Sir John Oldcastle of Martyrs". Oldcastle was also a minor character in the early Elizabethan history play the "Famous Victories of Henry V" (c. 1586?), which is generally thought to have been one of Shakespeare's sources for his plays on Henry IV and Henry V. The genesis of "Sir John Oldcastle" is crucially linked to the fact that when Shakespeare's "Henry IV" plays premiered on stage in 1597–98, the character Sir John Falstaff was called Sir John Oldcastle. This is indicated by abundant external and internal evidence. The change of names, from "Oldcastle" to "Falstaff," is mentioned in seventeenth-century works by Richard James
Oldcastle Revolt Oldcastle managed to evade detainment with support of his old friend John ap Harry, who collected rents from his forfeited estates. Oldcastle was eventually arrested in the area of Welshpool, Montgomeryshire, while returning from a meeting with Welsh rebel Gruffudd ab Owain Glyndŵr, the father of whom he had fought during the early stages of the Glyndŵr Rising. Oldcastle was then escorted to London, where he was brought to the St. Giles's Fields and burned at the stake on 14 December 1417. Oldcastle Revolt The Oldcastle Revolt was a Lollard uprising directed against the Catholic Church and the English king,