Oldcastle, John

Pseudonym of English writer Wilfred Meynell.

Oldcastle, John (died 1417)

English Lollard and rebel. He helped to suppress Owen Glendower's Welsh rising and later fought for Henry IV in France. In 1413 Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, found him guilty of heresy and he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. He escaped, was declared outlawed in 1414, and seems to have plotted various rebellions. He was later captured and executed.

He married Joan, Lady Cobham, in 1409 and was summoned to Parliament as Baron Cobham until 1413. Oldcastle has been thought by some to be the original of Shakespeare's Falstaff.