biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1378–1459)
|
| biography:
| English soldier, born in Caister, Norfolk, E England, UK. He distinguished himself at Agincourt (1415), and still more at the ‘Battle of the Herrings’ (1429), so called because he formed a laager of herring barrels, and beat off a whole French army. He was accused of cowardice at Patay (1429), but later cleared of the charge. His Norfolk life is mirrored faithfully in the Paston Letters. His identification with ‘Sir John Falstaff’ is at least incomplete, for Oldcastle was almost certainly Shakespeare's prototype. |
|
|
