CHAPTER II.

Biographical Sketch of Sir John Fastolfe-unjustly represented as Shakspeare's coward Knight—Liberties taken with the Name of Sir John Oldcastle-Fastolfe's Claim to gentle blood-his early Services -is patronized by the Duke of Bedford-obtains several important Commands in France-is elected to the Order of the Garter-The Battle of Herrings-Fastolfe's conduct at Patay-Doubts respecting the Truth of Monstrelet's Report-Vindication of Fastolfe—his uninterrupted Favour with the Regent-subsequent Commands entrusted to him-Marks of Esteem accorded to him by the Duke of York-he retires to Caister-Aggressions of his Neighbours-Character of Sir John Fustolfe-his Letter to the Rector of Castlecombe-his Avarice -his Discontent-second Letter to Sir Thomas Howes-Lawless Conduct of the Judges-Fastolfe's Jeopardy with the Government— Letter of John Payn-martial Spirit of the venerable WarriorFustolfe's Illness and Death-his Funeral-his vast PossessionsDescription of his Plate-his Tapestry Hangings-and other Furniture-Dearth of Books-State of the Knight's Cellars-Debts of the Crown-Tributes of Respect paid to Fastolfe by his Contemporaries— Panegyric from Yelverton-and of the Herald.

SIR JOHN FASTOLFE was one of the very few of those CHAP. II. warriors trained under Henry V. who, living in peace throughout a considerable period of the eventful struggle of the adverse roses, attained a good old age, and died by the course of nature in the quietude of country retirement. The brightness of this hero's reputation has been tarnished by the unwarrantable freedom taken with his name, by a poet

CHAP. II. whose immortal pen stamps indelible disgrace upon every personage condemned to enact the coward, the tyrant, or the knave, in those exquisite dramas, whence many readers who turn away from the less delightful page of history, derive their ideas respecting the illustrious dead. The early poetic records which commemorate the wild sallies and dissolute courses of Henry of Monmouth, and which Shakspeare consulted when writing those inimitable comedies, wherein the freaks of the gay and thoughtless prince are so wittily represented, were the productions of Roman Catholic authors, who, anxious to load the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, the martyred disciple of Wickliffe, with infamy, gave a conspicuous place amid Henry's unprincipled companions, to the man who sacrificed his life in his zeal for his religion. The reverence with which protestant writers regarded this bold supporter of their faith prevented the farther profanation of his name, and Shakspeare, desirous to preserve the character so rudely and grossly drawn by his predecessors, is supposed to have inconsiderately adopted an appellation familiar in the reign of Henry IV. for the hoary libertine of Eastcheap.

The gallant knight thus fatally maligned boasted a descent from a family who flourished with honourable distinction in England before the Norman conquest. It appears from the authority of old writers, that the young Fastolfe being left a minor, became the ward of Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolk, and after the banishment of that unfortunate nobleman by Richard II. and the accession of Henry IV. to the throne, entered the service of Prince Thomas

of Lancaster Duke of Clarence, whom he accom- CHAP. II. panied to Ireland when serving the office of the king's lieutenant in that country. During his sojourn in the sister kingdom, Fastolfe enriched himself by a marriage with a lady of rank, the daughter of Lord Tibetot and widow of Sir Stephen Scroope, and upon the invasion of France by Henry V. commenced his career of arms as an esquire. Fastolfe obtained honourable celebrity at the battle of Azincourt, and assisted in the gallant defence of Harfleur, from the attack of the constable of France, which by the exertions of its brave garrison held out until the Duke of Bedford came to its relief. He was at the capture of all the castles, towns and places of note in Normandy, and won his golden spurs by the active part which he took in the conquest of that rich province. At or a short time previous to the death of Henry V., Sir John Fastolfe was appointed grand master of the Duke of Bedford's household and seneschal of Normandy, and having valiantly retaken the town of Meulent from the French was created a banneret, and constituted lieutenant for the king and regent in Normandy, in the jurisdictions of Rouen, Evreux, Alençon, and the countries beyond the river Seine, and in addition to this extensive command, he was made governor of Anjou and Maine. At the battle of Verneuil, Fastolfe took prisoner with his own hands, John II. Duke of Alençon, the son of the late duke, slain upon the field of Azincourt.

Distinguishing himself in several successive actions with the enemy, from whom he wrested the strong fortress of St. Ouen Destrais, the castle of Gravelle,

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CHAP.II. and other important places, these indefatigable exertions were rewarded by his election "with," says the author of his memoirs, "extraordinary deference to his merits," to the knight companionship of the order of the garter, being adjudged by the Duke of Bedford to be even more worthy of that high honour than Sir John Radcliffe, who obtained an equal number of votes, and who, in the service of his sovereign, "had exercised arms for the space of twenty-eight years unreproached." Ample testimony is borne of the conduct as well as of the valour of Sir John Fastolfe, in a letter addressed to him in the king's name, notifying his election to the Order of the Garter, and in the royal commission for the installation of the newly-created knight. In the first, his good, honourable, and loyal services are mentioned with just praise, and in the second, he is commended for his " great sense, courage, and experience in arms."

Stedfastly pursuing the path of glory, Fastolfe during the siege of Orleans, performed one of the most brilliant actions which have been commemorated in the splendid annals of the war. He was appointed the commander of seventeen hundred soldiers, of whom scarcely more than one third were Englishmen, the guard of a convoy of provisions destined for the besieging army, then considerably pressed for an immediate supply. Anxious to distress the enemy by cutting off the expected reinforcement, some of the bravest and most distinguished of the French captains sallied out of the city at the head of between three and four thousand Biographia Britannica, vol. v.

men. Upon the approach of this formidable body, CHAP.II. Fastolfe instantly adopted prompt and judicious measures to repel the attack; he formed the carts and carriages which conveyed the stores into a hollow square, and posting his followers behind this entrenchment, placed the archers, supported by the men atarms, at two openings, which alone afforded entrance to the troops. The French and Scottish commanders not agreeing respecting the mode of commencing the assault, the former charged on horseback, while the latter dismounted and fought on foot, but both were vigorously repulsed by the unyielding efforts of Fastolfe and his brave companions, who, baffling the enemy at every point with very severe loss, obtained a decided victory, and leaving the field strewed with the bodies of the slain, marched triumphantly to the English camp with the provisions which they had so gallantly defended. These supplies, on account of the strict fast observed during Lent, consisted principally of fish, and occasioned the late desperate struggle for their possession to be called "the battle of herrings." On the plains of Patay, a few months after the achievement of this gallant exploit, Fastolfe experienced a sad reverse of fortune; the good order of his retreat at the period in which Talbot and Hungerford were taken prisoners, has been deemed by many writers a movement not less worthy of praise than any former display of military skill, and it is supposed that it was only in consequence of some unfortunate dispute which had previously occurred between him and the Earl of Shrewsbury, that his conduct upon the present occasion was ever called in question. But however