On January 27, 1649, Charles I, King of England, was condemned for treason and sentenced to death by execution. Two days later Charles walked from St. James' Palace to Whitehall and with a short speech and the mysterious last whispered word "Remember," was executed. To an England caught in the turmoil of a political and religious war, the king's death resulted in a reemergence of royalist sentiment. In the wake of the king's execution, the misdeeds of his government were forgotten; Charles the Tyrant was transformed into Charles the Martyr. The sufferings and trials of the king were compared to those of Jesus Christ. The Eikon Basilike, published on or within a few days of the king's death, painted a touching portrait of the unfortunate monarch.
Since the Eikon Basilike purported to be a compendium of the king's own meditations on duty and death, it is easy to understand that the commonwealth government was anxious to suppress this piece of royalist propaganda. The authorities were unsuccessful in their efforts to ban the Eikon Basilike. The work found receptive audiences in both England and abroad, going through some 35 editions in England and 25 abroad in 1649 alone. Many editions were printed in secrecy without the place or name of the printer/publisher appearing on the title page. Some merely carried the imprint "In R.M. Anno. Dom. 1648" (In memory of the king, 1648/1649).
The first edition of the Eikon Basilike was issued by Richard Royston, advance copies of the Eikon Basilike may have been available on January 30, 1649, the day of the king's execution, but copies were certainly in circulation during the first week of February. Royston was called before the Council of State in May and ceased further publication; in 1650, however, he published the first of four editions of the works of King Charles, which included the text of the Eikon Basilike. A second group of Eikons was printed by William Dugard and published by Francis Eglesfield. On March 17, 1649, Dugard was arrested by Parliament, but due to the public outcry in his favor, he was quickly released. In a gesture of defiance, Dugard reprinted his edition of the Eikon Basilike. After the warning given to Royston and the arrest of Dugard, John Williams published a series of miniature editions which could easily be concealed and which circulated in large numbers. Williams was also arrested at the end of the year. Whether from a sense of loyalty to the royalist cause or from a hope of making a profit, certain printers and publishers in England were evidently willing to risk the hazardous business of printing and distributing the Eikon Basilike.
Eikonoklastes (Eἰκονοκλάστης) is a book by John Milton, published October 1649. In it he provides a justification for the execution of King Charles I, which had taken place in January 1649.
The book's title is taken from the Greek, and means "iconoclast" or "breaker of the icon", and Milton's book is therefore usually seen as Parliamentarian propaganda, explicitly designed to counter the Royalist arguments.
