Eikon Basilike: The Portraiture of His Majesty King Charles I

by Charles I of England, David Hume (introduction)

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 1649

About the author

Charles I from the House of Stuart, second son of James VI of Scots and I of England, was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until he was tried, convicted, and executed for high treason in 1649. He was the only British monarch ever deposed and beheaded.
Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles believed was divinely ordained. Many of his English subjects opposed his actions, in particular his interference in the English and Scottish Churches, and the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent grew to be seen as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

one of the most popular texts written in the period, which should make it required reading for students of the 17th century.

miltonists should also be reading it so that Eikonoklastes is comprehensible.

of course, these are only part of the story, which begins perhaps with The King's Cabinet Opened, through the Eikon Alethine, the Eikon Aklastos, the Eikon Episte, to the finale in Cromwell's Bloody Slaughterhouse Discovered, which wins the best title award for this discursive chain.

[Padmanabha Reddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a lengthy read and exhaustive too to be very honest. But at the flipside, this is one of the most important academic books that one has to read to understand the fabric of an important period in English History - The civil war and the Puritan Interregnum. To the ones who have read about the English Civil war do know that Charles I was executed by the Parliament led by Oliver Cromwell and the narrative set by the Parliament was widely spread among the public. This is the reason why this particular book is very important. The authorship of Eikon Basilike is debated to this day. A few scholars argue that it was wholly a creation of John Gauden (Gauden himself said this) while few still argue that Gauden might have edited it but the book in particular was written by Charles himself.

Charles in this book admits all of his shortcomings and defends his desicions through rhetoric addressing God. He defends his desicion to call Parliament, signing of Earl of Stratford's death sentence, rejecting Parliament's proposals and many more. He also painfully writes to God why he is innocent and also a victim of the ambitious Parliamentarians. This is where it gets intersting because Charles compares himself with Christ and asks God to forgive his executioners as he states - "they don't know what they are doing." This reverberates Christ in the gospel of Luke.

It was published after Charles' death but it was successful in pushing Charles' narrative and royalist propoganda into the public. Even when I was reading the book, the choice of words was so perfectly executed that I myself started to pity Charles and his condition (this was exactly what he wanted). Though Milton tried his best to counter this narrative through Eikonoklastes, it wasn't successful in it's objective. The way Charles builds up his narrative is interesting to notice because it I found parallels to the character of Satan in Paradise Lost which Milton wrote later. Remember, Miltonic argument about theodicy becomes the base for the later churches to form the theodisic statement as well. I would urge everyone to read this book. This is something that we should look into because it helps us realise how good propoganda pieces do persuade a reader to believe something that is opposite of true.

- Padmanabha Reddy

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some very touching and poignant passages in this book, but there is also a lot of indignation and bluster. It really shows a man struggling with a vast array of mixed emotions as he prepares to die. It's definitely an historical read worth taking a gander at when you can.