The Right Reverend

Robert King
Bishop of Oxford
ChurchChurch of England / Roman Catholic
Installed1546
Term ended1558
PredecessorDiocese established
SuccessorThomas Goldwell
Personal details
Diedc. 1558

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

Biography

Robert King was a Cistercian monk, of Thame Park Abbey, and the last Abbot there, a position he obtained perhaps[1] through the influence of the Bishop of Lincoln, John Longland, as whose prebendary and suffragan bishop he had acted from 1535:[2] he was appointed suffragan bishop in Lincoln on 7 January 1527,[3] and ordained and consecrated to the titular See of Rheon, Greece (Reonesis) on 13 May.[4] This was a move from the position of abbot at Bruerne Abbey.[5] Previously he had been vicar at Charlbury.[6]

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 St Frideswide's Priory,[7] and became instead part of Christ Church, Oxford. King is commemorated there by a window made by Bernard van Linge.[8]

The buildings of the old Gloucester College, Oxford, which had become in 1542 the bishop's palace,[9] 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.[10]

References

  1. ^ Others say John Williams (1500-1559), later, John Williams, 1st Baron Williams of Thame, a family connection (Will, His; March, dated 8th. "RBH Biography: John Williams, Baron Williams of Thame (1500-1559)". Royal County of Berkshire History Home Page. Retrieved 4 October 2018.((cite web)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)).
  2. ^ Concise Dictionary of National Biography.
  3. ^ "King, Robert". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15592. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ^ Knowles, David & David M. Smith (ed.) The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales, III. 1377-1540 p. 339
  5. ^ David Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, vol. III p.72.
  6. ^ Commemorated on a plaque in the parish church there
  7. ^ Taken over by Cardinal Wolsey for his projected Cardinal College 1522, taken back by Henry VIII 1529.
  8. ^ View it online: "Image Details". ViewFinder. Retrieved 4 October 2018.. Some say Abraham van Linge. The window was commissioned by collateral descendants of Robert King's brother William ("support.gale". AML. Retrieved 4 October 2018.); one of them being Henry King (1592-1669), bishop of Chichester and poet.
  9. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Oxford" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 412.—mentions the palace and his monument; King, Richard John. "Christ Church, Oxford • King's Handbook to the Cathedrals of England". Sir Thomas Browne. Retrieved 4 October 2018.: for an illustration.
  10. ^ "Foundation and Mission-The Old Palace". Archived from the original on 4 February 2007. Retrieved 23 January 2007.

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