Otford Palace Otford Palace Otford Palace, also known as the Archbishop's Palace, is in Otford, an English village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent. The village is located on the River Darent, flowing north down its valley from its source on the North Downs. The King of Mercia, "Offa", fought the Kentish Saxons in 776 at the Battle of Otford. From those times until 1537, the palace was one of the chain of houses belonging to the archbishops of Canterbury. It was rebuilt around 1515 by Archbishop Warham to rival that of Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court. Henry VIII
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.