Eikon Basilike (“The image of the king”) was published within a few days of the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649. It immediately became one of the great publishing successes of the seventeenth century, with thirty-five London editions in 1649.

It offers, in the voice of the imprisoned king, a sentimental and self-exonerating account of his rule, and particularly of his conflict with the parliament. Interspersed in this narrative are prayers and meditations (a later edition included a prayer taken from Sidney's Arcadia, a plagiarism notoriously exposed in Milton's Eikonoklastes). The story as it is told by Charles – or by the ventriloquist behind him – is a struggle between a dev

This article in full comprises 406 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

Published 30 March 2001

Citation: Raymond, Joad. "Eikon Basilike". The Literary Encyclopedia. 30 March 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5422, accessed 9 February 2010.]