Edmund Campion does not feature that fully in our course. He was a Jesuit priest seeking to restore the Catholic faith to England. In unit three we look at a quotation from G R Elton where lists his fate as an agenda item for the Privy Council to discuss. You may know that he meets a pretty unpleasant end – “For his religious beliefs, he was hanged, drawn and quartered in 1581. He was tied to a wicker hurdle that was dragged by horses along the roads near St Paul’s Cathedral, through Holborn, along Oxford Street and to the place of execution. At Tyburn, he and two other priests were hanged and then, while barely still alive, cut down from the gallows…While each man was still just alive, he was cut open, and his genitals and bowels, removed by the public hangman, were burnt before him.”
However, in this article from the Independent, Professor Alford (who you will also come across in unit three – Government) argues that “Queen Elizabeth I’s government was so determined to convict the English Jesuit priest Edmund Campion of treason that it doctored one of the key documents used to prosecute and send him to his execution.”
Why does this matter ?
Well if true it shows that Elizabeth and her Privy Council remained worried by the threat of the Catholics (see the debate in Unit 1). Moreover, just as with the Duke of Norfolk, Mary Queen of Scots, and the Earl of Essex, when Elizabeth saw someone as a threat she was every bit as ruthless as her half sister.
Mr Kydd.
