Short answers, pulled from the story.
Manuel II Palaiologos arrived in southeast London in December 1400 to spend months at Eltham Palace. This visit occurred during the reign of King Henry IV, who hosted the Byzantine emperor with elaborate jousting tournaments.
The future Henry VIII met the great scholar Erasmus at Eltham Palace in 1499. Thomas More introduced the young prince to the Dutch humanist, creating a recorded moment of intellectual exchange.
John Evelyn visited the palace and chapel on the 22nd of April 1656 and described them as miserable ruins. He noted that the noble wood and park had been destroyed by the rebel Rich during the English Civil War.
Stephen Courtauld and his wife Virginia acquired a 99-year lease on the site in the 1930s to restore the palace. They commissioned the architectural firm Seely & Paget to restore the hall and create a modern home attached to it.
The Courtauld family remained at Eltham until 1944, when Stephen Courtauld served as a fire watcher on the Great Hall roof. The family gave the palace to the Royal Army Educational Corps in March 1945 after the building was damaged by German incendiary bombs.
English Heritage assumed management of the palace in 1995 and completed major repairs and restorations of the interiors and gardens in 1999. The palace is now listed on English Heritage's list of most haunted places.