W 106, i 7 ] Last Years at Hveen 139 



their effect. In 1594 he lost one of his chief supporters 

 at court, the Chancellor Kaas, and his successor, as well as 

 two or three other important officials at court, were not 

 very friendly, although the stories commonly told of violent 

 personal animosities appear to have little foundation. As 

 early as 1591 Tycho had hinted to a correspondent that 

 he might not remain permanently in Denmark, and in 1594 

 he began a correspondence with representatives of the 

 Emperor Rudolph II., who was a patron of science. But 

 his scientific activity during these years was as great as 

 ever; and in 1596 he completed the printing of an 

 extremely interesting volume of scientific correspondence 

 between the Landgrave, Rothmann, and himself. The 

 accession of the young King to power in 1596 was at once 

 followed by the withdrawal of one of Tycho's estates, and 

 in the following year the annual payment which had been 

 made since 1576 was stopped. It is difficult to blame the 

 King for these economies ; he was "evidently not as much 

 interested in astronomy as his father, and consequently re- 

 garded the heavy expenditure at Hveen as an extravagance, 

 and it is alse probable that he was seriously annoyed at 

 Tycho's maltreatment of his tenants, and at other pieces of 

 unruly conduct on his part. Tycho, however, regarded the 

 forfeiture of his annual pension as the last straw, and left 

 Hveen early in 1597, taking his more portable property 

 with him. After a few months spent in Copenhagen, he 

 took the decisive step of leaving Denmark for Germany, 

 in return for which action the King deprived him of his 

 canonry. Tycho thereupon wrote a remonstrance in 

 which he pointed out the impossibility of carrying on his 

 work without proper endowments, and offered to return 

 if his services were properly appreciated. The King, 

 however, was by this time seriously annoyed, and his reply 

 was an enumeration of the various causes of complaint 

 against Tycho which had arisen of late years. Although 

 Tycho made some more attempts through various friends 

 to regain royal favour, the breach remained final. 



107. Tycho spent the winter 1597-8 with a friend near 

 Hamburg, and, while there, issued, under the title of 

 Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica^ a description of his 

 instruments, together with a short autobiography and an 



