Richard Topcliffe was born in 1531 to a minor branch, on his mother’s side, of the Burghs, a noble family. He was a landowner and said to have provided soldiers to fight the Northern Rebellion in 1569.
History knows Topcliffe far more as perhaps the premiere hunter of Catholics in England. He found torture an essential tool and even had a private torture chamber at his house in Westminster.
In 1592, Topcliffe questioned a Catholic mariner, William Randall, under torture. Randall seems to have confessed under the ordeal. How much of the confession was true we may never know. The excerpt below from the Domestic Papers of Queen Elizabeth, 1595-7, reveal his surprise to find Randall still living in 1595. The letter speaks for itself. The Gatehouse also featured one of Topcliffe’s several torture chambers.
We also get a closer look at just how paranoid Elizabeth and her government had become by this date. The charges against Randall seem wildly fanciful on their face. Topcliffe fears that Randall’s wife would douse every article she presented to any member of the Court with poison. Especially if it might be expected to end up contacting the person of the Queen. They seem to have refused to touch any of her petitions for this reason.
On a lighter note, we also learn the name of the Queen’s shoemaker.
Richard Topcliffe to Sir John Puckering, Lord Keeper.
February 14, 1595.
In a search at Westminster last night, I found out the lodging of Mrs. Randall, wife of William Randall of Dartmouth, who plotted with the King of Spain and the Papists to burn Her Majesty's ships, with wild fireballs, at Dieppe, Rouen, or Chatham, was driven into Plymouth, taken, and is now in the Gatehouse. She has come for her husband's release, and has twice tried to present petitions, once at Somerset House and again at Greenwich. I warned the Lord Chamberlain lest they should be poisoned, and he twice dismissed her from Court. She lodges with Garrat, the Queen's shoemaker; it is fearful for such a person to have opportunity to touch anything that comes near Her Majesty's person. The Queen and Lord Chamberlain should guard against treachery.
P.S.—It is strange Randall is not arraigned and hanged, for he has been a great conveyer over of traitors; has incited shipwrights and mariners to serve the King of Spain; is the man in whose house at Dunkirk the Dukes of Parma and Pastrana, Stanley, Jaques, Owen, Holt, and other traitors lodged. When taken, there were offered for his ransom 10 of the best English prisoners, or ₤10,000, and English merchants were his hot friends and solicitors.
History knows Topcliffe far more as perhaps the premiere hunter of Catholics in England. He found torture an essential tool and even had a private torture chamber at his house in Westminster.
In 1592, Topcliffe questioned a Catholic mariner, William Randall, under torture. Randall seems to have confessed under the ordeal. How much of the confession was true we may never know. The excerpt below from the Domestic Papers of Queen Elizabeth, 1595-7, reveal his surprise to find Randall still living in 1595. The letter speaks for itself. The Gatehouse also featured one of Topcliffe’s several torture chambers.
We also get a closer look at just how paranoid Elizabeth and her government had become by this date. The charges against Randall seem wildly fanciful on their face. Topcliffe fears that Randall’s wife would douse every article she presented to any member of the Court with poison. Especially if it might be expected to end up contacting the person of the Queen. They seem to have refused to touch any of her petitions for this reason.
On a lighter note, we also learn the name of the Queen’s shoemaker.
Richard Topcliffe to Sir John Puckering, Lord Keeper.
February 14, 1595.
In a search at Westminster last night, I found out the lodging of Mrs. Randall, wife of William Randall of Dartmouth, who plotted with the King of Spain and the Papists to burn Her Majesty's ships, with wild fireballs, at Dieppe, Rouen, or Chatham, was driven into Plymouth, taken, and is now in the Gatehouse. She has come for her husband's release, and has twice tried to present petitions, once at Somerset House and again at Greenwich. I warned the Lord Chamberlain lest they should be poisoned, and he twice dismissed her from Court. She lodges with Garrat, the Queen's shoemaker; it is fearful for such a person to have opportunity to touch anything that comes near Her Majesty's person. The Queen and Lord Chamberlain should guard against treachery.
P.S.—It is strange Randall is not arraigned and hanged, for he has been a great conveyer over of traitors; has incited shipwrights and mariners to serve the King of Spain; is the man in whose house at Dunkirk the Dukes of Parma and Pastrana, Stanley, Jaques, Owen, Holt, and other traitors lodged. When taken, there were offered for his ransom 10 of the best English prisoners, or ₤10,000, and English merchants were his hot friends and solicitors.
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