Knole
Knole is an English country house and former archbishop's palace owned by the National Trust. It is situated within Knole Park, a park located immediately to the south-east of Sevenoaks in west Kent. The house ranks in the top five of England's largest houses, under any measure used, occupying a total of.
The current house dates back to the mid-15th century, with major additions in the 16th and, particularly, the early 17th centuries. Its Grade I listing reflects its mix of late-medieval to Stuart structures and particularly its central façade and state rooms. In 2019, an extensive conservation project, "Inspired by Knole", was completed to restore and develop the structures of the buildings and thus help to conserve its important collections. The surrounding deer park has also survived with varying degrees of management in the 400 years since 1600.
History
Location
Knole is located at the southern end of Sevenoaks, in the Weald of west Kent. To the north, the land slopes down to the Darenth valley and the narrow fertile pays of Holmesdale, at the foot of the North Downs. The land around Sevenoaks itself has sandy soils, with woodland that was used in the Middle Ages in the traditional Wealden way, for pannage, rough pasture and timber. The Knole estate is located on well-drained soils of the Lower Greensand. It was close enough to London to allow easy access for owners who were involved with affairs of state, and it was on "sounde, parfaite, holesome grounde", in the words of Henry VIII. It also had a plentiful supply of spring water.The knoll of land in front of the house gives it a sheltered position. The wooded nature of the landscape could provide not only timber but also grazing for the meat needs of a grand household. Moreover, it made an excellent deer park, being emparked before the end of the 15th century. The dry valley between the house and the settlement of Sevenoaks also makes a natural deer course, for a combined race and hunt between two dogs and fallow deer.
Early history
There is evidence of the prehistoric at Knole but, as is the case for the surrounding area, no Roman. Much was going on in and around Sevenoaks in the medieval period and major landowners included Roger Bigod and then Otho de Grandison who moved abroad, his estates being broken up. It may be then that the Manor of Knole became a separate entity as the earliest reference to it currently known was not until 1364. In 1419, the estate, which then spread over 800 acres, had been bought by Thomas Langley, Bishop of Durham, and by 1429, he had extended it to 1,500 acres. The estate remained in the hands of the Langley family, it seems, until the mid-1440s when it had been acquired by James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele. The circumstances of this transfer are not known, but it is clear that Lord Saye and Sele was also enlarging the estate by further, sometimes forcible, purchases of adjoining parcels of land. For example, in 1448 one Reginald Peckham was forced to sell land at Seal to Saye "on threat of death". Forcible land transfers recur in the later history of the house, including that between Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and Henry VIII.File:Cardinal Thomas Bourchier.jpg|thumb|Thomas Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury
Lord Saye and Sele seems to have begun a building project at Knole, but it was incomplete by his death in 1450. His ruthless exploitation of his powerful position in Kent was a motivating factor in the Jack Cade Rebellion. Saye and Sele was executed on the authority of a hastily assembled commission initiated by Henry VI in response to the demands of Cade's rebels when they arrived in London.
Archbishop Bourchier's House
James Fiennes's heir, William, second Baron Saye and Sele, sold the property for 400 marks in 1456 to Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury. He already had a substantial property in the area, Otford Palace, but the drier, healthier site of Knole attracted him. Archbishop Bourchier probably began building work by making substantial renovations of an existing house. Between 1456 and 1486, Bourchier and his bailiff for the Otford bailiwick, John Grymesdyche, oversaw substantial building work on the current house. The remodelled house must have been suitable for the archbishop by 1459, when he first stayed there, but he based himself there increasingly in his later years, particularly after 1480, when, at the age of about 69, he appointed a suffragan. In 1480, Thomas Cardinal Bourchier, as he had become in 1473, gave the house to the Archdiocese of Canterbury.In subsequent years, Knole House continued to be enlarged, with the addition of a large courtyard, now known as Green Court, and a new entrance tower. These were long thought to be the work of one of Bourchier's successors, but the detailed study by Alden Gregory suggests that Bourchier was responsible. He took advantage of the political stability that followed the restoration of Edward IV in 1471 to invest further in his property.
Knole in the Tudor period
After Cardinal Bourchier's death in 1486, Knole was occupied by the next four archbishops: John Morton, Henry Deane, William Warham and finally Thomas Cranmer. Sir Thomas More appeared in revels there at the court of Archbishop Morton, whose cognizance of Benedictus Deus appears above and to either side of a large late Tudor fireplace there. Henry VII was an occasional visitor, as in early October and midwinter 1490.Cardinal Bourchier had enclosed the park with a pale to make a deer park and it seems that Henry VIII used to visit Archbishop Warham to hunt deer. After the death of Warham and before the appointment of his successor, Henry found his properties in nearby Otford and Knole useful residences for his daughter Mary, at the time of the protracted divorce from her mother, Catherine of Aragon. She was at Knole from 27 November 1532 to 5 March 1533.
Warham's successor as archbishop, Thomas Cranmer, acquired all the temporalities of the See of Canterbury. However, these brought with them substantial debts and complex demands of land management, set against a backdrop of massive land transfers associated with the dissolution of the monasteries and broader assaults on church wealth. Cranmer was, therefore, unable to withstand repeated demands from Henry VIII for exchanges of land. This was a long-term process stretching between 1536 and 1546, so that there is no need to imagine that Henry wanted Knole, specifically, for example as a deer park. In 1537 the manor of Knole, and five other manors and a number of advowsons and chantries largely forming the archbishop's bailiwick of Otford, were 'exchanged' with Henry VIII. In return, Cranmer received a package primarily consisting of former abbeys and priories between Canterbury and Dover.
