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his uncle Sir Thomas, his father John, and a cousin, William
Bassett. The uncle and the father died in prison, and the cousin remained alive. When Fitzherbert refused to pay up, Topcliffe sued him in Chancery for the money. Scandalised, the Privy Council intervened. Topcliffe insulted them, and they put him in prison. The Queen released him after a couple of weeks in response to his personal letters to her. He did not get the money, but he had succeeded in tricking Thomas into deeding an estate in Padley, Derbyshire, to him. Under
82:, but then became one of Leicester's men. There is no foundation for the frequently-repeated assertion that he worked for Burghley and Walsingham. As an independent, self-financed operator with his own squadron of "instruments" as he called them, he worked with both Burghley and Walsingham under commission from the
142:, S.J.'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". In early 1592, he or one of his men, Nicholas Jones, raped or seduced a prisoner in the Gatehouse prison, Anne Bellamy, and persuaded her to arrange the capture of the
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on the gallows indicating the sufferer's name and offence, and making sure that the full rigours of the sentence — hanging, drawing, and quartering while still alive for those convicted of treason — were carried out. Under the law after 1585, merely being a priest in
England was treason. The British
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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
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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
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Topcliffe, who was engaged in a long-running attempt to destroy the
Catholic Fitzherberts of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, persuaded Sir Thomas Fitzherbert's heir, also Thomas, to assist him. He entered into a bond under which Thomas Fitzherbert would pay him £3,000 for bringing about the deaths of
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that "Topcliffe's copy of a history of the Jesuit mission survives, with his gloating marginalia: beside the name of a missionary the words ‘I racked him,’ beside the name of someone hanged a little stick figure dangling from a gallows.” Unfortunately, Kermode's reference cannot be verified, though
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Topcliffe was a tireless agent of the
English government's determination to eradicate Catholicism from England. At the height of his power, from the late 1580s until 1595, he hunted, captured, arrested, and interrogated many prisoners - often with torture. Topcliffe's infamous interrogations took
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regularly reported on
Topcliffe's activities, condemning him "whose inhuman cruelty is so great, as he will not spare to extend any torture whatsoever". His favourite method (which he may have introduced) was to hang a prisoner by the hands in the gauntlets or manacles, a procedure which, though
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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
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priest Robert
Southwell at her family's house outside London. When Bellamy married Jones, Topcliffe tried to force her father to give the couple an estate. What became of them is unknown, but the Bellamy family was ruined. Anne Bellamy was the Queen's prisoner, and therefore entitled to her
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exquisitely painful, left no permanent injury if properly administered. Improperly administered, it caused permanent internal injury and even death. There is some evidence that he used psychological torture as well, keeping prisoners awake, for instance.
212:. Topcliffe is featured in Rory Clements' "John Shakespeare" murder mystery novel series as a sadistic torturer. Topcliffe is also portrayed as a torturer and persecutor of Catholics in the Sir Robert Carey and James Enys novels by P.F. Chisholm/
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Topcliffe died in
November or December 1604 at the age of about 73. His heir, Charles, succeeded to a heavily encumbered estate. Like Walsingham, Topcliffe impoverished himself by his service to the crown.
164:, which upset the authorities so badly. Fortunately for Jonson, by then Topcliffe's general commission had been withdrawn, and his power much curtailed, though he never lost favour with the Queen and the
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protection, yet no action was taken against
Topcliffe over this affair, even though the Queen knew about the pregnancy, and knew that Topcliffe had spirited the woman away to his house in Lincolnshire.
354:
Richardson, William. "Topcliffe, Richard (1531–1604)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, « Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, January 2008. Accessed 26 July 2013.
501:“Tower of London.” The Map of Early Modern London. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Victoria: University of Victoria. Web. 2 May 2017. <http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/TOWE5.htm>.
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Having seen his prisoners through to trial and condemnation, he would then attend the executions as a kind of master of the ceremonies, usually putting up a notice or
252:, in which the Topcliffe character pursues and ultimately executes several priests, including Edmund Campion and the protagonist of the novel, Robin Audrey.
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54:'s first husband — so Topcliffe was extremely well-connected. When his father died in 1544, the twelve-year-old Topcliffe became the ward of his uncle,
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Topcliffe, whose official police career began with the searching out of Catholic books, was fond of annotating the books he confiscated and kept.
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to Christ. Mr. Southwell answered, "No he was a humble worm created by Christ." "Yes", said Topcliffe, "you are Christ's fellow."
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105:, in Bridewell prison, or even at his own house in Westminster, next to the Gatehouse prison. Exiled Catholic intelligencer
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86:, and was on very good terms with them both, though he always considered himself the Queen's personal servant and friend.
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of 1569 when he armed a troop of thirty horses at his own expense. In his early years, too, he had served the
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291:). The next day after also I was hanged up an hour or two: such is the malicious minds of our adversaries.
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by our means: "For lo, do you not hear the drums" (for then the drums played in honour of the
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498:, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, January 2008. Accessed 27 July 2013.
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all, saving that Topcliffe came in and told me that the Spaniards were come into
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In August 1597, the Council commissioned Topcliffe to investigate the play by
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464:'Will' Drama About Young William Shakespeare Picked Up To Series By TNT
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in Parliament in 1572. He would later return to Parliament as MP for
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of Gainsborough, who had been chamberlain of the household to queen
233:. In the series, Shakespeare bases the scheming title character of
168:. It is possible, though unlikely, that he initiated the inquiry.
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The Letters and Despatches of Richard Verstegan (c. 1550-1640)
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ejected him, and the Fitzherberts recovered the property.
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English politician, priest-hunter and torturer (1531–1604)
407:(paperback ed.). New York: Modern Library. p.
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Topcliffe is the master villain in the latter half of
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Topcliffe was the eldest son of Robert Topcliffe of
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432:In Search of Shakespeare. Robert Southwell | PBS
305:The Other Face; Catholic Life Under Elizabeth I,
26:and practitioner of torture during the reign of
474:Published by Burns & Oates & Hutchinson
443:Victoria County History of Middlesex, Volume IV
389:, London: Catholic Record Society, 1959, p. 58.
320:—Father Henry Garnet, "Account of the Trial of
259:, Topcliffe is fictionalised as the malevolent
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206:in the 1971 British television mini-series
307:by Father Philip Caraman, pages 235–236.
303:from prison. 23 November 1591. Quoted in
130:Topcliffe's victims included the Jesuits
229:, a fictional look at the life of young
495:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
454:interrogate Ben Jonson and two actors."
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223:in the 2017 American television series
138:. Topcliffe features numerous times in
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22:(14 November 1531 – late 1604) was a
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385:R. Verstegan and A.G. Petti (ed.),
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367:. history of Parliament Trust
44:Thomas Burgh, 1st Baron Burgh
531:Anti-Catholicism in England
526:17th-century English people
267:'s 2014 prizewinning novel
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299:, S.J., written to Father
257:Modern literature in Irish
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399:Kermode, Frank (2005).
365:"History of Parliament"
324:." Quoted in Caraman's
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403:The Age of Shakespeare
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183:7th Earl of Shrewsbury
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273:(In a Strange Land).
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56:Sir Anthony Neville
541:English landowners
244:Robert Hugh Benson
97:in 1584 and 1586.
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