The King's Bed and its furniture at Knole: this rare and magnificent seventeenth-century state bed and its accompanying furniture were probably made in Paris for the Duke of York, later James II. Christopher Rowell examines new evidence about their history

Apollo, Nov, 2004 by Christopher Rowell

The King's Bed has been attributed to Louis XIV's upholsterer Jean Peyrard, who visited England twice between 1672 and 1673 to deliver beds to Charles II. Peyrard brought to England in 1672 four beds valued at 1,773.16.6 [pounds sterling], and in the following year, two beds worth 2,080 [pounds sterling]. (43) The huge cost must have been largely attributable to the gold and silver 'fringes of the goldsmiths worke', which are also prominent, among much other gold and silver embroidery, on the King's Bed. It has been suggested that the Knole bed may have been one of these Peyrard beds, and the dates tally neatly with the Duke of York's marriage in 1673 to Mary of Modena. (44) However, none of the beds 'with chaires & c' imported by Peyrard fits the description of the King's Bed.

In 1685, the Duke of York--who had succeeded as James II on 6 February--placed an order with Simon Delobel, another Parisian maker. This was for a crimson velvet bed with two armchairs and six stools en suite (1,515 [pounds sterling]), together with a green velvet canopy of state, a chair of estate, two cushions, one footstool and two stools (1,508 [pounds sterling]), all embroidered 'suitable to the Estate'. (45) The Duke was therefore quite likely to have commissioned the King's Bed directly from Paris a decade earlier, and of course he had spent some months in Paris during the interregnum. Another possibility is that it was a gift from Louis XIV. Mary of Modena was feted at the French court on her journey to England, and the King encouraged the match. But perhaps such a gift would have been politically unacceptable in London.

Parisian furniture was by no means the exclusive preserve of royalty. The 6th Earl of Dorset at Knole, the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale at Ham, and the (future) 1st Duke of Montagu at Boughton were among the many patrons of French menuisiers and ebenistes in the 1670s. French fashions were then paramount, as they had been since the reign of Charles I (and before). In the absence of documentation, the origins of the King's Bed and its furniture must remain open to question, but it seems credible that the suite was made by a Frenchman for the Duke of York before 1685, and possibly as early as 1673.

The Margrave of Baden-Baden

How did the bed and its furniture come to Knole? The King's Bed was used, during his state visit to London in 1694, by Louis William, Margrave of Baden Baden (1655-1707, Fig. 11). The records of this episode provide further evidence linking the set with Mary of Modena, as well as revealing the circumstances of its acquisition by the 6th Earl of Dorset, who, as Lord Chamberlain, played a key role in the entertainment of William III's German cousin. Ludwig Wilhelm, Markgraf von Baden-Baden, was the son of Ferdinand Maximilian, Markgraf von Baden Baden and Louise Christiane, Princesse de Savoie-Carignan. (46) A famous general, who had made his reputation in the wars against the Turks, he was nicknamed 'Turkenlouis' in Germany. He was to become a patron on the grandest scale, constructing (1697-1707) the palace at Rastatt, inspired by Versailles.