Sir John Fastolf (6 November 1380 – 5 November 1459) was a late medieval English soldier, landowner, and

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

who fought in the

Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a conflict between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France and a civil war in France during the Late Middle Ages. It emerged from feudal disputes over the Duchy ...

from 1415 to 1439, latterly as a senior commander against

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...

, among others. He has enjoyed a more lasting reputation as the prototype, in some part, of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's character Sir John Falstaff, although their careers are very different. Many historians argue, however, that he deserves to be famous in his own right, not only as a soldier, but as a patron of

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

, a writer on

strategy Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "troop leadership; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the " a ...

and perhaps as an early industrialist.

Lineage and family

Coming from a minor

gentry Gentry (from Old French , from ) are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. ''Gentry'', in its widest connotation, refers to people of good social position connected to Landed property, landed es ...

family in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, John Fastolf was born on 6 November 1380 at the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

of Caister Hall, a family possession which he later turned into

Caister Castle Caister Castle is a 15th-century moated castle situated in the parish of West Caister, some north of the town of Great Yarmouth in the English county of Norfolk (). The castle had a 100 ft (33 m) high tower and was built between 1432 and ...

, of which a tower and part of the curtain wall remains, as well as the partly filled in

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

. The son of Sir John Fastolf (died 1383) and Mary Park (died 2 May 1406), he belonged to an ancient Norfolk family originally seated at

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

, where it is recorded from the thirteenth century. Notable members of the family in earlier generations included Thomas Fastolf, Bishop of St David's, and his brother, Nicholas Fastolf,

Lord Chief Justice of Ireland The Court of King's Bench (or Court of Queen's Bench during the reign of a Queen) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The Lord Chief Justice was the most senior judge ...

. Many of the name had been

bailiff A bailiff is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. There are different kinds, and their offices and scope of duties vary. Another official sometimes referred to as a '' ...

s of Great Yarmouth since the time of

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 125 ...

, and a certain Hugh Fastolf was

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

of Norfolk in 1390. On 13 January 1409, in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, Fastolf married Millicent Tiptoft (1368–1446), daughter and co-

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

ess of Robert, Lord Tiptoft, and widow of Sir (son of Richard, Lord Scrope). This marriage brought him significant amounts of land, including the manors of

Castle Combe Castle Combe is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village is around north-west of Chippenham and north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the parish had ...

and Bathampton in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, Oxenton in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, and several properties in

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. These lands brought him an income of £240 per annum, a considerable sum which amounted to five times the revenue Fastolf gained from his own estates. He settled an amount of £100 a year on his wife for her own use, but otherwise held her estates for himself until his death, at the expense of Millicent's son by her first marriage, (Fastolf's stepson). Fastolf's wife was significantly older than he was. The couple had no children.

Early years

According to Fastolf's biographer Stephen Cooper, given his family's background Fastolf must have received an appropriate education for the standards of the time. In a court testimony given in France, 1435, he claimed to have visited

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

as a boy, between 1392 and 1393, which must have been in the company of Henry Bolingbroke, later Henry IV. Fastolf is said to have been squire to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, before the latter was banished in 1398. Fastolf's whereabouts during the Lancastrian coup of 1399 (when Henry IV seized the crown from Richard II) are unknown, but in 1401 he entered the

retinue A retinue is a body of persons "retained" in the service of a noble, royal personage, or dignitary; a ''suite'' (French "what follows") of retainers. Etymology The word, recorded in English since circa 1375, stems from Old French ''retenue'', ...

of King Henry IV's second son,

Thomas of Lancaster Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster ( 1278 – 22 March 1322) was an English nobleman of the first House of Lancaster of the royal House of Plantagenet, Plantagenet Dynasty. He was Earl of Lancaster, Earl of Leicester, Leicester, and Earl of Derby, D ...

(later

Duke of Clarence Duke of Clarence was a substantive title created three times in the Peerage of England. The title Duke of Clarence and St Andrews has also been created in the Peerage of Great Britain, and Duke of Clarence and Avondale and Prince Leopold, Duke ...

), under whose service he remained until 1415. Thomas had been appointed by his father to keep order in Ireland, and it was there that Fastolf first saw military action. Fastolf's commanding officer was Sir Stephen Scrope, whose widow he married after Scrope's death in 1408.

