If King's career as peer, landlord and disputant in Derry had been at times acrimonious, he at least had the comfort of knowing he was working in a region of strong Dissenter inclinations and where there was active correspondence with and travel to Scotland, from whence could come a variety of material and spiritual assistance. In his dealings with The Honourable the Irish Society, King was negotiating the minefield that was property law in a country where violence and counter-violence, regime change and restoration had served to complicate a terrain where surveying had often been rudimentary and where deeds, even had they had existed, had often been lost – as was the case with various of the deeds at the heart of the dispute over the bishop's lands in Derry. In Dublin when the House of Lords was in session or when matters of state had taken him to the capital, King had been among like-minded companions more often than not. His conscience had been mightily troubled over the Treaty of Limerick and he had been heavily involved in the campaign against a toleration bill in 1692, but in both cases he had enjoyed the support of a significant number of fellow bishops and had earned the respect of even some of his opponents.

As Archbishop of Dublin, he would be more immediately engaged in domestic and Irish–English relations, both as a result of his primacy and by virtue of proximity.