Kimbolton Castle in Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire, is best known as the final home (or prison) of King Henry VIII's first queen, Catherine of Aragon.

Norman castles

A wooden motte and bailey castle was built in Kimbolton, on a different site, in Norman times. Later, King John granted Geoffrey Fitzpiers , Earl of Essex permission by to hold a fair and market in Kimbolton, as a consequence of which a market place was created, with the existing church at one end and a new castle at the other. No remains of this castle (most likely a fortified manor house ) remain, although it was built on the site of the present castle.

Tudor castle

The castle went through various phases of ownership until, by the 1520s, it belonged to the Wingfield family. The medieval castle was rebuilt as a Tudor manor house, parts of which survive. Catherine of Aragon was sent here in April 1534 for refusing to give up her status or deny the validity of her marriage. The fenland climate damaged her health, and she died here in January 1536. Her body was carried in procession to the Peterborough Abbey (now Peterborough Cathedral). She is reputed to haunt the castle.

Earls and Dukes of Manchester

The castle was bought by Sir Henry Montagu, later 1st Earl of Manchester, in 1615. His descendants owned the castle for 335 years, until it was sold in 1950.

Charles Edward Montagu, the 4th Earl who was created 1st Duke of Manchester in 1719, had many works of reconstruction carried out between 1690 and 1720. Sir John Vanbrugh and his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor, redesigned the facades of the castle in a classical style, but with battlements to evoke its history as a castle. The Venetian painter, Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini redecorated some of the reconstructed rooms in 1708, including the main staircase and the chapel. Rich gilded furnishings were commissioned from French upholsterers working in London, in a LouisXIV-inspired style.

For a later duke, Robert Adam produced plans for the castle gatehouse and other garden buildings, including an orangery. Only one of these buildings, the gatehouse, was constructed, in around 1764. Mews buildings were added to provide stables and an avenue of Giant Sequoias was planted in the 19th century.

The castle was used by the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II, and the 10th Duke of Manchester sold the castle to Kimbolton School in 1950. The furnishings were scattered in sales and some have come to national collections.