November 14, 1531 - Richard Topcliffe
What distinguished Topcliffe from other agents of Elizabethan religious enforcement was the evident personal relish he brought to his work — hunting priests, conducting interrogations, and administering torture with an autonomy rarely granted to men in his position. He operated a private torture chamber at his own home, a privilege that reflected both his usefulness to the Crown and the degree to which the state was willing to outsource its most violent methods.
From Wikipedia
Richard Topcliffe (14 November 1531 – late 1604) was a priest hunter and practitioner of torture during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland. A landowner and Member of Parliament, he became notorious as the government's chief enforcer of the penal laws against the practice of Catholicism.
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