Short answers, pulled from the story.
Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy and Governor of the Netherlands, commissioned the Hof van Savoye in Mechelen. She acquired a modest house on the Korte Maagdenstraat in 1507 and launched an ambitious expansion campaign to transform it into a palace befitting a regent of the Low Countries.
Architect Rombout II Keldermans worked on the Hof van Savoye from 1517 to 1530. He designed a rear wing along the Keizerstraat that faced the Palace of Margaret of York, which had died in 1503.
Historian Eric Ives describes the inner courtyard and southern wing of the Hof van Savoye as the very space Anne Boleyn must have seen during her upbringing at Margaret's court. Anne Boleyn and Charles, who later became Holy Roman Emperor, lived within these walls as teenagers during the early 1520s.
A catastrophic explosion at the Zandpoort, the city gate that held the gunpowder stock, caused damage to the Hof van Savoye in 1546. The blast was powerful enough to threaten the structural integrity of the palace, yet the building survived and continued to serve its purpose.
The city of Mechelen bought back the Hof van Savoye in 1609, and from 1616 until 1795, it served as the headquarters of the Great Council of the Netherlands. The building became known as the Gerechtshof, or Court of Justice, housing the lower courts including the Criminal and Civil Court, the Justice of the Peace, and the Police Court.