Richard Topcliffe - Fitzherbert Affair

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 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.