KNOLE: TUDOR COUNTRY HOUSE

Knole is an English country house built in
1456-86 in the town of Sevenoaks in west
Kent, surrounded by a 1,000-acre (4.0 km²) deer park. 

One of England's largest houses,it is reputed to be a calendar house, having 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 12 entrances and 7 courtyards. It is known for the degree to which its early 17th-century appearance is preserved, particularly in the case of the state rooms.

The surrounding deer park has also survived with little having changed over the past 400 years except for the loss of over 70% of its trees in the Great Storm of 1987.  

The house was built by Thomas Courtier, Archbishop of Canterbury, between 1456 and 1486, on the site of an earlier house belonging to James Fiennes, the Lord Say and Sele who was executed after the victory of  Jack Cade’s rebels at the Battle of Solefields. 

In 1538 the house was taken from Archbishop Thomas Cranmer by King Henry VIII. In 1566, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, The many state rooms open to the public contain a collection of 17th-century royal Stuart furniture, perquisites from the 6th Earl's service as Lord Chamberlain to William III in the royal court, including three state beds, silver furniture, outstanding tapestries and textiles and the original of the famous Knole Setee. 

The art collection includes portraits by Van Dyck, Gainsborough, Sir Peter Lely. Sir Godfrey Kneller and Sir Joshu Reynolds.  There are also survivals from the English Renaissance: an Italianate staircase of great delicacy and the vividly carved overmantel and fireplace in the Great Chamber.  

The 'Sackville leopards', holding heraldic shields in their paws and which form finials on the balusters of the principal stair (constructed 1605-8) of the house, are derived from the Sackville coat of arms.

 The house is now in the care of the National Trust; however, the Trust only owns the house and about 43 acres (170,000 m²) of the park. Considerably more than half the house is still home to the Sackville-Wests. Lord Sackville and his family still own the gardens and the rest of the surrounding estate. 

As a walled garden, Knole's is very large, at 26 acres^] and is large enough to have the very unusual — and essentially mediaeval — feature of a smaller walled garden inside itself. 


It came into the possession of her cousin Thomas Sackville, whose descendants the Earls and Dukes of Dorset and Barons Sackville have lived there since 1603. 







Knole Park, the park in which Knole House sits, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and hosts the annual Knole Run, a schools cross-country race.

It was also used in the filming in January 1967 of the Beatles’ videos that accompanied the release of "Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever”. 


The stone archway through which the four Beatles rode on horses can still be seen on the southeastern side of the Bird House, which is itself found on the southeastern side of Knole House. 

The same visit to Knole Park inspired another Beatles song, “Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite!”  which is based on an 1843 poster advertising Pablo Fanque’s Circus Royal, which John Lennon bought in a nearby antiques shop.

Knole House also appears in the 2008 film, The Other Boleyn Girl, and more recently in the 2010 film Burke and Hare. 

In January 2012, the National Trust launched an appeal for £2.7M to restore the house. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knole_House

THE ROMANCE OF ELIZABETH I AND THE EARL OF LEICISTER

Romance haunts the stone corridoors of Knole. In 1561 Elizabeth 1 gave Knole first to her 'favourite', Robert Dudley First Earl of Leicester.  It is said that she used to meet him at Knole.


In April 1559 Dudley was elected a Knight of the Garter...The ambassador of the neutral Republic of Venice, wrote home: "My Lord Robert Dudley is ... very intimate with Her Majesty. On this subject I ought to report the opinion of many but I doubt whether my letters may not miscarry or be read, wherefore it is better to keep silence than to speak ill." Philip II had already been informed shortly before Dudley's decoration:

"Lord Robert has come so much into favour that he does whatever he likes with affairs and it is even said that her majesty visits him in his chamber day and night. People talk of this so freely that they go so far as to say that his wife has a malady in one of her breasts and the Queen is only waiting for her to die to marry Lord Robert ... Matters have reached such a pass ... that ... it would ... be well to approach Lord Robert on your Majesty's behalf ... Your Majesty would do well to attract and confirm him in his friendship."

'Robert Dudley's private life interfered with his court career and vice versa. When his first wife, Amy Robsart, fell down a flight of stairs and died in 1560, he was free to marry the Queen. However, the resulting scandal very much reduced his chances in this respect. 

Popular rumours that he had arranged for his wife's death continued throughout his life, despite the coroner's jury's verdict of accident. For 18 years he did not remarry for Queen Elizabeth's sake and when he finally did, his new wife, Lettice Knollys, was permanently banished from court. This and the death of his only legitimate son and heir were heavy blows...'

'In July 1588, as the Spanish Armada came nearer, Robert Dudley was appointed "Lieutenant and Captain-General of the Queen's Armies and Companies". At Tilbury on the Thames he erected a camp for the defence of London, should the Spaniards indeed land... When the Privy Council was already considering to disband the camp to save money, Leicester held against it, setting about to plan with the Queen a visit to her troops. On the day she gave her famous speech he walked beside her horse bare-headed.

After the Armada the Earl was seen riding in splendour through London "as if he were a king", and for the past few weeks he had usually dined with the Queen, a unique favour. On his way to Buxton in Derbyshire to take the baths, he died at Cornbury Park near Oxford on 4 September 1588... 

Leicester's health had not been good for some time and historians have considered both malaria and stomach cancer as death causes.  

His death came unexpectedly, though, and only a week earlier he had said farewell to his Queen. Elizabeth was deeply affected and locked herself in her apartment for a few days until Lord Burghley had the door broken. Her nickname for Dudley had been "Eyes", which was symbolised by the sign of ôô in their letters to each other. Elizabeth kept the letter he had sent her six days before his death in her bedside treasure box, endorsing it with "his last letter" on the outside. It was still there when she died 15 years later.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dudley,_1st_Earl_of_Leicester

VICTORIA SACKVILLE WEST AND VIRGINIA WOOLF



The twentieth century writer Vita Sackville West lived in Knole. Vita was the acknowledged lover of Virginia Woolf, who was inspired to write  the novel Orlando by Vita, and Knole. 

The book traces Orlando's experiences through four generations, with gender changes, ending with Orlando taking possession of Knole.  In real life, Vita was not able to inherit ownership of Knole because it passed through the male line. A  copy of the manuscript of Virginia Woolf's Orlando can be seen in the Knole Gallery.  See also http://www.infobritain.co.uk/Knole.htm.