Edmund King

Sir Edmund King (c.1630–1709), also Edmund Freeman, Edmond King, was an English surgeon and physician. He is known as an experimentalist, and also for his attendance on Charles II of England. Life He was the eldest son of Edmond King (Kinge, Freeman) of Northampton, a surgeon and physician, baptised in 1630. He practised, after apprenticeship, as a surgeon in London. He lived at first in Little Britain, London, and had a museum in his house which he took pleasure in showing to students. He used to keep dried specimens, such as the ileocecal valve, pressed in a large paper book, and he dissected animals as well as the human subject. Around 1665 King took a house in Hatton Garden, London and was married at St. Andrew's Church, Holborn, on 20 June 1666, to Rebecca Polsted of the adjoining parish of St. Sepulchre. Also in 1666 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Gilbert Sheldon, the archbishop of Canterbury, created him M.D., a Lambeth degree; he was incorporated at Cambridge in 1671, and in 1677, on bringing a commendatory letter from the king, was admitted an honorary fellow of the College of Physicians of London. He was admitted a regular fellow 12 April 1687, one of the nominees of James II's charter. He was knighted and sworn physician to the king in 1676. On the morning of 2 February 1685 King was sent for by Charles II. Charles talked incoherently, but King did not discover the morbid change at work. By Lord Peterborough's advice he paid a second visit to the bedchamber, and at the moment that he entered Charles fell down in a fit. King bled him immediately, and Charles gradually regained consciousness. The other physicians who arrived approved the bleeding, and the privy council advised that King should receive a reward of £1,000; but King received no fee.