A Sermon Preached at Paul's Crosse Touching the Supposed Apostasie of J. King, Late Bishop of London

by Henry King

This is Henry King's first published work. It was in vindication of his father, Bishop John King, regarding the slander that was printed anonymously after his death that he had embraced Catholicism upon his deathbed, which was then rumoured about. Henry King addressed the dedicatory epistle to Prince (later king) Charles, importuning him to remember the late Queen Mother and how close a tie she and the late Bishop had. He makes a gallant defense and clearly relates how his father actually died, as he and other family members were present.

77 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1621

About the author

Henry King, Bishop of Chichester, was the eldest son of John King, the famous Bishop of London & his wife Joan Freeman (daughter of Henry Freeman of Staffordshire), and was born in January of 1591/2 at Worminghall in Buckinghamshire. King was a minor poet of the age, but an excellent one among that class. He was befriended by numerous poets & other men of note, including Ben Jonson, John Donne, Izaak Walton, Sir Henry Wotton, and James Howell to name a few. Even the diarist Samuel Pepys took notice of him (however small) on a couple of occasions in the 1660s. He is almost exclusively remembered today for his poem The Exequy, upon his wife who died. Like many of his period he was fond of writing elegies, particularly of notable events to occur in the royal family or court, such as the death of James I/VI's popular first-born son Prince Henry, and the execution of Charles I.

He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, in 1609, when his father was Dean of his College and Vice-Chancellor of the University, and took his degrees of B.A. and M.A. in 1611 and 1614. His studies at Oxford, according to Fuller and Anthony Wood, were 'Musick and Poetry . . . Oratory and Philosophy,' and no doubt many of his lyrics were written at that time. In 1611 his father was made Bishop of London, and soon afterwards King himself was ordained together with his brother John, who seems to have been his close companion during all their early life. Influential patronage favoured the two brothers. King became Chaplain in Ordinary to King James, in 1616 made a prebend of St. Paul's, and next year advanced to the Archdeaconry of Colchester; and there is an account of a sermon preached by him at Paul's cross in 1617 in which 'he did' - as he usually did - 'reasonably well, but nothing extraordinary,' and showed himself 'orator' - as he was poeta - 'parum vehemens.' He was now living in London, near St. Paul's Churchyard, but he seems to have kept up his connection with his Christ Church friends. About the year 1617 he married Anne Berkeley of Throwley in Kent, and by the time of her death [see his poem The Exequy], which must have taken place in 1624, their family had grown large; in the words of one of her elegists:

Children were sure, and frequent; ev'ry year
By a new darling was seal'd current here;

But of their six children only two, John and Henry, survived their infancy.

In 1621 King was called upon to defend the reputation of his father, who had died in that year, from a persistent rumour that he had embraced the Roman Catholic faith on his death-bed; and this he did in a sermon which was the first of many which subsequently appeared in print. In 1624 Henry and his brother John King obtained Canonries of Christ Church, Oxford, and both seem to have led a quiet life in London till John's death in 1639. Henry King was made D.D. and Dean of Rochester, became Chaplain in Ordinary to King Charles I., and in February 1641/2 he was raised to the bishopric of Chichester. During the months immediately following his consecration the Civil War broke out, and the Parliamentarians besieged Chichester, ransacked the Palace, and barbarously treated him, besides sequestrating his estates. He lived in 'sad Retirement' in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire during the war, and bewailed its result in Elegies; but at the Restoration amendment was made, and he lived to enjoy his see for nine years. He died October 1, 1669, and was buried on the south side of the choir (near the communion table) in Chichester Cathedral October 8th. His son John soon died also; and Henry King's widow, Anne the daughter of Sir William Russell, erected a monument with a Latin inscription to their memory.

During his life King had made many friends, and seems to have been known to most of the prominent poets of his day, including Ben Jonson and John Donne, the latter of whom he became literary executor. He was also a long-time friend of Izaak Walton.