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| Thomas Beauchamp Earl of Warwick |
Youth
Born in 1380
John Fastolf was the son of Sir John Fastolf at Caister-on-Sea. Sir
John was probably a descendant of Nicholas Fastolf, the first Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. Nicholas’ brother Thomas Fastolf was a specialist in canon law and later Bishop of St David’s. The Fastolfs are believed to be of
Viking stock and many of the family had marine connections; one Hugh Fastolf
transported the troops for Sir Robert Knolles’ Grand Chevauchée of 1340. A number of the family served as bailiffs of Yarmouth. Any profits made by the Fastolf family were invested in land.
Sir John was
squire to the Earl of Warwick before he entered the royal
household. He later married the daughter of a local landowner; John Fastolf the
younger was born at Caister Hall at West Caister. There is no evidence as to his upbringing, but it must be
assumed that he had sufficient education to enable him to perform his duties; allegedly
Fastolf was page to Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk.
First Travels
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| Konigsberg |
It was in
Mowbray’s train that Fastolf travelled, along with Henry Bolingbroke[ii], firstly to Königsberg to gain real experience of fighting along with the Teutonic Knights.. The trip was fitted out in King’s Lynn where Bolingbroke’s
men hired three ships to carry the crusade which left port in July 1390.
The Knights
were now a power in the Baltic provinces and were engaged in a fight in Lithuania, whose people were to be forcibly
baptised by religious zealots who were also busily engaged in enriching
themselves. The Knights, rather than support the Christian king Jagiello, supported his cousin Vitold, as this would lead to them receiving the province of Samogitia for themselves.
The crusade of about 300 men landed at the
port of Rixhoft on 8th August; on the 10th
Bolingbroke reached Danzig and gathered a force of fifty lances and sixty archers and travelled post haste after the Knights
who had already departed on their murderous expedition. Henry met up with
Marshal Rabe and was greeted;
‘With a glad face and joyful
expression.’[iii]
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| Skirjal |
The joint forces
marched to the junctions of the river Memel and river Wilia where Jagiello’s brother Skirjal lay in wait with an army. On the 28th August they arrived at
the ford, killed three hundred men and took prisoner three dukes and eleven boyars. Skirjal took refuge in nearby Vilnius. For this victory;
‘The earl with the help of
his men and especially the archers deserved many thanks.’[iv]
Bolingbroke
and his men then joined in the siege of Vilnius and on 4th September
the joint force stormed the ramparts. One of Bolingbroke’s men planted his
standard on the topmost part, for which he was awarded 6s 8d[v].
The crusade
returned to Königsberg where they spent the winter as the seas were too rough
to risk returning home. And the end of April they journeyed home to a hero’s
welcome for Henry. What part the young Fastolf played during these adventures
is unknown.
Return to Königsberg
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| von Wallenrode coat of arms |
In the
autumn of 1391 Henry Bolingbroke again travelled with two hundred men to Königsberg,
where to his dismay he was informed that his presence was unwelcome. The
Knights had become disenchanted with the amateur assistance of sprigs of the
nobility. Training with the Knights had been important part of the training for
young would be soldiers. They were unable to hone their fighting skills killing
the French following the 1396 truce[vi] which was still holding,
if tenuously. The Grand Master Konrad von
Wallenrode gave Bolingbroke £500[vii] towards his expenses as
a sop to his pride.
At this
point, Henry decided to use the money he’d received from his father to earn
remission of his sins by going on a crusade. He sent home most of his men, Fastolf
presumably was part of Bolingbroke’s retinue if it is this trip that Fastolf
refers to, albeit briefly[viii];
‘From his earliest years he
had applied himself in the service of the king and in arms, in the countries of
England and Ireland and on the journey to Jerusalem.’[ix]
 |
| Wenceslaus |
The ‘pilgrims’ arrived in Prague on 13th
October, having left Danzig on 22nd September. Here they met with Richard II’s brother-in-law, the King of the Romans Wenceslaus. Bolingbroke and his entourage
stayed eleven days and he indulged in visits to the local tourist sites[x] and an orgy of souvenir buying,
including an ostrich. The party then travelled on to Vienna where Bolingbroke
met with Sigismund[xi], another of the queen’s brothers.
Pilgrims in Jerusalem
The party
then moved on to Venice arriving on 30th November.
The Duke of
Austria requested the Venetian senate to provide a galley to take the
party and thence on to Jerusalem. Bolingbroke lounged about, taking
his ease on the Isola di San Giorgio, while his men loaded up with the
supplies necessary for the journey.
Bolingbroke
left most of his men to
spend the winter at Portogruaro, leaving himself with an entourage of about forty or fifty
retainers. They sailed down the Adriatic and across the Mediterranean via Corfu, the Morea[xii] and Rhodes, arriving at Jaffa. From here Bolingbroke walked on foot the thirty miles to Jerusalem having
left most of his party behind. Fastolf and Sir Thomas Erpingham were among those visiting the Holy
City.
