William Laud was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, having previously been Dean of Gloucester and Bishop of London. He was a firm believer in the King's religious reforms, helping him prepare a new Book of Common Prayer, and reinstating certain High Church rituals. This made him unpopular with many people, who felt he was pushing the Church of England back towards Catholicism. In addition to his ecclesiastical positions, he was also Chancellor of Oxford University, and a great benefactor of St John's College, to whom he bequeathed his collection of Hebrew manuscripts. During the Civil War, Laud was arrested and tried for treason, of which he was found guilty. In 1641, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and there beheaded four years later for his support of the Caroline cause. This portrait is after the original in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (inv. no. 2043), which was likely painted in circa 1638. This is the only example in van Dyck's oeuvre of an English bishop in Convocation robes. (For more information on the prime and other versions thereof, see O. Millar in S. Barnes et al., Van Dyck, a Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven and London, 2004, pp. 549-50, no. IV.153.)