Knole — Furniture Of Kings - Beyond Downton Abbey: A Guide to 25 Great Houses - page 92

photo © Victoria & Albert Museum
Who built it…who owns it
Knole was built in the late 15 th century and seized by Henry VIII from Archbishop of Can-
terbury Thomas Cranmer during Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1566 Queen Elizabeth
I gave Knole to her cousin, Thomas Sackville. During the early 17 th century, Sackville
transformed Knole from a ramshackle medieval mansion into a Renaissance palace.
Thirteen generations of Sackville's descendents have lived here ever since, including the
20 th century writer Vita Sackville-West, who used Knole as the setting for her novel The
Edwardians . Published in 1930, more than a decade after the end of World War I and the
end of the era it captured, the topic sold 30,000 copies in its first six months.
Charles Sackville-West, 4 th Baron Sackville, gave the estate to the National Trust in 1946,
against the wishes of his neice Vita Sackville-West, who had grown up at Knole. The Trust
continues conservation and restoration efforts today.
Style notes
Tudor mansion