Robert King (bishop)

Robert King was a Cistercian monk, of Thame Park Abbey, and the last Abbot there, a position he obtained perhapsOthers say John Williams (1500-1559), later, John Williams, 1st Baron Williams of Thame, a family connection ({{cite web |last1=Will |first1=His |last2=March |first2=dated 8th |title=RBH Biography: John Williams, Baron Williams of Thame (1500-1559) |website=Royal County of Berkshire History Home Page |url=http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/jwilliams_bwoft.html |access-date=4 October 2018}}). 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. he was appointed suffragan bishop in Lincoln on 7 January 1527,{{Cite ODNB|id=15592|title=King, Robert}} and ordained and consecrated to the titular See of Rheon, Greece (Reonesis) on 13 May.Knowles, David & David M. Smith (ed.) The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales, III. 1377-1540 [https://books.google.com/books?id=jjqMN2G8fGoC&pg=PA339 p. 339] 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.[http://www.thornber.net/england/htmlfiles/charlbury.html Commemorated on a plaque in the parish church there]

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,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: {{cite web |title=Image Details |website=ViewFinder |url=http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/search/reference.asp?index=31357&main_query=&theme=&period=&county=&district=&place_name=&imageUID=46573&=&JS=True |access-date=4 October 2018}}. Some say Abraham van Linge. The window was commissioned by collateral descendants of Robert King's brother William ({{cite web |title=support.gale |website=AML |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-5155961_ITM |access-date=4 October 2018}}); 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,{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Oxford |volume=20 |page=412}}—mentions the palace and his monument; {{cite web |last=King |first=Richard John |authorlink=Richard John King |title=Christ Church, Oxford • King's Handbook to the Cathedrals of England |website=Sir Thomas Browne |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Great_Britain/England/_Topics/churches/_Texts/KINCAT*/Oxford/1.html |access-date=4 October 2018}}: 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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.catholic-chaplaincy.org.uk/foundation_and_mission-the_old.html |title=Foundation and Mission-The Old Palace |access-date=2007-01-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070204111908/http://www.catholic-chaplaincy.org.uk/foundation_and_mission-the_old.html |archive-date=2007-02-04 |url-status=dead }}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Robert King (bishop)}}

• [http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/RobertKing.htm Tudor Place – Robert King, Bishop of Oseney and Oxford]
• [http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/bishops/ Oxford History – Bishops – Introduction]

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