Portrait of Dr. William King, Archbishop of Dublin, seated three-quarter-length, in clerics robes, holding a book in his left hand

William King was born to Scottish parents in Antrim in 1650 and graduated from Trinity College in 1670. A committed and militant Whig throughout his life, he was elected Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1688, Bishop of Derry in 1691, and was made Archbishop of Dublin in 1703. He was a prolific writer, and most of his works, in particular his State of the Protestants under the late King James's government (1691) display his anti-Catholic and anti-Tory tendencies in the aftermath of William of Orange's defeat of James II in 1690. As Archbishop he was Visitor of Trinity College, his alma mater, and he had considerable influence in ridding it of its Tory elements and bolstering the Whigs to power in 1717.

In this portrait by Ralph Holland, King is dressed in his clerics robes in his role as Bishop. This is one of three Holland portraits which King commissioned in 1725/6, according to letters written to his friend Francis Annesley in London. One of the portraits is in the Trinity College collection and another was sold by Christie's Glasgow on 19/20 November 1986, lot 478.