Fastolf, SIR JOHN

Fastolf, SIR JOHN, was born about 1378 at Caistor, near Yarmouth, and 'exercised,' says Caxton, 'the wars in the royaume of France and other countries for forty years enduring.' He distinguished himself at Agincourt (1415), and still more in the 'Battle of the Herrings' (1429), so called because, while conveying supplies to the English besiegers of Orleans, he formed a sort of lauger of herring-barrels, and with his archers beat off a whole French army. Later in the same year he was less successful against Joan of Arc, and at Patay, according to Monstrelet, whom Shakespeare follows, displayed such cowardice that the Duke of Bedford stripped him of his Garter. This, however, is very questionable; he rather seems to have retained all his honours till in 1440 he came home to Norfolk, and in 1441 he was granted a pension of £20 'for notable and praiseworthy service and good counsel.' His Norfolk life is mirrored faithfully in the Paston Letters, where we see him adding to his broad possessions, heaping up riches, building a huge new castle at Caistor—a hard old man, yet not without love of learning and the church. He died 5th November 1459. His identification with 'Sir John Falstaff' is at least incomplete, for Oldcastle (q.v.) was certainly Shakespeare's prototype.