Who was the king of Troy during the Trojan War?

Priam was the king of Troy during the Trojan War.

In Homeric tradition, Priam is Troy’s elderly ruler and the father of Hector, Paris, Cassandra, and many other royal children. He inherited the throne after the death of his father, Laomedon, and ruled the city during the conflict between the Trojans and the Achaeans.

Priam is not portrayed as a principal battlefield fighter in the Iliad. Instead, he represents Troy’s aging royal order while his sons, especially Hector and Paris, take central roles in the war. He appears during the negotiation of the duel between Paris and Menelaus and later risks entering the Greek camp to ask Achilles for Hector’s body.

The king’s fate belongs mainly to traditions outside the surviving Iliad. Later accounts say that Priam was killed during the sack of Troy by Neoptolemus, Achilles’ son. Paris was a prince, Hector was the leading Trojan warrior and heir, and Agamemnon was the Greek commander—not Troy’s king.