1527 BIRTH OF JOHN DEE, THE ORIGINAL 007
Dr John Dee was one of the most respected and eminent men of his time, but his many enemies ensured that he was ridiculed and eventually forgotten
Who was John Dee? Unlike his contemporaries Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake and William Shakespeare (who is said to have based the magician Prospero in The Tempest on Dee) – who are securely bookmarked in our catalogue of British history – Dr Dee, astrologer and confidant to Queen Elizabeth I, has no such acknowledgment.