Richard Riche

Richard Riche, later known as Sir Richard Riche and nicknamed Sir Purse, is a lawyer whose rise from a disreputable student to Solicitor General brings him into the centre of the Crown’s legal campaigns. A precise drafter with an appetite for political advancement, he helps turn contested words into instruments of state power, most consequentially when his account of a conversation with Thomas More supplies evidence for More’s trial.

Identity and Advancement

Riche’s earlier reputation is far from polished. While a student, he was known for slander, irreverence toward his seniors, drinking, and gambling for high stakes; later, he jokes with Thomas Cromwell about the stories told of Cromwell’s own youth. Riche’s subsequent career makes his past a point of contrast rather than a permanent disqualification: by the time he joins an inquiry into Elizabeth Barton, he has been knighted and promoted to Solicitor General, and his talent for drafting legislation is described as second only to Cromwell’s.

At work, his appearance and habits suggest a new professional discipline. Beneath his fair hair, he concentrates over papers laid out precisely; the boys call him Sir Purse. The nickname links his official advancement to the fees and rewards he is quick to calculate. He is not simply a subordinate who records events: he has become a legal craftsman, capable of shaping a question into a usable charge and a political programme into a bill.

Legal Inquiries and Political Speech

Riche participates in the questioning of Elizabeth Barton, the nun whose prophecies challenge Henry VIII’s authority and the legitimacy of his marriage. At a second session, Riche presses her about predictions that the king would not survive long after marrying Anne Boleyn. When Barton answers that Henry may appear king to the world but is not king in God’s sight, Riche follows the implication toward rebellion: whether her claims could justify deposing or assassinating the king and replacing him with another claimant.

The exchange exposes Riche’s capacity to translate religious prophecy into a political and legal question. Barton also predicts catastrophe for the king, Anne, Cromwell, and those present, and condemns Cromwell’s household as heretical. Riche responds that she should be burned for treason, arguing that expressed intent to raise rebellion and depose the king can itself constitute treason. Thomas Cranmer distinguishes this from heresy: he says he lacks evidence to try Barton for heresy, while Riche insists that words may be construed as treason. The distinction matters. In Riche’s hands, spoken claims are not merely beliefs to be assessed; they may become a case for punishment.

The narrator presents Riche as alert to the need for new law in a world where printed words can circulate rapidly. He says that the law must keep pace with new forms of treason, and he is already drafting legislation. His role is therefore both practical and anticipatory: he seeks legal means to address political danger before it has taken the form of open action.

Service to Cromwell and the Crown

Riche’s advancement unfolds amid competition at court. When Stephen Gardiner threatens Thomas Wriothesley with ruin, Cromwell advises Wriothesley to hedge his bets, retrieve Gardiner’s seals, and return to Gardiner for a better offer. Cromwell then offers Wriothesley a future post in charge at the Signet if Cromwell is confirmed as Master Secretary. Riche, meanwhile, is valued for the legal and administrative work that supports Cromwell’s programme.

In a conference with Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and Gardiner over a bill to secure the succession of Anne’s children, Riche is present as a prominent legal figure. The dispute concerns the proposed order of succession, the exclusion of Mary Tudor, and an oath requiring subjects to uphold the settlement. Cromwell argues that Parliament can legislate on temporal matters and that Rome has no legitimate voice in England; the oath is intended to make the settlement a commitment beyond the vote itself. Riche’s broader importance lies in the work of turning such contested claims into legislation that can be enacted and administered.

Cromwell reflects that laws test words for their power to make things happen, and that an oath has to be enforced across the kingdom, among men and women of consequence as well as ordinary subjects. Riche’s career belongs to this expanding machinery of government: drafting is not an abstract exercise, but a means by which the Crown seeks to secure obedience and succession throughout England.

Thomas More and the Evidentiary Turning Point

Riche’s most consequential role comes through his encounter with Thomas More in the Tower. More has refused the royal oath, and Cromwell needs evidence that can establish the meaning and intent of More’s position. Riche reports that he tried one last time to engage More in argument. He began with a hypothetical: if Parliament declared Riche king, would More accept him as king? More answered that Parliament could make such a temporal change. Riche then proposed a second case, asking whether Parliament could declare that God was not God. More said it could not.

Between these examples, Riche asked why More would accept Parliament’s authority to make a king but reject its authority to name Henry head of the Church. More replied that the cases were not alike: kingship was a temporal jurisdiction, while spiritual jurisdiction lay outside the realm. The distinction is the substance of More’s answer, but it is also the opening through which the Crown can frame his words as a denial of Parliament’s competence and therefore a denial of the king’s title.

Cromwell recognizes the weakness in the evidence. More has not plainly declared the king’s title unlawful, and he could argue that the conversation was a hypothetical exchange intended only to pass the time. Riche has no witness to the conversation. He says he wrote it down faithfully to the best of his recollection, but others had been in and out while books were being packed. Cromwell asks directly whether Riche will stand behind the account in court, warning that a failed trial could ruin their livelihoods and their work. Riche agrees, saying that More could not resist correcting him and that he will make his next sermon on the block.

The scene turns Riche’s intellectual skill into a question of evidentiary responsibility. His report gives the prosecution a way to present More’s distinction between temporal and spiritual authority as politically criminal; yet the conversation has no independent witness, and its wording is preserved through Riche’s recollection. His professional usefulness and his vulnerability are inseparable: the case depends on his account, and he must publicly sustain it.

Trial and Narrative Significance

Before More’s trial, Cromwell discusses the prosecution’s sequence with the Duke of Norfolk. The early counts, involving words spoken at different times and an alleged conspiracy with John Fisher, will be discarded; the prosecution will proceed on a later count using the Solicitor General’s evidence. Cromwell warns that More will be provoked by seeing Riche, recalling his youthful drinking, fighting, sexual conduct, and gambling. Norfolk remarks that even a soft-looking young man may fight to make a point. Riche’s personal history thus becomes part of the anticipated courtroom encounter, where More may attack the standing of the witness as well as the reliability of his testimony.

Riche’s place in the story is defined by this convergence of law, speech, and power. At Barton’s examination, he argues that words of rebellion can amount to treason; in More’s case, he provides an account through which a distinction about jurisdiction may be treated as evidence against the king’s authority. The two episodes show the political force of legal classification: a statement’s consequences depend not only on what was said, but on who records it, how it is presented, and whether the court accepts the Crown’s interpretation. Riche’s rise makes him an agent of that process, while his testimony makes him answerable for it.