Richard Topcliffe
Encyclopedia
Richard Topcliffe was a landowner and Member of Parliament
during the reign of Elizabeth I of England
. He became notorious as a priest-hunter and torturer and was often referred to as the Queen's principal "interrogator".
, Lincolnshire
, and his wife, Margaret, daughter of Thomas, third Baron Burgh of Gainsborough. He was orphaned at age 12, and later entered Gray's Inn
to train as a lawyer. Until his early forties, he appears to have contented himself in administering his estates in Yorkshire
and elsewhere.
in the 1570s, and worked for Sir Francis Walsingham and the Privy Council
. However, he regarded his authority as deriving directly from the Queen.
He represented Beverley
in Parliament in 1572. He would later return to Parliament as MP for Old Sarum
in 1584 and 1586.
Topcliffe was a fanatical persecutor of Catholics and the Catholic Church, and was involved in the interrogation
and torture
of many priests and laity, at a time when all Catholics were accused of actively seeking to overthrow the ruling Anglican establishment of England in order to return England to Catholicism.
Topcliffe gained a reputation as a sadistic torturer who frequently played mind games with prisoners under interrogation. He claimed that his own instruments and methods were better than the official ones, and was authorized to create a torture chamber
in his home in London
. He also involved himself directly in the execution of sentences of death upon Catholic recusants, which involved hanging, drawing and quartering.
Topcliffe's victims included the Jesuits Robert Southwell, John Gerard
, and Henry Garnet
. Topcliffe features numerous times in Gerard's autobiography of his days as a hunted priest in Elizabethan England. In it he is described as, "old and hoary and a veteran in evil". He raped one of his prisoners, Anne Bellamy, until she helped him arrest the Jesuit priest Robert Southwell. When Bellamy became pregnant by him in 1592, she was forced to marry his servant to cover up the scandal.
He also interrogated Ben Jonson
in August 1597 in investigations into Jonson's suppressed play, The Isle of Dogs
.
, agreeing to split their forfeited estates with Topcliffe if they were condemned. There was a dispute over whether one of them had died of natural causes
, or as a result of the torture inflicted 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 Fitzherbert family by Queen Elizabeth I, and Topcliffe was presented with estates in Derbyshire
.
in the 1971 British television mini-series Elizabeth R
.
--Saint Eustace White
, S.J., written to Father Henry Garnet
from prison. 23 November, 1591. Quoted in The Other Face; Catholic Life Under Elizabeth I, by Father Philip Caraman, pages 235-236.
--Father Henry Garnet, "Account of the Trial of Robert Southwell." Quoted in Caraman's The Other Face, page 230.
Topcliffe: If he were racked, let me die for it.
Southwell: No; but it was as evil a torture
, or late device.
Topcliffe: I did but set him against a wall.
Southwell: Thou art a bad man.
Topcliffe: I would blow you all to dust if I could.
Southwell: What, all?
Topcliffe: Ay, all.
Southwell: What, soul
and body too?
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
during the reign of Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
. He became notorious as a priest-hunter and torturer and was often referred to as the Queen's principal "interrogator".
Early life
Topcliffe was the eldest son of Robert Topcliffe of SomerbySomerby
Somerby could be:* Somerby, Leicestershire, a village near Melton Mowbray* Somerby , Lincolnshire, a hamlet near Brigg* Somerby, West Lindsey, a hamlet near Gainsborough, Lincolnshire* Somerby Golf Club and Community in Byron, Minnesota...
, Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, and his wife, Margaret, daughter of Thomas, third Baron Burgh of Gainsborough. He was orphaned at age 12, and later entered Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
to train as a lawyer. Until his early forties, he appears to have contented himself in administering his estates in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
and elsewhere.
Career
Topcliffe entered the service of the Queen's secretary, William CecilWilliam Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572...
in the 1570s, and worked for Sir Francis Walsingham and the Privy Council
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
. However, he regarded his authority as deriving directly from the Queen.
He represented Beverley
Beverley (UK Parliament constituency)
Beverley has been the name of a parliamentary constituency in the East Riding of Yorkshire for three separate periods. From medieval times until 1869, it was a parliamentary borough, consisting solely of the market town of Beverley, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons...
in Parliament in 1572. He would later return to Parliament as MP for Old Sarum
Old Sarum (UK Parliament constituency)
Old Sarum was the most infamous of the so-called 'rotten boroughs', a parliamentary constituency of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which was effectively controlled by a single person, until it was abolished under the Reform Act 1832. The constituency was the site of what had been...
in 1584 and 1586.
Topcliffe was a fanatical persecutor of Catholics and the Catholic Church, and was involved in the interrogation
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
and torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
of many priests and laity, at a time when all Catholics were accused of actively seeking to overthrow the ruling Anglican establishment of England in order to return England to Catholicism.
Topcliffe gained a reputation as a sadistic torturer who frequently played mind games with prisoners under interrogation. He claimed that his own instruments and methods were better than the official ones, and was authorized to create a torture chamber
Torture chamber
A torture chamber is a room where torture is inflicted.- Methods of coercion :According to Frederick Howard Wines in his book Punishment and Reformation: A Study Of The Penitentiary System there were three main types of coercion employed in the torture chamber: Coercion by the cord, by water and...
in his home in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He also involved himself directly in the execution of sentences of death upon Catholic recusants, which involved hanging, drawing and quartering.
