diff --git a/src/prompt_toolkit/history.py b/src/prompt_toolkit/history.py
index 553918e58..3f1b69249 100644
--- a/src/prompt_toolkit/history.py
+++ b/src/prompt_toolkit/history.py
@@ -256,7 +256,8 @@ def append_string(self, string: str) -> None:
 
 class FileHistory(History):
     """
-    :class:`.History` class that stores all strings in a file.
+    :class:`.History` class that stores all strings in a file. You can optionally specify the
+    maximum amount of initially loaded commands.
     """
 
     def __init__(self, filename: str) -> None:
@@ -300,3 +301,53 @@ def write(t: str) -> None:
             write("\n# %s\n" % datetime.datetime.now())
             for line in string.split("\n"):
                 write("+%s\n" % line)
+
+
+class BoundedFileHistory(FileHistory):
+    """
+    :class:`.History` class that stores all strings in a file but also limits the total number of
+    contained history items. The file will be re-written with the specified bound number as the
+    number of most recent history items when re-loading the history strings.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, filename: str, bound: int) -> None:
+        self.bound = bound
+        super().__init__(filename)
+
+    def load_history_strings(self) -> Iterable[str]:
+        strings: list[str] = []
+        date_lines: list[bytes] = []
+        lines: list[str] = []
+
+        def add() -> None:
+            if lines:
+                # Join and drop trailing newline.
+                string = "".join(lines)[:-1]
+
+                strings.append(string)
+
+        if os.path.exists(self.filename):
+            with open(self.filename, "rb") as f:
+                for line_bytes in f:
+                    line = line_bytes.decode("utf-8", errors="replace")
+                    if line.startswith("+"):
+                        lines.append(line[1:])
+                    else:
+                        if line.startswith("#"):
+                            date_lines.append(line_bytes)
+                        add()
+                        lines = []
+
+                add()
+
+        if len(strings) > self.bound:
+            assert len(date_lines) == len(strings)
+            # Reverse the order, because newest items have to go first.
+            list_of_strings = list(reversed(strings))[: self.bound]
+            # Re-write the truncated file.
+            with open(self.filename, "wb") as f:
+                for date_str, string in zip(date_lines, strings):
+                    f.write(date_str)
+                    f.write(f"{string}\n".encode())
+            return list_of_strings
+        return reversed(strings)
diff --git a/tests/test_history.py b/tests/test_history.py
index 500b7f119..0ffd1774e 100644
--- a/tests/test_history.py
+++ b/tests/test_history.py
@@ -2,7 +2,12 @@
 
 from asyncio import run
 
-from prompt_toolkit.history import FileHistory, InMemoryHistory, ThreadedHistory
+from prompt_toolkit.history import (
+    BoundedFileHistory,
+    FileHistory,
+    InMemoryHistory,
+    ThreadedHistory,
+)
 
 
 def _call_history_load(history):
@@ -60,6 +65,33 @@ def test_file_history(tmpdir):
     assert _call_history_load(history2) == ["test3", "world", "hello"]
 
 
+def test_bounded_file_history(tmpdir):
+    histfile = tmpdir.join("history")
+
+    history = BoundedFileHistory(histfile, bound=4)
+
+    history.append_string("hello")
+    history.append_string("world")
+
+    # Newest should yield first.
+    assert _call_history_load(history) == ["world", "hello"]
+
+    # Test another call.
+    assert _call_history_load(history) == ["world", "hello"]
+
+    history.append_string("test3")
+    assert _call_history_load(history) == ["test3", "world", "hello"]
+    history.append_string("test4")
+    assert _call_history_load(history) == ["test4", "test3", "world", "hello"]
+    history.append_string("test5")
+    # In-memory history still can contain more files.
+    assert _call_history_load(history) == ["test5", "test4", "test3", "world", "hello"]
+
+    # The newly loaded history will now only get four files.
+    new_history = BoundedFileHistory(histfile, bound=4)
+    assert _call_history_load(new_history) == ["test5", "test4", "test3", "world"]
+
+
 def test_threaded_file_history(tmpdir):
     histfile = tmpdir.join("history")