Maxstoke Castle was built by Sir William de Clinton, 1st Earl of Huntingdon, in 1345 to a rectangular plan.

[1] Additions were made by Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, who acquired it in 1437 by exchanging it for other manors in Northamptonshire.

Amongst the antiquities, there is a 15th-century chair upon which Henry VII was crowned after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, a table owned by Sir Everard Digby (cousin to the Digbys of Coleshill) around which the Gunpowder Plot was planned in 1605, and a 'Whispering Door' (two doors with a common jamb) brought from Kenilworth Castle.

[2] In the 18th century, William Dilke of Maxstoke married Mary Fetherstone-Leigh of Packwood House near Knowle.

Maxstoke Castle is opened to the public annually (usually in mid-June), in aid of local charities.