Tycho Brahe Essay

Tycho Brahe was a famous astrologer and alchemist of the sixteenth century. Although Brahe was well known in his day, the works of Galileo and Copernicus have become more worldly known. He was born a Danish nobleman and became famous for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical observations. He is credited with the most accurate astronomical observations of his time, and the data was used by his assistant Kepler to derive the laws of planetary motion. The death of Tycho Brahe is a mystery in that no one is sure how he died.
Tycho Brahe was born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, but later changed his name when he was fifteen. He was born at his family's home of Knutstorp Castle, Denmark to Otte Brahe and Beate Bille. Otte Brahe, Tycho's father, was a nobleman and an important figure at the court of the Danish King. His mother, Beate Bille, also came from an important family that had produced leading churchmen and politicians. Both parents are buried under the floor of Kagerod Church, not far from Knutstorp. An epitaph, originally from Knutstorp, but now on a plaque near the church door, shows the whole family, including Tycho as a boy. Although Tycho did not remain with his parents. According to one source, Tycho's parents had promised to hand over a boy child to Jørgen and his wife, who were childless, but had not honored this promise. Jørgen seems to have taken matters into his own hands and took the child away to his own residence(Dreyer 12). Jørgen Brahe inherited considerable wealth from Tycho’s parents, which in terms of the social structure of the time made him   eligible for the County Sheriff. He was   County Sheriff to Tranekjaer , Odensegaard, Vordingborg Castle, and finally as County Sheriff to Queen Dorothea at Nykøbing Castle on Falster. It is hard to say exactly where Tycho was educated in his childhood years, and Tycho himself provides no further information, but sources agree that he took a Latin School education from the age of six until he was twelve years...