The site was the home of
John De Erleigh II, the famous foster-son of the Regent of England,
William Marshal, but takes its name from the nickname of his great grandson, the 13th-century knight,
John De Erleigh IV, the 'White Knight'. The De Erleigh (or D'Earley) family were owners of this manor for some two hundred years before 1365. St.
Thomas Cantilupe,
Bishop of Hereford and advisor to
King Edward I, was allowed to live there briefly during the 1270s. In 1606 the estate was purchased by the nephew of
Sir Francis Englefield, following the confiscation of
Englefield House and its estates in 1585. The Englefield family in turn sold the estate to
George Spencer-Churchill, the Marquis of Blandford, in 1798. Between 1798 and 1819, the estate was the scene of vast extravagance and wild entertainments, all at the Marquis' expense. Splendid gardens were laid out, complete with the rarest of plants. In 1819, George Spencer, by now the
Duke of Marlborough, became bankrupt and moved to his family home at
Blenheim Palace at
Woodstock in Oxfordshire. The gardens of the Whiteknights estate have been described in a book by
Barbara Hofland with engraved pictures of the gardens and its multitude of bridges, fountains, seats and grottoes by her husband
Thomas Christopher Hofland. The book was ordered by the then Marquess of Blandford, but like many other items that he ordered or purchased, it was never paid for. The gardens boasted a "chantilly garden" in the French style, a vineyard, a wilderness, a cottage, a gothic chapel, botanical gardens full of the rarest plants, many of them new from the Americas, an iron bridge, a stone bridge, an extensive sheep walk, an elm grove, an oak grove, a cedar seat,
wychelms and cedars, an ice house, several conservatories, greenhouses and heated basins. In the grounds, cast-iron or wooden baskets filled with scarlet sage or the then exotic begonias were scattered throughout the lawns. There were many, some garden-critics commented "too many" seats, covered seats, treillages and pavilions.
Mary Soames, who wrote a book about the 5th Duke of Marlborough and his gardens in Whiteknights and
Blenheim remarked that the 280 acres were "too small a canvas" for the marquesses' "broad brush". The estate was sold off and the house was demolished in 1840, supposedly by a mob of the Duke's angry creditors. although demolition had been proposed in the 2007 campus development plan. However, in March 2009 the threatened building was given Grade II listed status, so demolition seems unlikely. == Campus ==