Milton Enters Commonwealth Service and Publishes Eikonoklastes
Poet involved
What happened
John Milton became Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Commonwealth's Council of State in London in March 1649. Later that year he published Eikonoklastes, a government-sponsored answer to Eikon Basilike. He attacked the dead king's political conduct and the emotional power of the Royalist martyr image.
Literary impact
Milton's appointment united public service, propaganda and literary authorship in a single career. Eikonoklastes shows a great poet struggling directly over who controlled the language and memory of the Civil War.
Source: Wikipedia
