John Weever of a religious tone, "The Mirror of Martyrs" and "An Agnus Dei". "The Mirror of Martyrs or The Life and Death of ... Sir John Oldcastle" may have been part of a backlash. In his preface Weever calls it the "first trew Oldcastle", perhaps on account of the fact that Shakespeare's character Falstaff first appeared as "Sir John Oldcastle". Weever's work is influenced by John Bale's 1544 biography of Oldcastle, which presents him as a proto-Protestant martyr. In the fourth stanza of this long poem, in which Sir John is his own panegyrist, occurs a reminiscence of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar"
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,