Hundred Years' War

Early service in France

From 1415 to 1439, he was in northern France, where he served under Henry V and the king's brother, the

Duke of Bedford Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1414 for Henry IV's third son, John, who later served as regent of Fran ...

. He took part in the siege of Harfleur in 1415, but was invalided home and so missed Agincourt, though he returned to defend

Harfleur Harfleur () is a Communes of France, commune in the Seine-Maritime Departments of France, department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy Regions of France, region of northern France. It was the principal seaport in north-western Fr ...

against the French attempt to recapture it in the winter of 1415–1416. He was Bedford's Master of the Household, and was Governor of the province of

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

and Anjou, and on 25 February 1426, created a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. Later in this year he was superseded in his command by John Talbot; and he became a somewhat controversial figure after the Siege of Orléans. In 1421, during the English occupation of Paris, he became "governor" (effectively, the warden) of the Bastille, probably for a year. After a visit to England in 1428, he returned to the war, and on 12 February 1429, when in charge of the convoy for the English army before

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and Battle of the Herrings. In his biography of Fastolf ''The Real Falstaff'' (2010), Stephen Cooper relocates this battle from Rouvray-Saint-Denis to Rouvray-Sainte-Croix.

Encounters with Joan of Arc

During the 1429 Siege of Orléans, the French had planned to abandon the city after they heard rumours (which were true) that John Fastolf was coming with a force to reinforce the English besiegers.

Jean de Dunois Jean d'Orléans, Count of Dunois (23 November 1402 – 24 November 1468), known as the "Bastard of Orléans" () or simply Jean de Dunois, was a French military leader during the Hundred Years' War who participated in military campaigns with Joan ...

(known as "The Bastard of Orléans" as he was the illegitimate son of

Louis I, Duke of Orléans Louis I (13 March 1372 – 23 November 1407) was Duke of Orléans from 1392 to his death in 1407. He was also Duke of Touraine (1386–1392), Count of Valois (1386?–1406) Blois (1397–1407), Angoulême (1404–1407), ...

) decided not to tell

and leave her out of leadership decisions, to which she famously responded: The French leader conceded to her, and she successfully lifted the siege. She went on to take towns in the Loire Valley, including Jargeau on 12 June 1429, even though Fastolf had attempted to reinforce with troops and gunpowder weapons. After a result of this string of unexpected sudden defeats, Talbot and Fastolf resolved to confront the French in battle to put an end to their success, thus leading to the Battle of Patay on 18 June 1429. Joan was leading this army and was present in the battle, although how much of a role she had in it is disputed.

The Battle of Patay and Fastolf's reputation

Patay was a serious defeat for the English; 200–300 men were killed and over 2000 captured, including Talbot. Fastolf, however, escaped. According to the French historian

Jehan de Waurin Jean de Waurin or Wavrin (c. 1400c. 1474) was a medieval French chronicler and compiler, also a soldier and politician. He belonged to a noble family of Artois, and witnessed the Battle of Agincourt from the French side, but later fought on the ...

, who was present, the disaster was due to Talbot's rashness, and Fastolf only fled when resistance was hopeless. Other accounts charge him with cowardice, and it is true that

John, Duke of Bedford John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford (20 June 1389 – 14 September 1435) was a medieval English prince, general, and statesman who commanded England's armies in France during a critical phase of the Hundred Years' War. Bedford was the third son ...

, suspended him from the Order of the Garter and he was subject to accusations of cowardice from Talbot. Eventually, in 1442, an inquiry was convened by the Order of the Garter, probably at Fastolf's insistence. This found in Fastolf's favour and he was honourably reinstated to the order. This incident was unfavourably depicted by Shakespeare in '' Henry VI, Part 1'' (act IV scene I). In all, it took Fastolf thirteen years to clear his name, and even then his reputation was still tainted.

