John Milton (1608–1674) Joannis Miltoni Angli pro populo Anglicano defensio contra Claudii Anonymi, aliàs Salmasii, Defensionem regiam Editio emendatior. (London: typis Du-Gardianis, 1651). Ee.3.29, title page.

If Eikon Basilike was the heart of the late monarch’s political defence, the Defensio regia pro Carolo I (‘The royal defence of Charles I’) was its brains. The tract’s author, Claude de Saumaise, was an eminent French scholar. In January 1650, on the orders of the Council of State, Milton began to compose an answer to Saumaise in Latin, with the wider political theatre of Europe in mind (by contrast to the vernacular, native audience of Eikonoklastes). By February, Milton had published his Pro populo Anglicano defensio (‘A defence of the people of England’), more commonly known as the Defensio prima. The arms of the English Commonwealth are featured on its title page.