It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a historian of the English Revolution in possession of a good mind has tended to study the Roundheads rather than the Cavaliers. Compared to the groaning shelves of monographs, pamphlets and articles dealing with almost every aspect of the Parliamentary cause and its implications, the work on the Royalists – with the exception of the king himself – has, until very recently, been sparse and patchy and some of the material that does exist is written from an obviously hostile perspective. Yet one of the most telling features of this period is not so much the revolutionary change that engulfed Britain in 1641, 1649, 1688 or 1714, but the persistence of older forms of authority and, more importantly, older assumptions about the ordering of society, its theoretical basis and the relationship, obligations and responsibilities of individuals to their families, their communities and to the state. Despite, or indeed because of, the repeated upheavals of the period, a political theology based upon patriarchalism and divine right remained relevant and resilient amongst large sections of the community well into the eighteenth century.

Nowhere were these assumptions more obvious than in the cult of King Charles the martyr. Even before his trial and execution, there is evidence that the imprisoned Charles was being presented to an increasingly anxious and war-weary nation as a symbol of suffering kingship and legitimacy.