Robert King (bishop)

Robert King (d. 1558) was an English churchman who became the first Bishop of Oxford.

He was a Cistercian monk, of Thame Park Abbey, and the last Abbot there, a position he obtained perhaps [Others say John Williams (1500-1559), later, John Williams, 1st Baron Williams of Thame, a family connection. [http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/jwilliams_bwoft.html] ] through the influence of the Bishop of Lincoln, John Longland, as whose prebendary and suffragan bishop he had acted from 1535 ["Concise Dictionary of National Biography".] . This was a move from the position of abbot at Bruerne Abbey. [David Knowles, "The Religious Orders in England", vol. III p.72.] Previously he had been vicar at Charlbury. [Commemorated on a plaque in the parish church there. [http://www.thornber.net/england/htmlfiles/charlbury.html] ]

King became abbot at Oseney Abbey in 1537. Both Thame Park and Oseney were dissolved in 1539, as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. In 1541 King was made Bishop of Thame and Oseney. The next year his diocese was changed, into the Diocese of Oxford. In further changes the cathedral in Oxford was the previous priory of St Frideswide [Taken over by Cardinal Wolsey for his projected Cardinal College 1522, taken back by Henry VIII 1529.] , and became instead part of Christ Church, Oxford. King is commemorated there by a window made by Bernard van Linge. [View it online: [http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/search/reference.asp?index=31357&main_query=&theme=&period=&county=&district=&place_name=&imageUID=46573&=&JS=True] . Some say Abraham van Linge. The window was commissioned by collateral descendants of Robert King's brother William [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-5155961_ITM] ; one of them being Henry King (1592-1669), bishop of Chichester and poet.]

The buildings of the old Gloucester College, Oxford, which had become in 1542 the bishop's palace [1911 "Encyclopedia Britannica", article on [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Oxford,_England Oxford] ; also mentions his monument; [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Great_Britain/England/_Topics/churches/_Texts/KINCAT*/Oxford/1.html] for an illustration.] , were under Edward VI taken back by the Crown. King lived in what is now called the Old Palace (rebuilt in the seventeenth century), and Littlemore Hall.

Under Mary, he returned to Catholicism. He was a judge at the trial of Cranmer. [http://www.catholic-chaplaincy.org.uk/foundation_and_mission-the_old.html]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/RobertKing.htm]
* [http://www.headington.org.uk/oxon/bishops/index.htm]