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Milton, John (1608-1674) Eikonoklastes in Answer to a Book Intitl'd Eikon Basilike.
London: Printed by Matthew Simmons, 1649.
First edition, quarto, title in Greek characters; title page printed in red and black; portion torn from title page and repaired on verso, margin of title slightly discolored; lacking initial blank (A1), fore-margin of final leaf torn with loss to blank margin; bound in full later calf, antique-style, neatly gilt-tooled spine and label; rubbed; ffep signed and inscribed by John Harding in 1840; ex libris Walter Thomas Wallace and Mary Elizabeth Hudson with bookplates; marbled endleaves, 7 x 5 1/4 in.
In Eikonoklastes, penned in response to the defense of Charles I as laid out in the Eikon Basilike, Milton justifies the execution of the British monarch that was carried out on 30 January 1649 under the authority of anti-royalist parliamentarians. The significance of such an action to English history is difficult to grasp. After the monarch's execution, the sovereign-free Commonwealth government needed an eloquent manifesto to justify their actions and commissioned Milton to create it. Describing Charles I's reign as an enslavement of the English people, Milton argues that the people have the fundamental right to be free from the sort of arbitrary domination wielded by such an "inconstant, irrational, and image-doting" ruler.
