Richard Topcliffe

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Richard Topcliffe (14 November 1531 – 1604[1]) 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".

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[edit] Early life

Topcliffe was the eldest son of Robert Topcliffe of Somerby, 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.

[edit] Career

Topcliffe entered the service of the Queen's secretary, William Cecil in the 1570s, and worked for Sir Francis Walsingham and the Privy Council. However, he regarded his authority as deriving directly from the Queen.

Topcliffe harboured a fanatic hatred for Catholics and the Roman Catholic Church, and was involved in the interrogation and torture of many priests and laity, at a time when Catholics were suspected of actively and violently seeking to overthrow the Protestant government of England.

Topcliffe gained a reputation as an effective torturer and a deranged psychopath.[2] He claimed that his own instruments and methods were better than the official ones, and was authorized to create a torture chamber in his private house 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,[3] John Gerard, and Henry Garnet. Topcliffe features numerous times in Fr. Gerard's autobiography of his days as a hunted priest in Elizabethan England. He's described as, "old and hoary and a veteran in evil". It has been surmised that, during interrogations, Topcliffe "may have indulged in bizarre sexual fantasies" about the Queen. 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.[4]

He also interrogated Ben Johnson in August 1597 in investigations into Johnson's suppressed play, The Isle of Dogs.[5]

[edit] 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 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 Fitzherbert family by Queen Elizabeth I, and Topcliffe was presented with estates in Derbyshire instead.

[edit] Death

Topcliffe died in November or December 1604 in his bed at the age of about 72.

[edit] Depiction

Richard Topcliffe was portrayed by Brian Wilde in the 1971 British television mini-series Elizabeth R.

[edit] Sources

[edit] References

  1. ^ William Richardson, ‘Topcliffe, Richard (1531–1604)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 6 Jan 2008
  2. ^ In Search of Shakespeare . Richard Topcliffe | PBS
  3. ^ In Search of Shakespeare . Robert Southwell | PBS
  4. ^ Hutchinson, Robert, Elizabeth's Spymaster: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War that Saved England (2006) pp.76-78 ISBN-13 9-78029-7846130
  5. ^ Richardson (2004): "In August 1597 he was also responsible for initiating a government inquiry into the scandalous play The Isle of Dogs, during which he was required to interview Thomas Nash and his fellow players in the Fleet prison. In the event Nash made himself scarce, but Topcliffe did interrogate Ben Jonson and two actors."