Knole was granted to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, in August 1547 at the start of his nephew Edward VI's reign, but following Somerset's execution in 1549 it reverted to the Crown. Mary gave the residence back to her Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Reginald Pole, but with their deaths in 1558 the house reverted to the Crown.
In the early 1560s, Elizabeth I gave Knole to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, but he returned it in 1566. However, he had already granted a lease to one Thomas Rolf. Under this the 'manor and mansion-house' of Knole and the park, with the deer, and also Panthurst Park and other lands, were demised to the latter for the term of ninety-nine years at a rent of £200. The landlord was to do all repairs, and reserved the very unusual right to occupy the mansion-house as often as he or they chose to do so, but this right did not extend to the gate-house, nor to certain other premises. The tenant was given power to alter or rebuild the mansion-house at his pleasure. Meanwhile, Elizabeth had possibly granted the estate to her cousin Thomas Sackville who, at that time, had the title of Lord Buckhurst.
There was competition at that time for the Knole estate. Rolf died very soon after, and the residue of the lease was bought by a wealthy local lawyer, John Lennard. He had gradually built up a network of properties around Sevenoaks, including the manor of Chevening, and adjoining property in the parishes of Knockholt and Halstead, all just to the north of Sevenoaks. Lennard had already pressurised Rolf to sell the lease before his sudden death but, at the same point, Lord Buckhurst was also competing for the lease. Knole was a significant addition to Lennard's local land-holdings when it was confirmed, around 1570. However, Buckhurst was still able to insist upon some rights on the estate, including the ownership of at least some of the deer in the park. John moved to Knole, but gave his son Sampson, Lord Dacre's son-in-law, a sub-lease. The Knole estate was worth a great deal to Sampson, bringing him in 1599 rents worth £218, 6s and 8d.
One of Sampson Lennard's daughters, Margaret, married Sir Thomas Waller, at one time lieutenant of Dover Castle and the younger son of an important Kent family, with their seat at Groombridge. An unusual term in the marriage covenant stipulated that Margaret and Thomas should live at Knole which is where Margaret gave birth to her son William, probably in 1598. The baptism is recorded in the Sevenoaks parish register for 3 December. In 1613, William inherited his father's baronetcy, becoming Sir William Waller. He later commanded a parliamentary army with some distinction during the English Civil War.
Early-Stuart Knole and the Sackvilles
Since Dudley had originally granted a 99-year lease, Thomas Sackville could only take it back by buying out the remaining 51 years of the lease for £4,000, which he did in 1603. Lennard was happy to sell, not only because of his mounting debts but also because he wished to gain the Dacre title, which he did in 1604 from a commission headed by the Lord Treasurer, Thomas Sackville. This is unlikely to have been a coincidence. Sackville's descendants, the Earls and Dukes of Dorset and Barons Sackville, have owned or lived in the property ever since.Thomas Sackville, at that time Lord Buckhurst, had considered a number of other sites to build a house commensurate with his elevated status in court and government. However, he could not overlook the multiple advantages of Knole: a good supply of spring water, plentiful timber, a deer park and close enough proximity to London. He immediately began a large building programme. This was supposed to have been completed within two years, employing some 200 workmen, but the partially-surviving accounts show that there was continuing, vast expenditure even in 1608–1609. Since Sackville had had a distinguished career at court under Elizabeth and then been appointed Lord High Treasurer to James VI and I, he had the resources to undertake such a programme. Perhaps, with his renovations to the state rooms at Knole, Sackville hoped to receive a visit by the King, but this does not seem to have occurred and the lord treasurer himself died during the building work, in April 1608, at the age of about 72.
Thomas Sackville's Jacobean great house, like others such as Hatfield and Audley End, have been called "monuments to private greed". Unlike any surviving English great house apart from Haddon Hall, Knole today still looks as it did when Thomas died, having managed "to remain motionless like this since the early 17th century, balanced between growth and decay."
Thomas's son, Robert Sackville, 2nd Earl of Dorset, took over the titles and estates, gave a description of his father's work on re-modelling Knole: "late re-edified wth a barne, stable, dovehouse and other edifices, together wth divers Courts, the gardens orchards and wilderness invironed wth a stone wall, well planted wth choise frute, and beawtified wth ponds, and manie other pleasureable delights and devises are situate wthin the Parke of knoll, the charge of new building of the said house and making planting and furnishing of the said ponds yards gardens orchards and wilderness about Seaven yeares past Thirty thosand pounds at the least yet exstant uppon Accounpts. All wch are now in the Earle of dorsetts owne occupacon and are worth to bee sold."
The 2nd earl did not enjoy Knole for long, since he died in January 1609. His two sons, in turn, inherited the title and estates, first Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset and then the much more politically significant Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset. None of these earls lived permanently at Knole. In the first earl's case, this was no doubt due to the renovations. The third earl lived mostly at court, though he is known to have kept his hunting horses and hounds there.
The wife of the 3rd Earl, Lady Anne Clifford, lived at Knole for a time during the couple's conflict over her inheritance from her father, George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland. A catalogue of the household of the Earl and Countess of Dorset at Knole from this time survives. It records the names and roles of servants and indicates where they sat at dinner. The list includes two African servants, Grace Robinson, a maid in the laundry, and John Morockoe, who worked in the kitchen. Both are described as "Blackamoors". In 1623, a large part of Knole House burnt down.