The execution of Edmund Campion
and the punishment of John Stubbs
© Hulton Getty Picture Collection Ltd.
Campion with his fellow Jesuit Parsons visit England in 1580.
An artist’s reconstruction of John Stubbs having his hand cut off.
1.
Look at the picture of Campion and his fellow Jesuit Parsons. How might a
foreign chronicler, present at Edmund Campion’s execution, have found
out what was going on? What questions would he have had to ask the
people watching the execution in order to find out?
2.
Campion was loyal to Queen Elizabeth I and had not stolen anything or
murdered anyone. Have you any suggestions as to why then this man
might have been executed?
3.
What crime had Campion committed? Explain your answer carefully.
4.
Why do you think that Stubbs called out ‘God save the Queen!’
5.
What does this story tell us about the importance of (a) religion and (b) the
power of the monarch in this period?