John Bull forced a mason to break down a wall to enter his own rooms at Gresham College, a reckless act that would eventually cost him his career and his home. Born in the mid-1560s, likely in the Radnorshire parish of Old Radnor within the Diocese of Hereford, Bull was a figure of immense musical talent and equal measure of scandalous behavior. His early life remains shrouded in mystery, with scholars debating whether he was the son of a London goldsmith or a member of the Bull family of Peglich, Somerset. What is certain is that he joined the choir at Hereford Cathedral in 1573 and soon after moved to London to study with John Blitheman and William Hunnis. By 1582, he had secured his first official post as organist at Hereford Cathedral, a position that typically required a man to return to his home diocese after training in the capital. His rapid ascent continued when he received his degree from Oxford in 1586 and became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal the same year. He was a man who could play the organ with virtuosity that rivaled the greatest of his age, yet he possessed a chaotic streak that would define his later years.
The King's Troublemaker
In 1597, John Bull's appointment as the first professor of music at Gresham College required him to obey strict ordinances, yet he chose to ignore them in a fit of frustration. Fearful that his assigned rooms were still occupied by William Reade, the stepson of the college's founder, Bull did not wait for a resolution. Instead, he engaged a mason to help him break down a wall to force his way into the chambers, an act of defiance that led to a legal action in the Star Chamber. The outcome of this case remains unknown, but the pattern of behavior was clear. Ten years later, on the 20th of December 1607, he was forced to leave his post at Gresham College after fathering a child pre-maritally with an Elizabeth Walter. He lost his best source of income and his quarters, and although he filed a petition for a marriage licence two days after losing his job, he never returned to the college. He married Elizabeth Walter in 1607, and they had a daughter, but the damage to his reputation was already done. His salary at the Chapel Royal was paid in lieu to Edmund Hooper, and he was fleeing the wrath of George Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and King James himself. The charge this time was adultery, a crime that would force him to flee England forever.Flight To Flanders
Just after publishing seven keyboard pieces in the collection Parthenia, John Bull left England for good, secretly and with great haste in October 1613. He was fleeing the wrath of George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, and King James himself, who had heard that Bull had slept in a bed with his wife while two maidservants slept in a truckle bed underneath. One summer morning, Bull made one of the maids take his place by his wife, while he slept with the other maid in the truckle bed. He had also assaulted a church minister in front of the congregation, an act that sealed his fate. William Trumbull, the English envoy in the Low Countries, wrote to the King in early 1614, reporting that the Archbishop of Canterbury had said of him the previous year that the man had more music than honesty and was as famous for marring of virginity as he was for fingering of organs and virginals. Bull remained in Flanders, where it seems he stayed out of trouble. He was briefly employed at the Brussels court, but was released after Trumbull communicated King James's displeasure. He continued to receive money from the court until 1618, but he was never extradited back to England in spite of Trumbull's complaining to the Archduke. He wrote a series of letters while in Flanders, including one to the mayor of Antwerp, claiming that the reason he left England was to escape religious persecution, though there is no evidence that he was a Catholic.