Master of the Great Wardrobe
The objects on display are the amalgamation of several separate collections. They include the collection put together by the wealthy London cloth merchant Lionel Cranfield, who became the 1st Earl of Middlesex, Lord Treasurer and Master of the Great Wardrobe to James I. He amassed an outstanding collection of furniture, paintings and tapestries at his mansion, Copt Hall in Essex. Lionel’s daughter Frances Cranfield married Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset in 1637 and, as her brothers died with no children of their own, Copt Hall and its contents passed to Frances and then to her own son Charles Sackville.
Lord Chamberlain
Charles Sackville lived at Copt Hall for a period and added to the Cranfield collection royal furniture acquired through his own appointment as Lord Chamberlain to William III and Queen Mary. The role of Lord Chamberlain was to manage the domestic affairs of the royal family and as a perquisite or ‘perk’ of office Charles was able to take from the royal palaces any furniture which was deemed out of date or unsuitable. In this way he acquired beds, tapestries, chairs and stools from Whitehall, Hampton Court and Kensington Palace. Charles sold Copt Hall in 1701 and brought the contents to Knole, combining the Cranfield collection with his own.
Furnishing the state rooms
Fairly early on, the Sackville family seem to have used the more modest ground-floor rooms at Knole as their personal living space, filling the grand processional first-floor state rooms with the most spectacular items. The route you walk today, and the objects you view, have remained largely unchanged since around 1730. The Brown Gallery is lined with early English furniture from the royal palaces, including X-framed chairs and footstools indicative of royal status. Two carved walnut armchairs have ‘WP’ for Whitehall Palace (the great Tudor powerhouse that burned down in 1698) stamped underneath.
The Spangle Bedroom is hung with tapestries woven in Brussels at the workshop of Hendrik Reydams and taken from the royal apartments of Queen Mary after her death. The Leicester Gallery is similarly lined with royal furniture including an X-framed chair of state stamped with the inventory mark of Hampton Court Palace.