The house was built by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, between 1456 and 1486. On Bourchier's death, the house was bequeathed to the See of Canterbury, but in 1538 it was taken from Archbishop Thomas Cranmer - and enlarged - by King Henry VIII.
In 1566, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, it was presented to her cousin Thomas Sackville whose descendants have lived there ever since. Most notably, these include writer Vita Sackville-West (her Knole and the Sackvilles (1922) is regarded as a classic in the literature of English country houses); her friend Virginia Woolf wrote Orlando based on the history of the house and the Sackville family.
Today, the house and estate are in the care of the National Trust.