Under the Sealing Wax: The Alchemist Empress

One of the coolest things about the Middle Ages is that alchemy was a legitimate profession. Before the discovery of gravity, or the atom, or cells, there were men and women who searched for the secret to unlocking the mysteries of matter.

One such woman was Barbara of Cilla (1392-1451), wife of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. Renowned for her beauty and intelligence, she ruled over her husband's growing empire while he was away fighting wars and crusades. After his death, political rivals stripped her of much of her wealth, briefly imprisoned her, and accused her of heresy and immoral behavior. She was also rumored to have taken up the practice of alchemy later in life.

Queen Barbara at Mass. Starnberg - Konstanz. Fol. 21r

John of Laz, an "honest" alchemist, wrote an account of meeting Barbara that was quoted in several later alchemical treatises:

I heard the rumor in various languages about the queen of the king of divine memory, Sigismund, that she was skilled in the art of physics. I went to her to make an assessment of her in the art of physics, and she answered me cleverly. I saw that she took mercury and arsenic and other things she knew well, and she made a powder, which whitened the copper, but did not pass well the test with the hammer, and with that she made many deceptions among the people. [...] Again I saw, that she took some saffron of Mars [iron oxide], some saffron of Venus [calcified copper], and other powders, and mixed them, and made cement out of them, and grasped it together with pieces of gold and argent [silver], and united them, it appeared pure gold both from outside and inside. And when she cast the whole thing, it lost its red color, and thus many traders were deceived with that.

 When John tries to point out her trickery, she goes a little Red Queen on him:

I saw many tricks and deceptions carried out by her, and corrected her in words. She however wanted to jail me, but I could leave with peace, because God helped me.

(Translated by Benedek Lang in Unlocked Books: Manuscripts of Learned Magic, p. 156.) 

We can pretty safely assume that Barbara never unlocked the secret formula for turning lead into gold. She probably never found the key to eternal life, either, because she died of the plague in her late fifties.

Barbara de Celje. Woodcut from the Nuremberg Chronicle.

However, during her marriage to Sigismund, Barbara helped to found the chivalric Order of the Dragon. Guess who was a member of the Order of the Dragon? ... Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?... Vlad Dracul, father of Vlad the Impaler, who is also known as Dracula! Coincidence? Perhaps not.