page_title: William Marshall (illustrator)
section_title: Eikon Basilike
hierarchical_section_title: William Marshall (illustrator) / Eikon Basilike
context_page_description: William Marshall was a seventeenth-century British engraver and illustrator, best known for his print depicting "Charles the Martyr", a symbolic portrayal of King Charles I of England as a Christian martyr.
context_section_description: After the end of the English Civil War, when King Charles was put on trial and condemned to be executed, a book was published entitled Eikon Basilike (Greek: Eικων Bασιλικη, the "Royal Portrait"), The Pourtrature of His Sacred Majestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings. It purported to be a spiritual autobiography written by the King.  It was published on February 9, 1649, ten days after the King was beheaded by order of Parliament.  Marshall created the image on the frontispiece, which employs symbolism derived from the Emblem Book tradition. This depicts the King as a Christian martyr. So popular was the book and the image that Marshall had to re-engrave the plate seven times.
  The Latin texts read:
  IMMOTA, TRIVMPHANS — "Unmoved, Triumphant" (scroll around the rock);
  Clarior é tenebris — "Brighter through the darkness" (beam from the clouds);
  CRESCIT SUB PONDERE VIRTVS — "Virtue grows beneath weights" (scroll around the tree);
  Beatam & Æternam — "Blessed and Eternal" (around the heavenly crown marked GLORIA ("Glory")); meant to be contrasted with:
  Splendidam & Gravem — "Splendid and Heavy" (around the Crown of England, removed from the King's head and lying on the ground), with the motto Vanitas ("vanity");  and
  Asperam & Levem — "Bitter and Light", the martyr's crown of thorns held by Charles; contains the motto Gratia ("grace");
  Coeli Specto — "I look to Heaven";
  IN VERBO TVO SPES MEA — "In Thy Word is My Hope";
  Christi Tracto — "I entreat Christ" or "By the word of Christ";
  Mundi Calco — "I tread on the world".
  In the first edition, the frontispiece was accompanied by Latin and English verses that explain it.  The English verses go:
  Tho' clogg'd with weighs of miseries
  
  Palm-like Depress'd, I higher rise
  
  And as th'unmoved Rock outbraues
  
  The boist'rous Windes and raging waues
  
  So triumph I.  And shine more bright
  
  In sad Affliction's darksom night.
  
  That Splendid, but yet toilsom Crown
  
  Regardlessly I trample down.
  
  With joie I take this Crown of thorn
  
  Though sharp, yet easie to be born.
  
  That heavn'nlie Crown, already mine
  
  I view with eies of Faith diuine.
  
  I slight vaine things, and do embrace
  
  Glorie, the just reward of Grace.
  The landscape at the left contains the weighted palm tree and the rock buffeted by winds and waves, emblematic of the king's steadfastness. The beam of light from heaven passing through the king's eye illustrates his vision of his heavenly crown of martyrdom, while he picks up the crown of thorns and discards the earthly crown and worldly power (represented by the chart of the world on which he treads).
  The Eikon Basilike and its portrait of Charles's execution as a martyrdom were so successful that, at the Restoration, a special commemoration of the King on 30 January was added to the Book of Common Prayer, directing that the day be observed as an occasion for fasting and repentance.
  It is assumed that Marshall died in 1649, since there are no more references to him and the Eikon Basilke plate was reengraved for the eighth time that year by another engraver, Robert Vaughan.
caption: William Marshall's Eikon Basilike print
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