page_title: Knole
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Knole / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: 1909 stained glass depiction in Sevenoaks Church, Kent, of Thomas Bourchier (c.1404-1486), Archbishop of Canterbury (1454-1486) and Cardinal. He wears a cardinal's hat. His residence of Knole House, which he built, was situated opposite the church. The window is inscribed: To the glory of God and in memory of George Frederick Carnell late of this parish who died 28 October 1909 and Mary his wife died 12 April 1896
context_page_description: Knole is a country house and former archbishop's palace situated within Knole Park, a 1,000-acre park located immediately to the south-east of Sevenoaks in west Kent. The house apparently ranks in the top five of England's largest houses, under any measure used, occupying a total of four acres.
  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.
context_section_description: The earliest recorded owner of the core of the estate, in the 1290s, was Robert de Knole. However, nothing is known of any property he had on the estate. Two other families, the Grovehursts and the Ashburnhams, are known to have held the estate in succession until the 1360s, and the manor of Knole is first mentioned in 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 1500 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, first Lord Say(e) and Sele. The circumstances of this transfer are not known, but it is clear that Lord Saye 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 (at the north-eastern end of the current estate) 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.
  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; The lord 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.
caption: Cardinal Thomas Bourchier
exif: {}