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Legacy

Ten days after Charles's execution, on the day of his interment, a memoir purportedly written by him appeared for sale. This book, the Eikon Basilike (Greek for the "Royal Portrait"), contained an apologia for royal policies, and proved an effective piece of royalist propaganda. John Milton wrote a Parliamentary rejoinder, the Eikonoklastes ("The Iconoclast"), but the response made little headway against the pathos of the royalist book. Anglicans and royalists fashioned an image of martyrdom, and in the Convocations of Canterbury and York of 1660 King Charles the Martyr was added to the Church of England's liturgical calendar. High church Anglicans held special services on the anniversary of his death. Churches, such as those at Falmouth and Tunbridge Wells, and Anglican devotional societies such as the Society of King Charles the Martyr, were founded in his honour.

With the monarchy overthrown, England became a republic or " Commonwealth ". The House of Lords was abolished by the Rump Commons, and executive power was assumed by a Council of State. All significant military opposition in Britain and Ireland was extinguished by the forces of Oliver Cromwell in the Anglo-Scottish War and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Cromwell forcibly disbanded the Rump Parliament in 1653, thereby establishing the Protectorate with himself as Lord Protector. Upon his death in 1658, he was briefly succeeded by his ineffective son, Richard. Parliament was reinstated, and the monarchy was restored to Charles I's eldest son, Charles II, in 1660.

Charles's unprecedented 1642 invasion of the House of Commons' chamber, a grave violation of the liberties of Parliament, and his unsuccessful attempt to arrest five Members of Parliament is commemorated annually at the State Opening of Parliament.