The lands of this bois were given to Abat de Saint-Denis, founder of many monasteries, as a present from Childeric II.
Philip Augustus bought the majority of the bois to Saint-Denis to create a hunt reservation. In 1256, Elizabeth de France, sister of Saint-Louis, founded the Longchamp abbey.
During the One Hundred Years War the bois was the hideout of many bandits. Between 1416 and 1417 the tropes of the Burgundy Duke burned a big part of the Rouvroy bois. Under the government of Louis XI from France the region already called Bois de Boulogne was repopulate and the roads that cross the bois were cleared.
After Francis I had constructed the Château de Madrid (finished in 1526) in the Bois de Boulogne, all the bushes were used to hold festivities. The hunt reservation was ended with walls under the mandate of Henry II and Henry III that have also constructed eight steel doors. Henry IV planted 15000 mulberry trees with the hope of achieving a silk industry. His rejected wife, Margaret de Valois, left the shelter in the Château la Muette in the Bois.
In November of 1783 in the Château de la Muette, Pilâtre de Rozier and the marquis d’Arlandes made the first hot-air balloon trip built by the Montglofier brothers.
The place was turned into a park by Napoleon III in 1852. The next years it was redesigned in an informal way opening grass spaces and fulfilling them with leaves, beeches, cedars, chestnuts, elms, and exotic plants such as sequoias. All the paths were designed winding, except from the Allée Reine Marguerite and the Longchamp Avenue. There are 35 kilometres of foot paths, 8 kilometres for riding bikes and 29 kilometres for cars. The upper and lower lakes were also created, both connected by a waterfall. The excavated ground was used to create the Butte Mortremart. Between 1855 and 1858 the Longchamp racetrack was constructed.

The Bois de Boulogne was officially joined to the city of Paris in 1929, added to the 16th arrondissement. As the Bois the Vincennes, it is not usually considered part of Paris because it is not inhabited, except from the guards.