William Marshall (illustrator)

1617–1649) was a seventeenth-century British engraver and illustrator, mostly known for his allegorical portrait of King Charles I of England as a Christian martyr, which was published as the frontispiece to the Eikon Basilike.

In the 1630s he produced a number of portrait engravings and book frontispieces, depicting Puritan divines, poets, and figures associated with the High Church establishment of the day, such as William Laud.

[2] As he wrote, Instead thereof, the Workman brought to light, What, here, you see; therein, mistaking quite The true Design: And, so (with pains, and cost) The first intended FRONTISPIECE, is lost.

The lower part of the frontispiece depicts people wandering in confusion in a cave, apparently having emerged from a womb-like pool in which babies are shown swimming.

[4] The verses read in translation, Looking at the form of the original, you could say, perhaps, that this likeness had been drawn by a rank beginner; but, my friends, since you do not recognize what is pictured here, have a chuckle at a caricature by a useless artist.

[5]After the end of the English Civil War, when King Charles was put on trial and condemned to be executed, a book was published entitled Eikon Basilike (Greek: Eικων Bασιλικη, the "Royal Portrait"), The Pourtrature of His Sacred Majestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings.

The Eikon Basilike and its portrait of Charles's execution as a martyrdom were so successful that, at the Restoration, a special commemoration of the King on 30 January was added to the Book of Common Prayer, directing that the day be observed as an occasion for fasting and repentance.

It is assumed that Marshall died in 1649, since there are no more references to him and the Eikon Basilke plate was reengraved for the eighth time that year by another engraver, Robert Vaughan.