John Gauden was born in Mayland in Essex in 1605, educated at Bury St Edmunds School and then at St John's College, Cambridge. He became a tutor at Oxford in 1630, progressing to Doctor of Divinity (at Wadham College) in 1641, and thereafter became chaplain to Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick. His royalist allegiances were not strong enough to prevent him from becoming a member of the Presbyterian Assembly of Divines in 1643, nor from taking the Solemn League and Covenant. Nonetheless, visits to the imprisoned King Charles I swayed his conscience, and it now seems very likely that he was the author of
Eikon Basilike(1649), a narrative of the king's life and sufferings written in the king's voice. During the 1650s Gauden wrote a series of anti-Cromwellian pamphlets, and was rewarded with the…
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Citation: Raymond, Joad. "John Gauden". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 July 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1703, accessed 22 November 2024.]