Front View from the Park.
James Fiennes, who had distinguished himself in the wars with France in the reign of Henry V., was created Lord Say and Sele. The Fiennes were an ancient family, descended from John, Baron of Fiennes, Hereditary Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports, who was father of James, and he of John, who had issue Ingelram de Fiennes, who was slain at Acon, in the Holy Land, in 1190. “He married Sybil de Tyngrie, daughter and heiress to Erasmus de Bologne, nephew to Maud, Queen of England, wife of King Stephen, from which match proceeded William de Fiennes, who succeeded to the estates of the Earl of Bologne. He was succeeded by his son Ingelram, whose son William was educated with Prince Edward, and was, in turn, succeeded by his son John, of whom no issue remained. His uncle, Sir Giles Fiennes, succeeded. By his wife Sybil he had issue John, his son and heir, and by Joan, his wife, had issue John de Fiennes, who had to wife Maud, sister and heir of John Monceaux, of Hurst-Monceaux, in Sussex; and dying, left issue Sir William Fiennes, Knt., who having married Joan, youngest daughter to Geoffrey, Lord Say, and at length co-heir to William, her brother, his posterity thereby shared in the inheritance of that family, being succeeded by William, his son and heir.” He married Elizabeth Battisford, by whom he had issue two sons, Roger and James, the elder of whom left a son, Richard, who, marrying Joan, daughter and heiress of Thomas, Lord Dacre, was declared Lord Dacre, and was ancestor of that noble family.
James Fiennes, the second son, of whom we have already spoken as having been called to Parliament as Lord Say and Sele, became Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports, Lord Chamberlain to the King, Constable of the Tower of London, and Lord Treasurer of England. Such rapid advancement was, however, distasteful to the malcontents of this kingdom; and the King, to appease them, sequestered Lord Say from his office of Treasurer, and, as is supposed, to insure his safety from his enemies, committed him to the Tower. The rebels, under Jack Cade, however, forced the Tower, carried Lord Say to the Guildhall, and after a mock trial, hurried him to the Standard in Cheapside, where “they cut off his head, and carried it on a pole, causing his naked body to be drawn at a horse’s tail into Southwark, to Sir Thomas of Waterings, and there hanged and quartered.”[41]
The murder of Lord Say took place July 4th, 29th Henry VI. He was succeeded by his son, Sir William Fiennes (by his wife, Emeline Cromer), who, suffering much in the Wars of the Roses, was compelled to part with the greater portion of his estates and offices. His patent of Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports he assigned to Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, and the manor and estate of Knole he sold, in 1456, to Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, for four hundred marks. After an eventful life he was killed at the battle of Barnet, and the title died with him. Archbishop Bourchier is said to have “rebuilt the manor-house, enclosed a park around the same, and resided much at it.” At his death, in 1486, he bequeathed the estate to the see of Canterbury. Archbishop Morton, who was visited at Knole by King Henry VII., died there in 1500; and Archbishop Wareham, who was frequently visited at Knole by Kings Henry VII. and VIII., also died there. Archbishop Cranmer likewise resided here, and he, by indenture dated November 30th, 29 Henry VIII., conveyed Knole and other manors to the King and his successors, in whose hands it remained until the reign of Edward VI., when that monarch, in his fourth year, granted it by letters patent to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick (afterwards Duke of Northumberland), on whose attainder and execution, in 1553, it again reverted to the Crown.
Knole was next, by Queen Mary, granted to Cardinal Pole, then Archbishop of Canterbury, for life. By Queen Elizabeth, in the third year of her reign, it, with other estates, was granted to Sir Robert Dudley, afterwards Earl of Leicester, but was again surrendered, a few years later, into the hands of the Queen, who then granted it to Thomas Sackville, afterwards Lord Buckhurst and Earl of Dorset.
It were indeed a long story to tell of all the famous deeds of the noble family of Sackville, and one that would take more space than we can spare. We therefore pass over the earlier members of the family, so as to reach the first who owned Knole and its surroundings—Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst. He was the son of Richard Sackville, Lent Reader to Henry VIII. and Treasurer to the Army of that monarch, by his first wife, who was daughter of Sir John Bruges, Lord Mayor of London. When only nineteen years of age he married Cicely, daughter of Sir John Baker, and held many offices in the realm, being selected by the Queen, “by her particular choice and liking, to a continual private attendance upon her own person.” In 1567 he was created Baron Buckhurst. In 1571 he was sent on a special mission to Charles IX. of France to negotiate the proposed marriage of his royal mistress, Queen Elizabeth, with the Duke of Anjou; and later on he was deputed to convey the sentence of her doom to Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1587 he went on a mission to the Low Countries, and figured prominently in almost all the incidents of the eventful period in which he lived. After the death of Elizabeth, Lord Buckhurst was created, by James I., Earl of Dorset, and was continued in his office of Lord High Treasurer of England. He died in 1608. Of his abilities as an author (for he was one of the most brilliant of his age) Spenser wrote—
“Whose learned muse hath writ her own record
In golden verse, worthy immortal fame.”
And this opinion is indorsed, not only by his contemporaries, but by people of every age since his time. He is chiefly celebrated as the author of the earliest English tragedy in blank verse, Gordubuc, and The Induction to a Mirrour for Magistrates, one of the noblest poems in the language. Gordubuc is praised by Sidney for its “notable moralitie,” and the poem is believed to have given rise to the “Faery Queen.” All contemporaries agree in bearing testimony to the virtues of this truly noble man. One of them thus draws his character:—“How many rare things were in him! Who more loving unto his wife? who more kind unto his children? who more fast unto his friend? who more moderate unto his enemy? who more true to his word?”
This nobleman was succeeded by his son Robert as second Earl of Dorset, who died within a year of attaining to that dignity. He married, first, Margaret, only daughter of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, and, second, Anne, daughter of Sir George Spencer, and was succeeded by his second son of the first marriage, Richard, as third Earl of Dorset. This nobleman—who was notorious for the prodigal magnificence of his household, and had to sell Knole to a Mr. Smith of Wandsworth—married, two days before his father’s death, the famous Lady Ann Clifford, daughter of the Earl of Cumberland. He was succeeded by his brother Edward Sackville, whose name is notorious in history in the matter of his unfortunate and fatal duel with Lord Bruce, of Kinloss. He married Mary, third daughter of Sir George Curzon, of Croxhall, in Derbyshire, “to whose charge the instruction of the young princess was committed by the unfortunate Charles, to whom the Earl and Countess continued to the last to be most faithfully attached.” He was succeeded by his son Richard as fifth Earl of Dorset, who married Lady Frances Cranfield, daughter of Lionel, Earl of Middlesex, who repurchased Knole of the trustees of Henry Smith, and was succeeded, as sixth earl, by his son Charles, who had previously been created Baron Cranfield, and who married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of Hervey Bagot and widow of the Earl of Falmouth, and, second, Mary, daughter of James Compton, Earl of Northampton, by whom he had a son, Lionel, who succeeded him, and was advanced to the dignity of Duke of Dorset, and made Constable of Dover Castle, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Lord High Steward of England, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord President of the Council, and held many other offices, and took an active part in all affairs of the State.