I think not on the state, nor am concerned Which way soever that great helm is turned, But as that son whose father's danger nigh Did force his native dumbness, and untie His fettered organs: so here is a cause That will excuse the breach of nature's laws.
Great Charles his double misery was this, Unfaithful friends, ignoble enemies; Had any heathen been this prince's foe, He would have wept to see him injured so.
Christ will be King, but I ne'er understood, His subjects built his kingdom up with blood (Except their own) or that he would dispense With his commands, though for his own defense.
[2] The historical moment which spurred the creation of this piece was the regicide of King Charles I of England in 1649 and the reaction of the populace to his death, specifically the disrespect offered his body and memory by the Parliamentarians.
On one hand, she was very close to her "Society of Friendship," a very tight knit group of Philips' friends which was composed of almost exclusively Royalist writers.
Following the Restoration in 1660, Philips turned more towards Royalist writing in hopes of improving her husband's political status.
[4] "Upon the Double Murder of King Charles" is a more politically minded piece than many of her others from this time period; however, her political ambivalence is manifest in it still in her opening lines which explain that, "I think not on the state, nor am concerned/Which way soever that great helm is turned," and again later when she criticizes not only the Parliamentarians, or "ignoble enemies," but also the Royalists, King Charles's "unfaithful friends.