Oliver King (1432-29 August 1503) was Bishop of Bath and Wells from 6 November 1495 to 29 August 1503, succeeding Richard Foxe and preceding Adriano de Castello.
Biography[]
Oliver King was born in England in 1432, and he was educated at Eton College. He was consecrated a Catholic priest in 1460 and became rector of Broughton in Hampshire in 1466; in 1475, he served as King Edward IV of England's ambassador to Brittany amid the Wars of the Roses. In 1480, he became King's Secretary, as he was an expert in the French language. From 1480 to 1503, he also served as Canon of the Eleventh Stall at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, and he served as Bishop of Exeter from 1492 to 1495 and as Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1495 until his death in 1503. He organized the restoration of Bath Abbey after 1500; he was inspired by a dream in which a host of angels on a ladder told him to "let an Olive establish the crown, and let a King restore the Church." King was thus inspired to support King Henry VII of England and restore the abbey. He died in 1503 at the age of 71.