to have a javelin in his hand when he was thrown, and this was struck from his grasp with such force that it was found lying at a distance of twenty feet or more from the spot. Again, the palace at Aix-la-Chapelle frequently trembled, the roofs of whatever buildings he tarried in kept up a continual crackling noise, the basilica in which he was afterwards buried was struck by lightning, and the gilded ball that adorned the pinnacle of the roof was shattered by the thunderbolt and hurled upon the bishop's house adjoining. In this same basilica, on the margin of the cornice that ran around the interior, between the upper and lower tiers of arches, a legend was inscribed in red letters, stating who was the builder of the temple, the last words of which were Karolus Princeps. The year that he died it was remarked by some, a few months before his decease, that the letters of the word Princeps were so effaced as to be no longer decipherable. But Charles despised, or affected to despise, all these omens, as having no reference whatever to him.

 


Emperor Charlemagne

The heyday of court astrologers was probably from the 15th to 17th centuries. Tycho Brahe served the Danish court. Johannes Kepler served the House of Habsburg and Galileo Galilei served the de Medici family. As you know, these men were also pursuing careers in astronomy. The subjects were not so divided as they are now. See my article, Fixed Stars, Not Fixed Fates for a nostalgic look at conjoined times past.


Tyco Brahe later had a false nose and served the Danish Court

 


Galileo served the deMedici Family in Italy

 


Johannes Kepler served the Habsburg Court

 

Queen Elizabeth 1 of England had one of the most famous astrologers of all time, John Dee, who also acted as a secret agent and Nostradamus.


Queen Elizabeth I of England

 

In earlier centuries the skilled English astrologer William Lilley advised both Oliver Cromwell and King Charles 1 during the Civil War, as well as predicting the Great Fire of London in 1666.


King Charles I of England


Oliver Cromwell

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