The Execution of Charles I
Milton states in The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, in words that sound almost Jeffersonian: “all men naturally were born free,” “born to command and not to obey.” These are part of a strenuous and profound defense of popular sovereignty, the right of a private person to overthrow both parliament (or magistrate) and king. After a protracted stalemate, English political history experienced a sudden succession of upheavals: the forceful exclusion of the army of the majority of Parliament, called “Pride’s Purge” of Parliament in December 6, 1648; the decision by the new “Rump” Parliament to put the king on trial on January 6; and the trial and execution of King Charles I on January 30, 1649. During the trial, January 26-30, Milton began an extraordinary defense of the overthrow of both parliament and king, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, a work published shortly after the king’s death. Milton was then hired by the new government to be their spokesperson and counter-propagandist, and also to be a secretary of foreign languages, which meant communicating in Latin and in other languages to foreign diplomats and politicians.
William Prynne, A Briefe Memento to the Present Unparliamentary Junto Touching their Present Intentions and Proceedings to Depose and Execute, Charles Steward, their Lawfull King (London, 1648 [January 4, 1649])
William Prynne was one of the members of Parliament who was excluded by Pride's Purge. In spite of many years of fighting on Parliament's side against the king, he and other members of Parliament were unable to consider deposing Charles, which was the cause of the stalemate. These copies of William Prynne's protest against what he calls an "unparliamentary junto" are remarkably preserved in their original form. Pamphlets were stab-stitched along the side (as shown here), and rarely survive the ravages of time unless they were rebound.
Charles I, Eikon Basilike (London, 1648)
Eikon Basilike ("The King's Image") was a brilliantly effective piece of posthumous royal propaganda. Supposedly written by the king (though actually by a ghost writer), the book appeared within days of the execution. In spite of many efforts to suppress it and other anti-regicide works, the book went through over thirty editions in its first year alone -- the largest single printing effort England had ever seen. Looking back over a decade later, the ghostwriter of Eikon Basilike, John Gauden, remarked that when the book "came out, just upon the King's death, good God! What shame, rage, and despite filled his murderers! What comfort his friends! How many enemies did it convert! How many hearts did it mollify and melt!...In a word, it was an army and did vanquish more than any sword could!" The Rutgers copy contains a popular foldout picture of the king in prayer.
Milton, Eikonoklastes (London, 1649)
Milton's iconoclastic book, Eikonoklastes ("Image Smasher") was commissioned by the new English republican government to respond to Eikon Basilike, and it appeared within months of the king's book. When the monarchy was restored in 1660, Milton was arrested and two of his books, Eikonoklastes and Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, were recalled, banned, and publicly burned.
Milton, Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (1652)
Milton's Latin defense of the regicide and the new English government, satirically titled the Defense of the People of England, against Claude the Anonymous, otherwise known as Salmasius, is a commissioned response to a famous French classicist who championed the monarchy. Within about a year of its publication in February 1651, it was published in thirteen editions and a couple reissues in London, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Gouda, translated into Dutch, and rumored to have been translated into French. This copy bears a manuscript note at the end of the book indicating that Milton had been released from prison.
Milton, Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (1651)
This copy's frontispiece bears the arms of the newly created British Commonwealth, which united England, Scotland, and Wales without a monarch. This was a major work of Latin -- now the largest printed book produced by Milton, and by far the most extensively produced -- ranged from 104-389 pages in its various editions. In London, it was printed officially by William Dugard, who was thrown in jail for "printing several scandalous books against the Commonwealth," including Eikon Basilike and Salmasius's Defensio Regina, which he was apparently trying to print when, as the description in the Record Office reads, "he was cast into Newgate...and had been tried for his life by an High Court of Injustice, had not Sir James Harrington saved him from that danger, and procured his release." Shortly thereafter, Dugard managed somehow to find his way into the position of "Printer to his Hignes the Lord Protector" -- that is, Oliver Cromwell.