Topcliffe's victims included the Jesuits Robert Southwell, John Gerard
John Gerard, S.J.
John Gerard, S.J. was an English Jesuit priest, operating covertly in England during the Elizabethan period in which the Catholic Church was subject to persecution. He was the son of Sir Thomas Gerard of Bryn, near Ashton in Makerfield, Lancashire, who had been imprisoned in 1569 for plotting the...
, and Henry Garnet
Henry Garnet
Henry Garnet , sometimes Henry Garnett, was a Jesuit priest executed for his complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Born in Derbyshire, he was educated in Nottingham and later at Winchester College, before moving to London in 1571 to work for a publisher...
. Topcliffe features numerous times in Gerard's autobiography of his days as a hunted priest in Elizabethan England. In it he is described as, "old and hoary and a veteran in evil". He raped one of his prisoners, Anne Bellamy, until she helped him arrest the Jesuit priest Robert Southwell. When Bellamy became pregnant by him in 1592, she was forced to marry his servant to cover up the scandal.
He also interrogated Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
in August 1597 in investigations into Jonson's suppressed play, The Isle of Dogs
The Isle of Dogs (play)
The Isle of Dogs is a play by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson which was performed in 1597. It was immediately suppressed, and no copy of it is known to exist.-The Play:...
.
Fitzherbert affair
Topcliffe was involved in a legal wrangle with his assistant Thomas Fitzherbert. Fitzherbert had betrayed his own father and uncle by accusing them of treasonTreason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
, agreeing to split their forfeited estates with Topcliffe if they were condemned. There was a dispute over whether one of them had died of natural causes
Death by natural causes
A death by natural causes, as recorded by coroners and on death certificates and associated documents, is one that is primarily attributed to natural agents: usually an illness or an internal malfunction of the body. For example, a person dying from complications from influenza or a heart attack ...
, or as a result of the torture inflicted 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 Fitzherbert family by Queen Elizabeth I, and Topcliffe was presented with estates in Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
.
Depiction
Richard Topcliffe was portrayed by Brian WildeBrian Wilde
Brian George Wilde was an English actor, best known for his roles in television comedy, including Mr Barrowclough in Porridge and "Foggy" Dewhurst in Last of the Summer Wine...
in the 1971 British television mini-series Elizabeth R
Elizabeth R
Elizabeth R is a BBC television drama serial of six 85-minute plays starring Glenda Jackson in the title role. It was first broadcast on BBC2 from February to March 1971, through the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Australia and broadcast in America on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre.- Episodes...
.
Quote
-
"The morrow after Simon and Jude's day I was hanged at the wall from the ground, my manacles fast locked into a staple as high as I could reach upon a stool: the stool taken away where I hanged from a little after 8 o'clock in the morning till after 4 in the afternoon, without any ease or comfort at all, saving that Topcliffe came in and told me that the Spaniards were come into Southwark
SouthwarkSouthwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...
by our means: 'For lo, do you not hear the drums' (for then the drums played in honour of the Lord MayorLord MayorThe Lord Mayor is the title of the Mayor of a major city, with special recognition.-Commonwealth of Nations:* In Australia it is a political position. Australian cities with Lord Mayors: Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Newcastle, Parramatta, Perth, Sydney, and Wollongong...
). The next day after also I was hanged up an hour or two: such is the malicious minds of our adversaries."
--Saint Eustace White
Eustace White
St Eustace White, one of the Catholic Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Born in Louth, Lincolnshire in 1559, he was a convert to Catholicism who travelled to Europe to study for the priesthood. He was ordained, probably at the Venerable English College, Rome in 1588, and returned to England for...
, S.J., written to Father Henry Garnet
Henry Garnet
Henry Garnet , sometimes Henry Garnett, was a Jesuit priest executed for his complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Born in Derbyshire, he was educated in Nottingham and later at Winchester College, before moving to London in 1571 to work for a publisher...
from prison. 23 November, 1591. Quoted in The Other Face; Catholic Life Under Elizabeth I, by Father Philip Caraman, pages 235-236.
-
"The Chief Justice
Chief JusticeThe Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...
asked how old he was, seeming to scorn his youth. He answered that he was near about the age of our Saviour, Who lived upon the earth thirty-three years; and he himself was as he thought near about thirty-four years. Hereat Topcliffe seemed to make great acclamation, saying that he compared himself to Christ. Mr. Southwell answered, 'No he was a humble worm created by Christ.' 'Yes,' said Topcliffe, 'you are Christ's fellow.'"
--Father Henry Garnet, "Account of the Trial of Robert Southwell." Quoted in Caraman's The Other Face, page 230.
- Southwell: I am decayed in memory with long and close imprisonmentImprisonmentImprisonment is a legal term.The book Termes de la Ley contains the following definition:This passage was approved by Atkin and Duke LJJ in Meering v Grahame White Aviation Co....
, and I have been tortured ten times. I had rather have endured ten executions. I speak not this for myself, but for others; that they may not be handled so inhumanely, to drive men to desperation, if it were possible.
Topcliffe: If he were racked, let me die for it.
Southwell: No; but it was as evil a torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, or late device.
Topcliffe: I did but set him against a wall.
Southwell: Thou art a bad man.
Topcliffe: I would blow you all to dust if I could.
Southwell: What, all?
Topcliffe: Ay, all.
Southwell: What, soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
and body too?
Sources
- William Richardson, ‘Topcliffe, Richard (1531–1604)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 6 Jan 2008