Eikon Basilike

Gauden, John, 1605-1662Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 357K words
Chapters: 36

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Eikon Basilike by King of England Charles I and John GaudenAuthor: Gauden, John, 1605-1662,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Apr 30, 2010

Editor's review

Eikon Basilike is a major seventeenth-century English historical text long associated with Charles I and John Gauden, and is in the public domain as an English e-book from Project Gutenberg. Its core value lies in its documentary nature: readers can encounter a set of self-justifying and defensive discourses from the period of the English Civil War and the crisis of monarchy, and understand how political controversy of the time was conducted through religious language and personal imagery. The text is strongly rhetorical and polemical, and readers must distinguish its propagandistic intent from factual record. For those studying early modern English political thought, religious conflict, and print culture, it is an unavoidable primary source; for general readers, it serves as a window into the polemical tone of that era. The e-book edition facilitates keyword searching and comparison with other historical sources. Overall, this is a historical document requiring background knowledge, not a light biographical read.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students of the English Civil War and seventeenth-century political thought
Serious readers interested in early modern English religious and political polemic
Researchers needing a public-domain English primary source for textual analysis
Book historians concerned with political rhetoric and the construction of royal imagery

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking light biography or popular historical narrative
Beginners lacking seventeenth-century English historical background who are unwilling to consult supplementary materials
Readers expecting a modern scholarly introduction and detailed annotations

Reading tips

First acquire basic historical facts about the English Civil War and Charles I before entering the text.
While reading, distinguish the text's defensive intent from factual statement, and annotate with cross-references.
Read alongside other contemporary sources or later scholarship to avoid drawing conclusions from a single text.
Use the e-book's keyword search to trace recurring patterns in its religious and royalist discourse.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Who actually wrote this book?

The book has long been associated with King Charles I and John Gauden, and the question of authorship has been debated in scholarship. General readers may understand it as a seventeenth-century historical text shaped around Charles I's image and position; the specific circumstances of its composition and the authorship controversy require reference to relevant research, and it should not be simply attributed to a single author's personal work.

Can I understand it without a background in English history?

You can read it, but understanding will be limited. The text deals extensively with religious controversy, conflicts between crown and Parliament, and the political rhetoric of the time; without background, its polemical intent is easily misread. It is advisable to first learn the basic outline of the English Civil War, or to read alongside an annotated scholarly edition.

Is it suitable to read as a record of historical fact?

Not really. It has a clear self-justifying and propagandistic character, constructing a royal image from a particular standpoint. As a historical source, it is better suited to studying the discursive modes, political rhetoric, and image construction of the time than to accepting its factual statements at face value.

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About the author

Gauden, John, 1605-1662 Author · British · 1605–1662

John Gauden (1605–1662) was a bishop of the Church of England. Public information about his life is limited, and later generations chiefly remember him for his connection with Eikon Basilike. Published shortly after the English Civil War, the book is generally attributed to Gauden as author or editor. Written in the first person, it presents the religious meditations and final reflections of Charles I in a solemn, restrained style marked by prayer and self-examination. Widely circulated at the time, it played an important role in shaping the image of Charles I as a suffering monarch and has prompted long-standing debate over its authorship. Gauden is thus remembered in literary and political history, while the details of his life remain open to further study.