Falstaff them: "let us every one go home, and laugh this sport o'er by a country fire; Sir John and all". Shakespeare originally named Falstaff "John Oldcastle". Lord Cobham, a descendant of the historical John Oldcastle, complained, forcing Shakespeare to change the name. Shakespeare's "Henry IV" plays and "Henry V" adapted and developed the material in an earlier play called "The Famous Victories of Henry V", in which Sir John "Jockey" Oldcastle appears as a dissolute companion of the young Henry. In the published version of "Henry IV, Part 1", Falstaff's name is always unmetrical, suggesting a name change after the
John Oldcastle John Oldcastle, was Herefordshire's MP during the latter part of the reign of King Richard II. Oldcastle is first mentioned in two separate documents in 1400, first as a plaintiff in a suit regarding the advowson of Almeley church, and again as serving as a knight under Lord Grey of Codnor in a military expedition to Scotland. In the next few years Oldcastle held notable positions in the Welsh campaigns of King Henry IV of England against Owain Glyndŵr, including captaincy first over Builth Castle in Brecknockshire and then over Kidwelly. Oldcastle represented Herefordshire as a "knight of the shire"