Later career

Fastolf continued to serve with honour in France, and was trusted both by Bedford and by Richard of York. Despite the scandal associated with the Patay incident, he held a number of military commands, including captaincies of Honfleur (1424–34), Verneuil (1429), and

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

(1430–37). In 1435, he drafted a document variously referred to as a report or memorandum proposing a new strategic approach to the war in France. In it, he criticizes current policy based on a war of

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

s and proposes instead an offensive strategy based on large scale

chevauchée A ''chevauchée'' (, "promenade" or "horse charge", depending on context) was a raiding method of medieval warfare for weakening the enemy, primarily by burning and pillaging enemy territory in order to reduce the productivity of a region, in ...

s. The document is a rare surviving example of military strategic thinking by a professional soldier of the Middle Ages. He only came home finally in 1440, when past sixty years of age. But the scandal against him continued, and during Cade's rebellion in 1450 he was charged by the rebels with having been the cause of the English disasters through "diminishing the garrisons of

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

Property, investments, and inventory

Fastolf, like other English soldiers, profited from the wars in France by obtaining lands in the conquered territories. He was given Frileuse near

by Henry V and went on to build a considerable property portfolio in Normandy, including four manors in the

Pays de Caux The Pays de Caux (, , literally ''Land of Caux'') is an area in Normandy occupying the greater part of the French '' département'' of Seine Maritime in Normandy. It is a chalk plateau to the north of the Seine Estuary and extending to the cl ...

worth £200 per annum. Later, he became the Baron of

Sillé-le-Guillaume Sillé-le-Guillaume () is a commune in the Sarthe department in the region of Pays de la Loire in north-western France, named after Guillaume de Sillé. In the fifteenth century the lord of the manor was Sir John Fastolf of Caister in Norfolk ...

and therefore a member of the peerage there, a position he never attained at home. But the instability of English rule cost him much in lost revenues. His

manors had an income of only £8 after the Norman revolt of 1435. He began in the 1430s to sell off his properties but he still in 1445 held properties in France worth £401, including 10 castles, 15 manors and an inn. All this was lost in the French reconquest. From the 1430s he built

as his main residence, with a London house in

Bermondsey Bermondsey ( ) is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham, ...

, then a popular location for the wealthy, just outside the city. The usual detailed inventory made of Fastolf's personal goods after his death is one of relatively few non-royal examples to have survived from this period, in a transcription made by a later

antiquary An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic sit ...

(the original is now lost). It includes large quantities of silver plate, equipment for his chapel, the clothes and tapestry in his wardrobe at Caister, his armour, and the furnishings of several rooms at Caister. There were over a thousand ounces of "altar plate", plus some gold, in his home chapel. The Caister house had over 13,000 ounces of silver, as well as some gold, with 2,500 ounces at Bermondsey and a further 3,000 ounces deposited at a monastery of which he was a patron (a common practice). Most pieces were decorated, if only with heraldry, some of royal patrons and a dead friend. Some are mentioned as made in Paris ("6 Parys Cups of silver of the Months with no feet, the borders gilt"), and in some large pieces, such as

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

s, the elaborate structure is outlined.

"Cruel and vengible he hath been ever…"

In the 1950s the Oxford academic K. B. McFarlane showed that Fastolf made large sums of money in France, which he managed to transfer back to England and invest in land and property. At the time, his reputation was mixed. One servant wrote of him: "cruel and vengible he hath been ever, and for the most part without pity and mercy" ('' Paston Letters'', i. 389); and this remark has become famous because it was recorded in the letter. Besides his share in his wife's property he had large estates in Norfolk and Suffolk, a house at

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

in London and where he also owned the Boar's Head Inn. The site of his house at Southwark, known as Fastolf Place or Palace, was excavated in the 1990s, but only a few pieces of revetment were found. From 1435, and more so in retirement, he was the author of numerous memoranda, which he fired off to the government of the day, about the strategy and policy to be pursued with regard to the war in France. These were preserved by his secretary William Worcester and eventually published by the Reverend Joseph Stevenson in the nineteenth century. He also sat at the centre of an important literary circle, which produced manuscripts in French and English for him. His last years were troubled by litigation and disputes regarding his

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

n estates, in which he was helped by both John Paston, to whom he was related through Paston's wife, Margaret, and Sir William Yelverton, and by factional fighting at court which ultimately led to the so-called

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in following centuries as the Civil Wars, were a series of armed confrontations, machinations, battles and campaigns fought over control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The conflict was fo ...

