Editing William Lilly (section)

==Biography==

===Early life===
Lilly was born on 1 May 1602 in the small village of [[Diseworth]], Leicestershire;{{sfn|Geneva|1995|p=55}} the thatched cottage his family lived in still stands near the village church.{{efn|A photograph of the cottage is included in the ''Leicester Mercury'' report (see [http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Star-man-Lilly-s-magic-life/story-18323558-detail/story.html#axzz2fKUydgav 'Star man Lilly's magic life'] 5 March 2013). The report explains that during restoration of the cottage in the 1950s, "a wealth of hieroglyphics and astrological signs were revealed".}} It was a substantial house for its time, although Lilly's father, (also called William), struggled with the cost of running his farm.{{sfn|Parker|1975|pp=22-25}} By the time Lilly came to school age, his mother, Alice, complained about the family's back-slidings and decayed estate, yet she determined to give her son the best education the family could afford.{{sfn|Parker|1975|pp=24-25}}

Lilly was fortunate in receiving a [[Classical education movement|classical education]] at the [[Grammar school]] of [[Ashby-de-la-Zouch]], under [[John Brinsley the elder|John Brinsley]], one of the finest teachers of his time. Brinsley was strict in discipline but advocated encouragement and praise, and by the time Lilly left the school in 1619, he was excellently educated and excelled at Latin. This was to serve him well in his later astrological studies, since almost all astrological textbooks were written in Latin at that time.{{sfn|Parker|1975|pp=26-29}}

Lilly's hopes of attending [[Cambridge University]] were dashed by his father's increasing poverty.{{sfn|Geneva|1995|p=55}} His biography records his disappointment at being denied the opportunity that all of his fellow students enjoyed, even though he describes the knowledge of most of them as "defective":
{{blockquote|[A]ll and every of those scholars who were of my form and standing went to Cambridge ... only poor I, William Lilly, was not so happy; fortune then frowning upon father's present condition, he not in any capacity to maintain me at the university.{{sfn|Lilly|1681|p=9}}}}

A lesser opportunity came through his father's attorney, who recognised Lilly's level of education and recommended him to Gilbert Wright, Master of the [[Salters' Company]] and resident of [[The Strand, London|the Strand in London]] (but formerly of [[Market Bosworth]], Leicestershire). Wright was looking for a literate youth to act as his secretary and general servant, and at that time Lilly's father (then in prison for debt) was very happy to be rid of him, considering that since his son was no good around the farm, he was "good for nothing".{{sfn|Parker|1975|pp=31-32}} With his letter of recommendation and just a few shillings, eighteen-year-old Lilly walked to London alongside a carrier's cart, later recounting "it was a very stormy week, cold and uncomfortable: I footed it all along".{{sfn|Lilly|1681|p=9-10}}

Lilly received a warm welcome from Gilbert Wright, and worked as his servant until Wright's death in 1627. His biography recounts how, during these seven years, he was happy to perform all manner of menial tasks for his master; how he nursed Gilbert's wife through breast-cancer, until she died of the illness in 1624; how he survived the [[Great Plague of London]] in 1625; how his master married again in 1626 (a widow named Ellen Whitehaire), and then settled upon Lilly an annuity of £20 a year, before his death in May 1627.{{sfn|Lilly|1681|p=11-26}}

Within months of Wright's death, the newly widowed Ellen made it clear that, having married twice for money, she was now looking to marry someone who would be loving and look after her, regardless of her suitor's status. Lilly took the "audacious" step of proposing himself, and despite her initial protestations that at 25 years of age Lilly was too young, they married in September of that year, keeping their marriage secret from her friends and family for two years.

Lilly describes a contented marriage with Ellen, which continued for six years.{{sfn|Parker|1975|pp=41-42}} Upon her death she left everything to Lilly, of which he reports "it was considerable, very near to the value of one thousand pounds".{{sfn|Lilly|1681|p=45}}

===Astrological career===
{{more citations needed section|date=September 2013}}
The comfortable lifestyle and fortune that Lilly inherited from Ellen, gave him leisure time to frequent sermons and lectures in London society.{{sfn|Bayle|1738|p=82}} In 1632, shortly before Ellen's death, he began to study astrology, reading all the books on the subject he could fall in with, and occasionally trying his hand at unravelling mysteries by means of his art. The years 1642 and 1643 were devoted to a careful revision of all his previous reading, and in particular, having lighted on [[Valentin Naboth|Valentine Naibod]]'s ''Commentary'' on [[Alcabitius]], he "seriously studied him and found him to be the profoundest author he ever met with." About the same time he tells us that he "did carefully take notice of every grandaction betwixt king and parliament, and did first then incline to believe that as all [[Earth|sublunar]]y affairs depend on superior causes, so there, was: a possibility of discovering them by the configurations of the superior bodies." And, having thereupon "made some essays," he "found encouragement to proceed further, and ultimately framed to himself that method which he ever afterwards followed."

Lilly's most comprehensive book was published in 1647 and was entitled [[Christian Astrology]]. It is so large that it came in three separate volumes in modern times, and it remains popular even today and has never gone totally out-of-print. It is considered one of the classic texts for the study of [[History of astrology|traditional astrology]] from the [[Middle Ages]], in particular [[horary astrology]], which is mainly concerned with predicting future events or investigating unknown elements of current affairs, based on an astrological chart cast for the time a particular question is asked of the astrologer. Worked examples of horary charts are found in Volume 2 of ''Christian Astrology''.

He then began to issue his prophetical [[almanac]]s and other works, which met with serious attention from some of the most prominent members of the [[Long Parliament]].  Lilly was on intimate terms with [[Bulstrode Whitelocke]], [[William Lenthall]] the speaker, Sir [[Philip Stapleton]], [[Elias Ashmole]] and others. Even [[John Selden]] seems to have acknowledged him, and probably the chief difference between him and the mass of the community at the time was that, while others believed in the general truth of astrology, he ventured to specify the future events to which he referred.

In 1650, Lilly wrote a preface to [[Christopher Heydon|Sir Christopher Heydon]]'s ''An Astrological Discourse with Mathematical Demonstrations'', a defence of astrology written about 1608 which was first published posthumously, largely at the expense of [[Elias Ashmole]].

===Retirement and death===
[[File:William Lilly (6530600137).jpg|thumb|[[City of Westminster]] [[Green plaque]], (given to "people of renown who have made lasting contributions to society") marking Lilly's London residence in the Strand.]]
After the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] he very quickly fell into disrepute. His sympathy with the parliament, which his predictions had generally shown, was not calculated to bring him into royal favour. He came under the lash of [[Samuel Butler (1612-1680)|Samuel Butler]], who, making allowance for some satiric exaggeration, has given in the character of ''[[Hudibras]]''' Sidrophel a probably not very incorrect picture of the man; and, having by this time amassed a tolerable fortune, he bought a small estate at [[Hersham]] in [[Surrey]], to which he retired, and where he diverted the exercise of his peculiar talents to the practice of [[medicine]]. He died in 1681. In 2003 a commemorative plaque was placed next to the disused [[Aldwych tube station]] on the Strand. Lilly lived in a house on the site from 1627 to 1665.<ref>{{cite web|title=Westminster City Council Green Plaque|url=http://transact.westminster.gov.uk/greenplaques/displaybyname.cfm|website=westminster.gov.uk|publisher=Westminster City Council|access-date=4 September 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203015135/http://transact.westminster.gov.uk/greenplaques/displaybyname.cfm|archive-date=3 December 2013|df=dmy-all}}</ref>