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

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The Margrave's visit to England in 1694 was to plan the next stage of the War of the Treaty of Augsburg (1689-97), in which the Allies (England, Holland, Germany, and Austria) were ranged against France. His advent was noted by an avid chronicler of current affairs, Narcissus Luttrell, on 14 December 1693: 'Prince Lewis of Baden, accompanied with several persons of note, is expected here by Christmas to concert matters about the next campagne, and St James's house is fitting up for him'. (47) He arrived at Gravesend on 31 December 1693, but--as Luttrell recorded--'being indisposed did not come to Whitehal till this day [2 January], whither he came in his majesties barge about 3 in the afternoon with a small retinue; he has the late queens lodgings there; and has 40 dishes a day appointed for his table, and 12 yeomen of the guard with an usher to attend him'. (48) The 'late queen' is of course a reference to Mary of Modena, who had fled the country with James II in 1688, and this strengthens the possibility that the Knole bed was indeed her marriage bed. John Evelyn noted that the Margrave of Baden-Baden was 'mightily feasted'," and his tour of the royal palaces and estates was marked by the most Lavish entertainments. The ultimate accolade was his investiture as a Knight of the Garter at Windsor. (50)

In his capacity as Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Dorset entertained the Margrave and William III in the Lord Chamberlain's lodgings, Whitehall Palace, on 7 January 1694. Such was the grandeur of the banquet that 'my Ld Chamberlins kitchin' was specially improved in advance. (51) As Luttrell revealed, the Margrave was housed nearby in what had been the 'late queens lodgings'. The likelihood is that the Margrave occupied the state apartment in the range of buildings on the north side of the Privy Garden, built for Queen Mary of Modena by Christopher Wren, 1685-87. This was on the first floor, beneath James II's 'new lodgings'. (52)

On 24 January 1687, Evelyn saw the Queen's 'new appartment at W-hall with her new bed, the embro[i]dery cost 3000 pounds: the carving about the Chimn[e]y piece is incomparable of Gibbons:'. (53) As well as the Great Bedchamber with its 'new bed', there was a Little Bedchamber and Dressing Room. (54) In 1687 Thomas Roberts, who held the warrant as joiner to the Royal Household (1686-1714), supplied Mary of Modena with '20 leaves of cedar skreenes to Stand round the bed [in the Queen's Dressing Room at Whitehall] all hinged together and wyred with gold & silver wyre'. (55) Could the gold and silver wire have been chosen to complement the King's Bed at Knole, now relegated to the royal dressing room? (56)

Subsequently, the Queen's state apartment was evidently occupied by William III himself, because in 1696 Dorset removed as a perquisite '9 Blue Damaske window Curtenes [which] Came out of ye K. [ing]'s new lodgings by ye privy garden [in which] ye prince of Baydon Lay'. (57) Wherever in the palace the King's Bed stood, the Margrave undoubtedly used it. Given his French mother, his Parisian birth, his naming after his godfather, Louis XIV, as well as the abiding fashion in the seventeenth century for all things French, he would have felt entirely at home in a French bed. Even so, it is curious that a battle-hardened veteran was allocated a set of furniture that is encrusted with cupids, especially as his consort, Sybilla Augusta of Sachsen-Lauenburg, was not present. The bed itself, however, is devoid of such imagery, and the princely coronet on the headboard was heraldically appropriate