Free Tycho and Kepler by Kitty Ferguson Page B

wrote to Pratensis, “I did not want to take 9 possession of any of the castles our good king so graciously offered me. I am displeased with society here, customary forms and the whole rubbish. . . . Among people of my own class . . . I waste much time.”
    In the two monthsfollowing the king’s offer, Tycho went ahead with preparations for his departure, but he was still somewhat ambivalent about it. To maintain an aristocratic lifestyle in Basel, he would have to purchase an estate, and the only way to afford that was to sell his portion of Knutstorp. That was a complicated undertaking, because he shared ownership with his brother Steen, his mother held a lifetimeinterest in the estate, and both lived there. Furthermore, refusing the king’s magnanimous offer was sure to shed a bad light on the entire extended family. On the other hand, if his decision was going to be swayed by consideration for others, he should consider Kirsten first. There were heavy social duties connected with being lord and lady of a castle. Kirsten was as ill equipped as he wasunwilling to perform these duties.
    Tycho’s uncle Steen, of Herrevad, not pleased at the prospect of seeing his favorite nephew disappear over the European horizon, took matters in hand himself. Steen found a roundabout way to let the king know that Tycho was considering emigration and what the reason was: The royal fiefs the king had offered involved duties that would distract Tycho from hiswork. As the king later told Tycho, it was at this point in the conversation that he recalled Steen mentioning, a year earlier, that there was an island in the Øresund that had a special appeal for Tycho. Frederick’s next offer was designed to be one Tycho could not refuse.
    The king had a flair for the dramatic. Tycho described his summons in an excited letter to Pratensis:
    Hear now 10 what has happened these last few days . . . and hear it alone—do not reveal it to a soul, except our friend Dançey, when you two are alone. As I lay awake in bed, early on the morning of February 11, restlessly considering to myself the journey to Germany time and again from all sides and figuring out how I should be able to disappear without arousing the attention of my kinsfolk, when lo!—it wasannounced quite unexpectedly that a royal page had arrived here at Knutstorp, who had hastened the whole night through in order to bring me a letter from the king without delay (it was still dark of night, towards the break of dawn, and the sun did not rise for another two hours). Therefore I bade the page, a nobleman and a kinsman, to step up to the bed. He straightaway produced a letter and saidthat he had been commissioned by his king to ride night and day without rest, seek me out wheresoever I might be found . . . personally deliver the letter to me, and return immediately. . . . I broke open the letter and found that the king had commanded me to come to him without delay. This I did obediently without wasting a moment so that I presented myself before the king at the [royal huntinglodge of Ibstrup, in the forest about a mile from Copenhagen] that same day before sundown. Through his chamberlain, Niels Parsberg, he let me be called to him in private.
    Frederick received Tycho with the news that his plans to leave Denmark were no longer a secret. The king said he also knew, and sympathized with, the reasons Tycho had not accepted his offers. He, too, was concerned thatpolitical and social duties should not interfere with Tycho’s research. Frederick described a recent visit to Elsinore, where he had been overseeing the progress of the new castle: As he surveyed the seascape from one of the windows, his eyes happened to fall on the little island of Hven, on the distant horizon to the southeast—a beautiful, isolated place, not held by any noble in fief, carryingwith it only minimal administrative obligations. Were Frederick to pay, out of the royal coffers, all expenses for building a suitable