Sir Richard Southwell (1504-1564), Courtier and official

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A courtier at the court of Henry VIII who was a close associate of Thomas Cromwell, Southwell took an active part in the dissolution of the monasteries and became rich in the process. He was one of the agents sent to remove the books and extract a confession from Sir Thomas More, and in 1546 accused his childhood friend the Earl of Surrey of treason. He was Master of the Ordnance from 1554-60.