Cavendish published The Blazing World in 1666 alongside her Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy. Six years earlier, in 1660, the country witnessed the restoration of the English monarchy (now known simply as the Restoration) when Charles II assumed the throne that had been unoccupied for 11 years. Between 1642 and 1651, England endured a civil war in which Royalists (supporters of the king and the monarchy) and Parliamentarians (supporters of a commonwealth) fought over how the country should be governed. The conflict came to a head in 1649, when King Charles I was executed for treason and many Royalists were forced to flee.
Cavendish and her husband, William Cavendish, were known Royalists throughout the conflict. They supported Charles I and the continuation of the monarchy, and it is therefore fitting that The Blazing World was published after another king was on the throne. The text, while part science fiction and part utopian philosophy, is also largely dedicated to political discourse: the Lady is made Empress of the Blazing World, endowing her with absolute power to govern its inhabitants as she sees fit. When the Empress realizes that the Blazing World was more prosperous under the rule of the Emperor and the "old ways," she returns to that mode of governance, showcasing Cavendish's own political perspective that government should retain absolute power while putting citizens above all else.
Nowhere is the political allegory of The Blazing World more prevalent than in Part Two of the novel, when the Empress and her army come to the aid of the King of ESFI to defeat his enemies and make them pledge loyalty to him. In this conclusion, Cavendish essentially dramatizes the English Restoration itself, showing how the King – and by extension, the monarchy – is the "true" and "natural" leader of the country.
