Sentence:  Either North or Cheney [...] must have secured Arden's appointment to the lucrative post of king's customs officer for the port of Faversham [...] From the first, Arden was, in the words of Lena Orlin, who has described these relations in compelling detail, "a <WSD>king's man</WSD> in Faversham." 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A customs officer, or other officer appointed by the English Crown.