Richard Topcliffe

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Richard Topcliffe (1532– 1604) was a landowner and Member of Parliament. During the reign of Elizabeth I of England he entered the service of her secretary, William Cecil, and worked with Sir Francis Walsingham and the Privy Council.

Career

Topcliffe was involved in the interrogation and torture of many Catholics and Jesuit priests, at a time when Catholics were accused of actively and violently trying to overthrow the Protestant government of England. His victims included Ben Jonson and the Jesuits Robert Southwell, John Gerard, and Henry Garnet.

Topcliffe gained a reputation as an effective torturer. He claimed that his own instruments and methods were better than the official ones. He was authorized to create a torture chamber in his own private house in London.

Fitzherbert affair

Topcliffe was involved in a legal wrangle with his assistant Thomas Fitzherbet. Fitzherbet had betrayed his own father and uncle as guilty of treason, agreeing to split their forfeited estates with Topcliffe if they were condemned. There was a dispute over whether a victim had died of natural causes or as a result of being tortured by Topcliffe, and Fitzherbert refused to pay. Topcliffe won the case and gained the estates, but a few years later the estates were returned to the Fitzherbet family by Queen Elizabeth I, and Topcliffe was presented with estates in Derbyshire instead.

Death

Topcliffe lived to a ripe old age for the times and died quietly in his bed.

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