Hasted says of Knole manor and manor house: “Cranmer observing _murmurings among the hungry courtiers of the archbishop’s palaces_, compounded with Henry VIII. to give up the best and richest manors; therefore, in 1538, Cranmer gave to the King the manors of Otford, Wrotham, Bexley, Northflete, Maidstone, Knole, Sergeants Otford, Sevenoke, Shoreham, Chevening, Panters, and Brytains, with their appurtenances.” Here were twelve manors given in one swoop to satisfy Henry VIII.’s “hungry courtiers,” who were “murmuring” for the spoils. The reader will have to consult Hasted’s “Kent,” to know the courtiers and favourites to whom these manors were granted. An Act was passed, 1 Elizabeth c. xix., which authorized the Queen to take in her hands, on the voidance of any bishopric, so much of the lands belonging to it as should be equal in value to the monastic confiscated rectorial tithes belonging to the Crown in that diocese, and to exchange such tithes for lands. Some of these lands were then given to her ministers and favourites, some were kept by the Crown, and others sold to furnish funds for national purposes, so as to prevent application to Parliament for money. It was in this manner that bishops and cathedral chapters lost so much landed property which the Crown granted as above stated, and the court favourites, soon after they received the grants, sold the estates and parsonages to the highest purchaser. Here then were landed estates, with endowments and advowsons of the churches belonging to such estates FREELY granted away. Lord Cobham’s to the Cecils, for instance, who almost immediately sold the properties which they freely received from the Crown, and applied the proceeds to their own personal use.