Nicholas Harpsfield, in latin sometimes Harspheldius,[1] (1519–1575) was an English historian and a Roman Catholic apologist and priest under Henry VIII, whose policies he opposed.
With the more aggressive religious policies of the English Reformation following the accession of Edward VI in 1547, he left England in 1550 to pursue his studies at the University of Louvain.
Upon the accession of Mary I in 1553, Harpsfield returned to England, took the degree of DCL at Oxford in 1554, and became Archdeacon of Canterbury in the same year, serving under Reginald Pole.
He superintended hundreds of trials targeting lay Protestants in London, which resulted in punishments and intimidation (though not any charges under the revived Heresy Acts).
Foxe's Book of Martyrs (1563 edition) identifies him as "the sorest and of leaste compassion" among the archdeacons involved in the Marian Persecutions and holds him responsible for many deaths in the diocese.