Variously attributed to King Charles I (1600–1649) John Gauden (1605–1662) Εικων βασιλικη [Eikon Basilike]: the poutraicture of his sacred Majestie in his solitudes and sufferings. (London: Henry Hills, 1649). Frontispiece engraving.
William Marshall’s frontispiece to Eikon Basilike (‘the image of the king’) is exactly the kind of emotive royalist iconography that Milton was called to refute on behalf of the fledgling Republic. It depicts a troubled, virtuous, and conscientious King Charles kneeling in prayer: a martyr in the making. In its emblematic scheme, Charles treads down the jewelled crown of earthly vanity and clasps at a crown of thorns, while looking up toward the crown of heavenly glory. The meditations and prayers that follow were purportedly penned by Charles himself, but were soon suspected to be the work of his chaplain, John Gauden.