MILLENARIANISM IN BROMLEY-BY-BOW: QUIRINUS KUHLMANN AND THE STUARTS

In October 1689 Quirinus Kuhlmann, a Silesian poet laureate, millenarian and admirer of Jakob Boehme, met a heretic's end in Moscow, one of many cities visited by this self-styled 'son of the Son of God', 'Jesuel', in his attempt to establish his 'Kuhlmonarchie', which would usher in the Last Days. His travels took him to Amsterdam, Paris, London, Edinburgh, and Turkey, where he hoped to convert the Sultan and enlist him in his campaign to overthrow the Roman Catholic Church. In the 1670s and 1680s Kuhlmann spent extended periods in England and Scotland, visiting York and Edinburgh, and lived for several years in Bromley-by-Bow, drawing on common ground shared with various English Nonconformist groups. These groups flourished not least because of the political upheavals following the Civil War, the execution of Charles I, the Interregnum, the Popish Plot of 1678, and the ensuing Exclusion Crisis. This article analyses the poems Kuhlmann wrote on the death of Charles II and the accession of his brother James to the throne in 1685, locating them within the Kuhlpsalter, his poetic account of and commentary on his physical and spiritual journeys, and drawing links with his wider millenarian vision.