. Paston and Yelverton would go on to be two of the main protagonists in the battles over his property after his death. Fastolf was inclined to sympathise with Richard, Duke of York, whom he had known and served in France, but it would be an exaggeration to say that he ever became a "Yorkist". He was a widower throughout the last decade of his life, when he lived at Southwark and Caister, and had no heir. He seems to have been a somewhat lonely figure, and made several attempts to draft a will, establishing a Chantry College at

but never legally documented his intentions and effectively died intestate.

Death and burial

He died at Caister on 5 November 1459. He was buried next to his wife Millicent in St Benet's Abbey in an aisle specially built at his expense on the south side of the abbey church, of which he had been a generous benefactor. During the last decade of his life he was a close political ally and friend of John Paston, who came to fame through the '' Paston Letters'', a collection of over 1,000 items of correspondence between members of the Paston family. Fastolf's deathbed testament naming John Paston as his executor and heir led to many years of litigation. The ruins of St Benet's Abbey may still be visited, as may the ruins of Caister Castle. The Castle never became home to a

chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a set of Christian liturgical celebrations for the dead (made up of the Requiem Mass and the Office of the Dead), or # a chantry chapel, a b ...

, as Fastolf intended. Instead, after many legal disputes, and a brief siege by a rival claimant John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk, it passed to the Paston family. The bulk of Sir John's fortune passed to Magdalen College,

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, where he is remembered as a benefactor, and where there is a Fastolf Society.

Cultural portrayals

Shakespeare

Fastolf appears in Shakespeare's early play '' Henry VI, Part 1'' as a cowardly knight who abandons the heroic Lord Talbot. In the first two folios, the name of the character is given as "Falstaffe" not Fastolf. When Shakespeare came to write ''

Henry IV, Part 1 ''Henry IV, Part 1'' (often written as ''1 Henry IV'') is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. The play dramatises part of the reign of King Henry IV of England, beginning with the Battle of H ...

'', set in the early years of Fastolf's career, he created a disreputable boon companion for the young Prince Hal, who was called Sir John Oldcastle. The descendants of the real Oldcastle complained, so the name was changed to Sir

John Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays ''Henry IV, Part 1'' and ''Henry IV, Pa ...

, under which name he is identified in three later plays. The tradition of Fastolf's braggart cowardice may have suggested the use of his name. Some writers have also suggested that Fastolf favoured

Lollardy Lollardy was a proto-Protestantism, proto-Protestant Christianity, Christian religious movement that was active in England from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic C ...

, which was also associated with Oldcastle, so this circumstance may have aided the adoption of the name. Stephen Cooper considers that there is in fact no evidence that Fastolf was a Lollard, and substantial indications that he was in fact

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

like his one-time master Henry V. Other points of resemblance between the historic Fastolf and the Falstaff of the dramatist are to be found in their service under Thomas Mowbray, and association with a Boar's Head Inn. But Falstaff is in no true sense a dramatisation of the real soldier, more an amalgam of a few real personages with a dash of creative licence. Indeed, the aged Falstaff dies early in the reign of Henry V, when Fastolf was midway through his career.

Later portrayals

Fastolf appears as a featured character in Koei's video game known as '' Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War'', in which he is seen as a contributor to the cause of England, wielding a longsword as his primary weapon. He is the subject of a novel by Robert Nye entitled ''Falstaff'' (Publisher: Allison & Busby; New Ed edition (1 October 2001)) Fastolf is also an opponent in

Ensemble Studios Ensemble Studios was an American video game developer. It was founded by Tony Goodman in 1994 and incorporated the following year. It borrowed the name of Ensemble Corporation, a consulting firm founded by Goodman in 1990. It was acquired by ...

' '' Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings'', in the game's Joan of Arc campaign. Fastolf fights on England's side and his unit is a lance-wielding knight.

Footnotes

References

* * * Glanville, Philippa, ''Silver in England'', 2005 (2013 reprint), Taylor & Francis, ISBN 9781136611636
google preview
* * * * *

External links

*
Caister Castle

Fastolf not 'Falstaff': the soldier behind Shakespeare’s myth
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fastolf, John 1380 births 1459 deaths 14th-century English landowners 15th-century English landowners Knights of the Garter Medieval English knights People from Caister-on-Sea People of the Hundred Years' War British patrons of literature John Falstaff