Edward King (161210 August 1637) is the subject of
John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...
's poem "
Lycidas
"Lycidas" () is a poem by John Milton, written in 1637 as a pastoral elegy. It first appeared in a 1638 collection of elegies, ''Justa Edouardo King Naufrago'', dedicated to the memory of Edward King, a friend of Milton at Cambridge who drown ...
".
King was born in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
in 1612, the son of Sir
John King, a member of a
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
family who had migrated to Ireland, and Catherine Drury (died 1617), daughter of Robert Drury and a grand-niece of Sir
William Drury
Sir William Drury (2 October 152713 October 1579) was an English statesman and soldier.
Family
William Drury, born at Hawstead in Suffolk on 2 October 1527, was the third son of Sir Robert Drury (c. 1503–1577) of Hedgerley, Buckinghamshi ...
,
Lord President of Munster
The post of Lord President of Munster was the most important office in the English government of the Irish province of Munster from its introduction in the Elizabethan era for a century, to 1672, a period including the Desmond Rebellions in Munste ...
. Sir John was
Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper
The Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper was a civil servant within the Irish Chancery in the Dublin Castle administration. His duties corresponded to the offices of Clerk of the Crown and Clerk of the Hanaper in the English Chancery. Latterly, the o ...
and MP for
Roscommon
Roscommon (; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60, N61 and N63 roads.
The name Roscommon is derived from Coman mac Faelchon who built ...
, a valued servant of the Crown and a major landowner. Edward was one of nine children: his siblings included Sir
Robert King of
Boyle Abbey
Boyle Abbey ( ga, Mainistir na Búille) is a ruined Cistercian friary located in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland. It was founded by Saint Malachy in the 12th century.
History
In the 12th century, Saint Malachy became aware of two new mona ...
and the writer
Dorothy Dury.
Edward King was admitted a pensioner of
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...
, on 9 June 1626, and four years later was elected a fellow.
Milton, though two years his senior and himself anxious to secure a fellowship, became his close friend as well as his rival. King served from 1633 to 1634 as praelector and tutor of his college, and was to have entered the church.
His career, however, was cut short by the tragedy which inspired Milton's verse. In 1637 he set out for Ireland to visit his family, but the ship in which he was sailing struck on a rock near the
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
coast, and King was drowned. Of his own writings many
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
poems contributed to different collections of Cambridge verse survive, but they are not of sufficient merit to explain the esteem in which he was held.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Edward
1612 births
1637 deaths
British poets
Deaths due to shipwreck
Deaths by drowning in the United Kingdom
Accidental deaths in Wales
Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge
British male poets