Sir John Fastolf was a late medieval English landowner and knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War.
21 Facts About John Fastolf
2.
John Fastolf has enjoyed a more lasting reputation as the prototype, in some part, of Shakespeare's character Sir John Falstaff.
3.
Many of the name had been bailiffs of Great Yarmouth since the time of Edward I, and a certain Hugh John Fastolf was sheriff of Norfolk in 1390.
4.
John Fastolf's wife was significantly older than him, and the couple had no children.
5.
John Fastolf is said to have been squire to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, before the latter was banished in 1398.
6.
Thomas had been appointed by his father to keep order in Ireland, and it was here that John Fastolf first saw military action.
7.
John Fastolf's commanding officer was Sir Stephen Scrope, whose widow he married after his death in 1408.
8.
Bastard, Bastard, in the name of God I command you that as soon as you hear of John Fastolf's coming, you will let me know.
9.
John Fastolf continued to serve with honour in France, and was trusted both by Bedford and by Richard of York.
10.
John Fastolf only came home finally in 1440, when past sixty years of age.
11.
John Fastolf sat at the centre of an important literary circle, which produced manuscripts in French and English for him.
12.
John 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".
13.
John Fastolf was a widower throughout the last decade of his life, when he lived at Southwark and Caister, and had no heir.
14.
John Fastolf seems to have been a somewhat lonely figure, and made several attempts to draft a will, establishing a Chantry College at Caister Castle but never legally documented his intentions and effectively died intestate.
15.
John Fastolf 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.
16.
John Fastolf appears in Shakespeare's early play Henry VI, Part 1 as a cowardly knight who abandons the heroic Lord Talbot.
17.
Indeed, the aged Falstaff dies early in the reign of Henry V, when John Fastolf was midway through his career.
18.
John 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.
19.
John Fastolf is the subject of a novel by Robert Nye entitled Falstaff.
20.
John Fastolf is an opponent in Ensemble Studios' Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, in the game's Joan of Arc campaign.
21.
John Fastolf fights on England's side and his unit is a lance-wielding knight.