Knole, KentKent
England
History /
Gardens & Park / Movies
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| Earlier House(s) / Building(s) | ||||
| Earlier buildings existed on the site. | ||||
| House Replaced By | ||||
Built / Designed For |
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| Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury
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| House & Family History | ||||
| Knole was built from 1456 to 1486 by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop purchased the land and existing buildings from Lord Saye and Sele. The House was taken by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and enlarged significantly by him. Knole was the gift of Elizabeth I to the Earl of Leicester in 1561; she then gifted the Estate to her cousin, Thomas Sackville, who eventually purchased Knole outright in 1603. The Earl of Dorset remodeled the House between 1603 and 1608. There is a fine portrait (watercolor on vellum) of Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset, by Isaac Oliver in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Most of the contents were lost during the Civil War, but many fine pieces were acquired by the 6th Earl of Dorset through his position of Lord Chamberlain to William III. Knole has been home to the Sackville family since 1603, including four dukes of Dorset. The Sackvilles were a famous literary family and hosted many authors at Knole, including Alexander Pope, John Dryden, and Matthew Prior. Knole was the birthplace of writer Vita Sackville-West (the only child of the 3rd Lord Sackville and author of "Knole and the Sackvilles," published in 1922) and was featured in Virginia Woolf’s novel "Orlando," the main character of which was modeled on Vita Sackville-West. The 4th Lord Sackville gave the House to The National Trust in 1946. Knole is the largest private house in England and is a “calendar house: it contains 365 rooms, 52 staircases, and 7 courtyards. The Estate takes its name from a knoll, or rounded hill. | ||||
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Collections
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| Knole contains the world’s pre-eminent collection of 17th century English furniture and textiles, due to the 6th Earl’s acquisitions. There are paintings by Van Dyck, Kneller, Reynolds, and Gainsborough. The Cartoon Gallery contains six large copies of Raphael’s cartoons, said to have been presented by Charles I to Lionel Cranfield, the 1st Earl of Middlesex. They were at Cranfield’s seat, Copt Hall in Essex, until 1701, when Copt Hall was sold to the 6th Earl of Dorset. The King’s Room contains the famous and very rare collection of silver furniture, made 1680-81 in London. John Wootton’s "Dover Castle" was sold in 1988 for £142,707, to remain on site. The Spangle Dressing Room has a harpsichord case that is dated 1622 and is signed by the London maker, John Hassard; its dating makes it the second earliest known English harpsichord. A 16th century Flemish tapestry of the miracles of Saint Claude (now called "The Just Verdict of Trajan") originally at Knole was purchased in 1916 by Bostonian George Robert White when some of the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan was dispersed. Today the tapestry is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, famously commissioned a reclining nude sculpture of his mistress, the dancer Giannetta Baccelli, which is still at Knole today. | ||||
| Comments | ||||
| Knole is generally considered one of the great houses of England. | ||||
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| Gardens
& Park
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| Garden, Park, Follies and Outbuildings | ||||
| Chapel & Church | ||||
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| Movies
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| Location for Movies / TV | ||||
| "Portrait of a Marriage" (1990 - TV min-series). "The Other Boleyn Girl" (2008). | ||||
