Four hundred years ago today, Edmund Campion was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. As he died, devout men and women were pushed back as they jostled for relics of the man whom they knew would one day be declared a saint. His was a life of extreme contrasts - son of a bookseller, brilliant Oxford scholar and speaker, patronised by Elizabeth I and her court, first Anglican deacon then Jesuit priest, a writer who died a martyr.
Edmund Campion 's last months were ones of intrigue, masses said in the night, pursuit. betrayal, torture and extreme physical and mental resilience. His story is told by Libby Purves.