Thomas Norton (1532 – March 10, 1584) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
lawyer, politician, writer of verse — but not, as has been claimed, the chief interrogator of Queen Elizabeth I.
Norton was born in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
and was educated at
CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
, and early became a secretary to the
Protector SomersetEdward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset was Lord Protector of England in the period between the death of Henry VIII in 1547 and his own indictment in 1549.-Background:...
. In 1555 he was admitted a student at the Inner Temple, and married Margery Cranmer, the daughter of the archbishop.
In 1562 Norton, who had served in an earlier parliament as the representative of Gatton, became M.P.
Thomas Norton (1532 – March 10, 1584) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
lawyer, politician, writer of verse — but not, as has been claimed, the chief interrogator of Queen Elizabeth I.
Official career
Norton was born in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
and was educated at
CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
, and early became a secretary to the
Protector SomersetEdward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset was Lord Protector of England in the period between the death of Henry VIII in 1547 and his own indictment in 1549.-Background:...
. In 1555 he was admitted a student at the Inner Temple, and married Margery Cranmer, the daughter of the archbishop.
In 1562 Norton, who had served in an earlier parliament as the representative of Gatton, became M.P. for
BerwickBerwick-upon-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2.5 miles south of the Scottish border....
, and entered with great activity into politics. In religion he was inspired by the sentiments of his father-in-law, and was in possession of
CranmerThomas Cranmer was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon which resulted in the separation of the English Church from union with the Holy See...
's manuscript code of ecclesiastical law; this he permitted
John FoxeJohn Foxe was an English martyrologist. He is remembered as the author of what is popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, an account of Christian martyrs throughout history but especially emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the fourteenth century through...
to publish in 1571. He went to
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
on legal business, in 1579, and from 1580 to 1583, he frequently visited the
Channel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
as a commissioner to inquire into the status of these possessions.
Norton's
CalvinismCalvinism is a theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
grew with years, and towards the end of his career he became a rabid fanatic. Norton held several interrogation sessions in the
Tower of LondonHer Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London , is a historic fortress and scheduled monument in central London, England, on the north bank of the River Thames...
using torture instruments such as
the rackThe rack is a torture device that consists of an oblong rectangular, usually wooden frame, slightly raised from the ground, with a roller at one, or both, ends, having at one end a fixed bar to which the legs were fastened, and at the other a movable bar to which the hands were tied...
. The rack stretched the body apart, until the joints were dislocated and then separated from the rest of the body. His punishment of the Catholics, as their official censor from 1581 onwards, led to his being nicknamed "Rackmaster-General" and "Rackmaster Norton."
At last his turbulent puritanism made him an object of fear even to the English bishops; he was deprived of his office and thrown into the
TowerHer Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London , is a historic fortress and scheduled monument in central London, England, on the north bank of the River Thames...
.
WalsinghamThomas Walsingham was an English chronicler.- Life :He was probably educated at St Albans Abbey at St Albans, Hertfordshire, and at Oxford....
presently released him, but Norton's health was undermined, and in March 1584 he died in his house at Sharpenhoe,
BedfordshireBedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region....
.
Literature
From his eighteenth year Norton had begun to compose verse. We find him connected with
Jasper HeywoodJasper Heywood, SJ , son of John Heywood, translated into English three plays of Seneca, the Troas , the Thyestes and Hercules Furens ....
; as a writer of "sonnets" he contributed to
Tottel's MiscellanySonges and Sonettes, usually called Tottel's Miscellany, was the first printed anthology of English poetry. It was published by Richard Tottel in 1557, and ran to many editions in the sixteenth century.-Richard Tottel:...
, and in 1560 he composed, in company with
SackvilleThomas Sackville may be*Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset , English statesman, poet and playwright*Thomas Geoffrey Sackville , British Conservative Member of Parliament for Bolton West 1983–1997....
, the earliest English tragedy,
GorboducGorboduc, also titled Ferrex and Porrex, was an English play from 1561. It was performed before Queen Elizabeth I on January 18 1562, by the Gentlemen of the Inner Temple...
, which was performed before
Elizabeth IElizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
in the
Inner TempleThe Honourable Society of the Inner Temple is one of the four Inns of Court around the Royal Courts of Justice in London which may call members to the Bar and so entitle them to practise as barristers...
on January 18, 1562.
Gorboduc was revised into a superior form, as
The Tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex, in 1570. Norton's early lyrics have in the main disappeared. The most interesting of his numerous anti-
CatholicThe word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective , meaning "universal". In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. For some, the term "Catholic Church" refers to the church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, made up of the Latin Rite and the 22...
pamphlets are those on the rebellion of
NorthumberlandNorthumberland is a ceremonial county and unitary district in the North East of England. It borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of North...
and on the projected marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the
Duke of NorfolkThe Duke of Norfolk is the Premier Duke in the peerage of England, and also, as Earl of Arundel, the Premier Earl. The Duke of Norfolk is, moreover, the Earl Marshal and Hereditary Marshal of England. The seat of the Duke of Norfolk is Arundel Castle in Sussex, although the title refers to the...
. Norton also translated
CalvinJohn Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
's
Institutes (1561) and
Alexander NowellAlexander Nowell was an English Puritan theologian and clergyman, who served as dean of St Paul's during much of Elizabeth I's reign....
's
Catechism (1570).
Gorboduc appears in various dramatic collections, and was separately edited by W.D. Cooper (Shakespeare Society, 1847), and by Miss Toulmin Smith in Volkmoller's
Englische Sprache-und Literatur-denkmale (1883). The best account of Norton, and his place in literary history, is that of
Sidney LeeSir Sidney Lee was an English biographer and critic.He was born Solomon Lazarus Lee at 12 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, London and educated at the City of London School and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in modern history in 1882. In the next year he became assistant-editor of the...
in his
Dictionary of National BiographyThe Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
.