John Oldcastle In "Henry IV, Part 2" an epilogue emphasises that Falstaff is not Oldcastle: "Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already a' be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man." In 1599, another play, "Sir John Oldcastle", presented Oldcastle in a more kindly light. The record of Oldcastle's trial is printed in "Fasciculi Zizaniorum" (Rolls series) and in David Wilkins's "Concilia", iii. 351–357. The chief contemporary notices of his later career are given in "Gesta Henrici Quinti" ("Eng. Hist. Soc.") and in Walsingham's "Historia Anglicana". There have been many lives of
John Oldcastle convicted as a heretic. King Henry V was still anxious to find a way of escape for his old comrade, and granted a respite of forty days. Before that time had expired, Oldcastle escaped from the Tower by the help of one William Fisher, a parchmentmaker of Smithfield. Oldcastle now put himself at the head of a widespread Lollard conspiracy, which assumed a definite political character. The plan was to seize the King and his brothers during a Twelfth-night mumming at Eltham, and establish some sort of commonwealth. Oldcastle was to be Regent, the king, nobility and clergy placed under