Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the borough of Richmond upon Thames, south west and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Building of the palace began in 1515 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a favourite of King Henry VIII. In 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the cardinal gave the palace to the King to check his disgrace; Henry VIII later enlarged it. Along with St James's Palace, it is one of only two surviving palaces out of the many owned by King Henry VIII. In the following century, King William III's massive rebuilding
Thomas Rush Thomas Rush Sir Thomas Rush (or Russhe) (by 1487 – June 1537), born in Sudbourne, Suffolk, England, was an English serjeant-at-arms who served Henry VII and Henry VIII and was knighted by the latter at the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533. He was also appointed High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1533. Thomas Rush was a local politician in Ipswich who had served Henry VII as well as his son Henry VIII. He was a friend of Cardinal Wolsey (Henry VIII's first Lord Chancellor), survived the fallout from Wolsey's downfall, and attached himself to Wolsey's successor Thomas Cromwell.