'Eikon Basilike' means 'portrait of the king'. Traditionally Charles I has been identified as the author, but there has been some controversy over this since John Gauden, Bishop of Worcester, emerged as a probable ghostwriter in the 1690s. It is now thought to have been a collaboration between Gauden and the King. The book reviews the course of the civil wars from the calling of the Long Parliament in 1640 to Charles's imprisonment at Carisbrooke Castle in 1647, and defends the King's policies. It is part political memoir, part spiritual autobiography, presenting Charles as the defender of both Church and State.

The first edition of Eikon Basilike was in print on the day of Charles I's execution on 30 January 1648/9.  Despite the government’s attempts to suppress the words of the King they had just executed, Eikon Basilike became an immediate best-seller: it was one of the most influential books of the seventeenth century. In 1649 alone thirty-five editions were published in England, with a further twenty-five issued elsewhere in Europe.

The book's portrayal of Charles as a moderate, peace-loving ruler transformed opinion of his execution so that it came to be viewed by many as an act of martyrdom.


Binding information
Contemporary binding of reddish-brown morocco, attributed by Howard Nixon and Mirjam Foot to Barlow's Aesop Binder (The History of Decorated Bookbinding in England, p. 77). Elaborately gold-tooled to a fanfare-esque design; on both covers, an angular strapwork pattern with black painted bands to centre, and half prints six times around the edges of front and back boards; top, bottom, and twice to both left and right sides. Connected via drawer handle tools to make simple fanfare type binding. In gaps between tooled with many individual tools of small flower-in-vase designs, pateras shapes comprised of petalled flowers and pointilles, volutes, floral pointilles, four petalled flowers and elaborate bow-and-arrow shaped tools. Spine divided into six compartments with double gold filleted borders, filled with volutes and floral tools. Board edges with floral roll tool, all edges gilt. Marbled endpapers.

The angular strapwork block is also found on BL c132i63; the quatrefoil tool with a dashed line between the petals is also found on Magdelene Pepys 2637.