Images: Knole house facade, inner view of outer gatehouse block, inner gatehouse block (photos: C.A. Stanford)
Acquired: 1532
Knole (also Knolle) was a palace belonging to the archbishops of Canterbury. Henry VIII stayed at Knole several times and liked it so much that when Cranmer became archbishop, the king demanded both this property and the neighboring site of Otford from him, offering less valuable sites in exchange that has been described by more than one historian as “bullying.” Knole was a smaller house than Otford, and the king appears to have wished to use it as a satellite space for himself and his privy staff when the rest of the court was at Otford. Princess Mary resided there late in 1532 through early 1533 as Henry concluded his divorce from her mother, Catherine of Aragon.
Knole was a stone house with a gatehouse and lodgings and one major courtyard (the Green Court); this may have been completed under Henry. In later years, much further construction was added, possibly up to 7 courtyards, 12 entrances, 52 staircases and 265 rooms (making it a “calendar house”); these became part of the mansion after it came into the possession of the Sackville family, whose Sackville-West descendants (in connection with the National Trust) retain the house to this day.