John Oldcastle John Oldcastle Sir John Oldcastle (died 14 December 1417) was an English Lollard leader. Being a friend of Henry V, he long escaped prosecution for heresy. When convicted, he escaped from the Tower of London and then led a rebellion against the King. Eventually, he was captured and executed in London. He formed the basis for William Shakespeare's character John Falstaff, who was originally called John Oldcastle. Oldcastle's date of birth is unknown, although dubious and possibly apocryphal sources place it variously at 1360 or 1378. His father was Richard Oldcastle of Almeley in northwest Herefordshire. His grandfather, also called
The Oxford Shakespeare of Athens" as either collaborations with or revisions by Thomas Middleton; "Pericles" as a collaboration with George Wilkins; "Henry VI Part One" as a collaboration with several unknown other dramatists; and "Henry VIII" and "The Two Noble Kinsmen" as collaborations with John Fletcher. It also broke with tradition in presenting Shakespeare's works in chronological order, rather than dividing them by genre. In 2005, a second edition of the "Complete Works" was produced. It adds a full text of "Sir Thomas More" (edited by John Jowett), which may contain passages by Shakespeare, and "Edward III" (edited by William Montgomery), another play