Knole, 2022

We'd visited Knole in 2009 and again in 2013, but thought it was worth another try. In past years, there was a "no fotos!" policy, but, happily, that has now been lifted. As explained in the previous posts, Knole is important for a several reasons. It is the major repository of Stuart furniture, art, and so forth, and some Tudor, mainly because its owner at the time was chamberlain to William and Mary and got first call on all the stuff they didn't want from the previous regimes. The house is huge--though the tour visits only a smidgeon of it--a "calendar" house, with 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 12 entrances, etc., originally built for the archbishops of Canterbury but later acquired by Henry VIII when he became head of the C of E. His daughter Elizabeth I gave Knole to the Sackvilles, who are still there. The house also figures in the writings of Vita Sackville-West--she was raised there--and Virginia Woolf.

Main entrance

Helpful model #11,306

Entrance to main hall

Main hall and family portraits

Beautifully carved 16th century screen

Grand staircase

Long portrait gallery

Probably history's most famous red-head

Thomas More

William Cecil, Elizabeth's principal advisor in
her earlier years

Erasmus

Walsingham, Elizabeth's spy-master and fixer

Melancthon, Luther and some other guy; probably not from the
Stuarts' private collection

Back 40

James II state bed, 1688; last of the Stuarts, exiled to facilitate
the Glorious Revolution

16th century attire fit for a king; much gold
thread

A glimpse into the construction of the place

Olympic pool

Moving right along, we are now looking at furniture
and paintings collected by the Sackvilles in later
times...here, a portrait done by Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun;
she got around...

Coronation robe on display; much was out in anticipation of
Elizabeth II's Jubilee...coming up very shortly

Josh Reynolds selfie

In another long hall, painted-in copies of Rafael's Sistine cartoons
(original cartoons at the V&A; actual tapestries at the Sistine
Chapel, rarely displayed)

Finally, the King's Room (it was wise to maintain and
appropriately outfit a king's room, to be used by no one else,
just in case the monarch popped in for a visit one day)

Among the solid silver furniture in the King's Room