King, Henry

(1592-1669)

   Born the eldest son of John King, bishop of London, he was baptized at Worminghall, Buckinghamshire, and educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. After being ordained, he took up a position at St. Paul's Cathedral, then in 1617 became archdeacon of Colchester in 1617. Soon afterwards he was made rector of Fulham and one of the royal chaplains, and doctor of divinity in 1625. He developed a life-long friendship with Izaak Walton and friendships with many other poets, to whom he dedicated poems - Ben Jonson, George Sandys and John Donne being a few (see entries). He became bishop of Chichester in 1641-2. His palace was captured when Chichester surrendered to the Parliamentarians in 1643. King died at Chichester and was buried in the cathedral. Some of his publications: An Elegy Upon King Charles I, 1648. A Groane at the Fvnerall, 1649. Poems, Elegies, Paradoxes and Sonets, 1664. The Psalmes of David, 1651. Some of his poems: "A Contemplation upon Flowers," "An Elegy upon My Best Friend," "My Midnight Meditation," "The Anniverse; an Elegy," "The Boyes Answer to the Blackmoor," "The Vow-Breakers."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Jacobean and Caroline Poetry: An Anthology. T.G.S. Cain, ed. Methuen, 1981. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Harper Anthology of Poetry. John Frederick Nims, ed. Harper and Row, 1981. The Oxford Book of Seventeenth Century Verse. H.J.C. Grierson and G. Bullough, eds. Oxford University Press, 1934. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.