Bardolph (Shakespeare character) Russell of Thornhaugh and Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford), and so used the name of the rebel. Since the character originally appears to have been a knight (both the Norman-French names "Russell" and "Bardolph" imply knighly status), this suggests that Shakespeare was following closely his source "The Famous Victories of Henry V" in which Prince Hal's disreputable companions are unruly knights rather than vagabonds. However Bardolph is clearly identified as a mere servant of Falstaff's in "Henry IV, Part 2", something that is not explicit in Part 1. In Part 2 Bardolph seems to copy the role of Hal's
Religious views of William Shakespeare Shakespeare's portrayal; the story of Oldcastle was a popular one and telling the tale from the "Papist" perspective (while acknowledging that perhaps this was a perspective with which Shakespeare already had some affinity) was an effective and familiar way to bring it to his audience. A direct explanation, however, comes from the facts of the story in the contemporary accounts of the period; Prince Henry had left his dear friend Oldcastle to his fate after he had failed to persuade the stubborn old knight to recant when he was imprisoned for lollardry. Archdeacon Richard Davies, a 17th-century Anglican cleric, wrote