to have continued to hold Brewern, for at the dissolution he received a pension of 22l. a year in respect of it. King probably became suffragan to the Bishop of Lincoln on 7 Jan. 1527, taking the title Reonensis, from the name of a diocese in the province of Athens. He is thus described on 15 April 1535, when he received the prebend of Crackpole St. Mary in the cathedral of Lincoln. He exchanged this on 28 Nov. 1536, for Biggleswade, which he held till 1541.
On 22 Dec. 1537 King was elected abbot of Oseney, Oxfordshire, by the management of John London [q. v.] and John Tregonwell [q. v.], who acted on Cromwell's instructions. In 1539 he was a preacher at St. Mary's, Stamford, and is said to have preached there against those who used the English translation of the New Testament (Strype, Cranmer, i. 136). The abbey of Thame surrendered on 16 Nov., and that of Oseney on 17 Nov. 1539.
King was made bishop of Oseney and Thame probably in 1541 (ib.), but the letters patent were not issued till 1 Sept. 1542. He lived in Gloucester College until 9 June 1545, when he was made bishop of Oxford. He managed to retain his bishopric during the reigns of Edward VI and Mary. He sat at Cranmer's trial, and Foxe (Acts and Monuments, ed. Townsend, viii. 636), who is followed by Strype, includes ‘King, Bishop of Thame,’ among ‘persecuting bishops that died before Queen Mary.’ King died on 4 Dec. 1557, and was buried at Oxford, in Christ Church Cathedral, where a tomb was erected to his memory. This tomb, of which an engraving was published, was, with a stained window containing a portrait, moved later to another part of the cathedral by his great-grand-nephews, John and Henry King [q. v.], bishop of Chichester. Wood asserts that they found a coat of arms for the bishop which he never had or knew of himself. A painting of the window is at Tythorpe House, Oxfordshire.
[Authorities quoted; Strype's Annals, iv. 173; Memorials, I. ii. 407, II. ii. 172; Cranmer, pp. 52, 481, 1649; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 774; Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 18, 48; Wood's Hist. and Antiq. of the Univ. of Oxf. ed. Gutch, pp. 431, 629; Reg. of the Univ. of Oxf. ed. Boase (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), i. 47; Browne Willis's Hist. of Mitred Abbeys, ii. 172, 181, 187; Rymer's Fœdera, xiv. 755, xv. 12, 75, 671; Letters and Papers Henry VIII, ed. Gairdner, XII. i. 360, ii. 1246; Le Neve's Fasti, ii. 112, 138; Turner's Selections from the Records of the City of Oxf. pp. 152, 155; Oxf. City Docs. ed. Thorold Rogers (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), p. 133; Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation, i. i. 260, ii. 252; Godwin, De Præsulibus, p. 545.]
KING, Sir ROBERT (1599?–1657), Irish soldier and statesman, born in Ireland about 1599, was eldest son of Sir John King (d. 1637) [q. v.] He enjoyed the offices of mustermaster-general and clerk of the cheque in Ireland by virtue of his reversionary grant, dated 8 May 1618 (Cal. State Papers, Irish, 1615–25, p. 193), which was renewed to him on 11 Jan. 1637–8. On 13 Aug. 1621 he was knighted (Metcalfe, Book of Knights, p. 179). He entered parliament as member for Boyle, co. Roscommon, in 1634, was re-elected in 1639; and in 1640 was returned for Roscommon county. In November 1641 he was appointed governor of Boyle Castle, and soon became conspicuous for his military skill and activity. During the Irish rebellion he distinguished himself at the battle of Balintobber, co. Roscommon, in 1642. But he lost heavily during the rebellion, and left Ireland in 1642 for London, where Cecil or Wimbledon House, in the Strand, had come to him through his second marriage. He now entered the service of the parliament, and was sent in October 1645 to Ulster, with two others, to manage the parliament's affairs. In 1647 he was one of the five commissioners appointed to receive the sword from the Marquis of Ormonde, the viceroy of Charles. He contrived to increase his estate by easy purchases and the allotment of lands in satisfaction of his arrears for service in Ireland. By act of parliament dated 8 March 1649–50 he was nominated a trustee for the new university of Dublin (Cal. State Papers, Irish, 1603–6, p. xcvii). On 15 Dec. following he was desired, along with the attorney-general, to have a complete inventory taken of all books and records concerning the herald's office.
On 24 Sept. 1651 King was empowered, with Colonel Hewson, to sign warrants for 2,000l. for payment of the Leinster forces, which order was renewed on 8 Oct. ensuing, and on 17 Nov. he was authorised to issue warrants for 1,000l. towards payment of the forces in Dublin. On 13 Dec. he was ordered to receive 100l. for his services as commissioner of the public revenue for one year, commencing on 1 May previously. On 23 May 1653 he was appointed an overseer of the poor within Dublin and parts adjacent, and was also made overseer for stating the accounts of the army. He was sworn a member of the council of state on 4 Nov. of that year (ib. Dom. 1653–4, p. 230), and sat in Cromwell's parliament of 1654 as member for Sligo, Roscommon, and Leitrim counties (Official Return of Members of Parliament, pt. ii.)
King died at Cecil House about June 1657.
