by
Van Dyck.
Bernini, seeing this picture, called it "the portrait of a doomed man". Written in a simple, moving and straightforward style in the form of a
diary, the book combines
irenic prayers urging the forgiveness of Charles's executioners with a justification of
royalism and the King's political and military programme that led to the Civil War. It is by no means certain that Charles wrote the book. After the
Restoration,
John Gauden,
bishop of Worcester, claimed to have written it. Scholars continue to disagree about the merits of this claim, though assuming that if Gauden wrote it, he had access to Charles's papers when he did so.
Jeremy Taylor is also said to have had a hand in its revision, and to be the source of its title; an earlier draft bore the name , . Some later editions of the contained a sworn statement by
William Levett, Esq., longtime courtier and groom of the bedchamber to the King, that Levett had witnessed Charles writing the text during the time that Levett accompanied him in his imprisonment on the Isle of Wight. A witness to the King's execution, Levett later helped transport the King's body back to
Windsor Castle for burial. Whoever wrote the , its author was an effective prose stylist, one who had partaken deeply of the solemn yet simple eloquence of Anglican piety as expressed in
Cranmer's
Book of Common Prayer. The end result is an image of a steadfast
monarch who, while admitting his weaknesses, declares the truth of his religious principles and the purity of his political motives, while trusting in God despite adversity. Charles's chief weakness, it says, was in
yielding to Parliament's demands for the head of
the Earl of Strafford; for this sin, Charles paid with his throne and his life. Its portrait of Charles as a martyr invited comparison of the King to
Jesus. The
pathos of this dramatic presentation made it a master stroke of Royalist
propaganda. The book was extremely popular despite official disapproval during the
Protectorate and the
Restoration; it went into 36 editions in 1649 alone. In 1657 it even appeared in musical form, with a verse rendering by
Thomas Stanley and music by
John Wilson. The musical setting blended the austere style of the
metrical psalter, favoured by the Puritans, with fashionable (and Catholic) instrumental accompaniment provided by an organ,
theorbo or another such
continuo instrument. Because of the favourable impression the book made of the King, Parliament commissioned
John Milton to write a riposte to it, which he published under the title () in 1649. Milton's response sought to portray the image of Charles, and the
absolute monarchy he aspired to, as
idols, claiming a reverence due only to God, and therefore justly overthrown to preserve the law of God. This theological counterattack failed to dislodge the sentimental narrative of the itself from public esteem. A satire on the work, (), was also published in 1649. == Frontispiece ==