Works by, or attributed to, Charles Ist. Click HERE for works about, or relating to, Charles Ist.

Shown here are two editions of the works of King Charles. Both contain Eikon Basilike, a work supposedly written by Charles I and published shortly after his death in 1649. After the Restoration, John Gauden claimed that he was the true author. COPAC lists 28 editions of Eikon Basilike with a date of 1648, and there is also an edition of the first work shown below with the same date. However, the imprints were generally false (this one, purporting to have been published in The Hague, was secretly published in England), and the stated date is unreliable.

 

Reliquiae Carolinae. Or the Works of that Great Monarch and Glorious Martyr King Charls [sic] the I. Collected together, and digested in order, according to their several Subjects (Samuel Browne, The Hage, 1650; fictitious imprint, in fact printed secretly in England. 12mo, pp. 280+12+360). The final part, Eikon Basilike, has a separate title page, dated 1649. Contemporary binding, some browning internally, but still good. There was a 1649 edition and another dated 1648, but the latter date is false.

 

 

The fold-out frontispiece, shown above, is duplicated following the title page for Eikon Basilike.

 

 

Basilika. The Works of King Charles the Martyr: With a Collection of Declarations, Treaties, and other Papers concerning the Differences betwixt His said Majesty and his Two Houses of Parliament. With the History of His Life; as also of His Tryal and Martyrdome. The Second Edition (London, for Richard Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1687. Fol., pp. [8]+720+[4]). Early binding, in very good condition. The first edition was published in 1662. It was edited by William Fulman and contains an account of Charles's life by Richard Perrinchiefe.

 

 

Vignette title and frontispiece.

 

 

Engraving of King Charles, with storms besetting the ship of state in the background.

 

 

Charles's supposed vision of "the Church Catholick", in which the Church of England and the Church of Rome are but two branches among many branches of the true Church, while Presbyterianism and the Independent Churches are shown as stunted growths ("These hold the Roote but not the Order of the Catholicke Church") and other trees, which "hold neither Root nor Order" (presumably representing Puritan sects), are being seeded and planted in the background.

 

 

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