On the
return journey Bolingbroke continued his orgy of souvenir buying, including a
Turk, a leopard, a parrot and other marvels. Erpingham bought the material for
a chasuble. Bolingbroke’s retainers were all
decked out in new outfits; the new clothes for his knights and squires were
fashioned from silk and Genoese velvet. Everyone was given a gilt or silver
collar. It is not known when Fastolf transferred his allegiance from Mowbray,
but henceforth he was to give the Lancastrian dynasty his unqualified support.
The Usurper King
.jpg/459px-King_Henry_IV_from_NPG_(2).jpg) |
| Henry IV |
There is no
evidence to show that Fastolf was involved in the overthrow of Richard II and
the subsequent regicide. He just was not important enough; William Worcester[xiii] wrote that, at the time Fastolf, in
his early twenties, had not yet been knighted;
‘At that time an esquire.’
He did
however go to Ireland where the new Henry IV, unwilling to commit to fighting
in France when he needed to keep an uneasy peace at home, defended England’s
sovereignty. Fastolf fought to defend the Pale around Dublin under the command of Sir Stephen
Scrope, son of Richard Scrope, first Lord Bolton[xiv].
The
expedition sailed in 1401 and Thomas of Lancaster, the king’s 14 year old son was in
overall command. Fastolf was to serve under Thomas’ command in 1401 and from
1405-6 when the prince was Lieutenant of Ireland. Fastolf met Philip Branch while
serving in Ireland; Branch was to become one of his retinue in France.
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| The remains of Roxburgh Castle |
Scrope had
other duties; as well as this command he was warden of Roxburgh Castle and in 1404 the Patent Rolls show that his commission was;
‘To take ships, barges,
ballingers[xv] and other vessels in the
port of Chester and Liverpool and masters and mariners for them for the passage
to Ireland of Stephen Lescrope, deputy of the king’s son Thomas of Lancaster,
lieutenant in Ireland, and his men and servants with 300 horses in his
company.’[xvi]
These early
years of the new century were years of much violence in Ireland and the Gaels committed rapine, arson and wholesale devastation in and around the
Pale. The English were not far behindhand when violence was being meted out. Scrope
and his men had a victory of sorts in 1407 over the Irish in a rout near Callan[xvii], following a raid by Walter Burke and the O’Carroll of Ely into County Kilkenny. Taig O’Carroll[xviii] and 800 men were
killed during the fighting.
Social Mobility and New Found Wealth
In 1408 the
Gaelic Annals of Loch Cé record the death of Scrope;
‘There was a great plague in
Meath and
Scrope, a very valiant knight, and deputy to the King of Saxons in Erinn, died
of this plague.’[xix]
On 13th
January 1409 Fastolf married Millicent Tiptoft, Scrope's widow and
daughter of Robert Tiptoft[xx]. The marriage brought
Fastolf great prestige as well as wealth; Millicent brought Fastolf an income
of £240 per annum[xxi].
He had moved himself up the social scale in marrying his former commander’s
widow.
 |
| Castle Combe |
Falstoff
acquired a controlling interest in Tiptoft and Scrope manors and until his
death had the use of the profits from Castle Combe where Falstoff encouraged the woollen industry by regularly
purchasing the woollen cloth to clothe his men in France. The village of
Oxenton[xxii] in Gloucestershire was
also part of Millicent’s inheritance and Castle Combe and Oxenton were closely
linked. In 1456 William Worcester wrote to the villagers at Oxenton;
‘I have reminded [Fastolf]
to give a chasuble to your church…..you, Thomas Watts……send to Castle Combe 12
good lampreys
powdered at the price of 20d[xxiii]
the piece. And they of castle Combe shall send them to London. And forget not a
couple of good lampreys for my labour in recovering the £7[xxiv]
that you had almost lost of my lord’s money.’[xxv].
Bibliography
Richard II –
Michael Bennett, Sutton Publishing Ltd 1999
The Usurper
King – Marie Louise Bruce, The Rubicon Press 1998
The Hundred
Years War – Alfred H Burne, Folio Society 2005
The Real
Falstaff – Stephen Cooper, Pen & Sword Military 2010
Chronicles –
Froissart, Penguin Books Ltd 1968
The
Fifteenth Century – EF Jacob, Oxford University Press 1997
John Talbot
& the War in France – AJ Pollard, Pen & Sword Military 2005
www.wikipedia.en
[i]
For Sarah
[iii]
The Usurper King - Bruce
[iv]
Ibid
[v]
In 2013
the relative: historic standard of living
value of that income or wealth is £220.40 economic status value of that income or wealth is £7,052.00 economic power value of that income or wealth is £98,220.00 www.measuringworth.com
[vi]
Richard II’s foreign policy involved peace with the hereditary enemy; a policy
that harmed his reputation with his nobility
[vii]
In 2013
the relative: historic standard of living
value of that income or wealth is £289,800.00 economic status value of that income or wealth is £8,520,000.00 economic power value of that income or wealth is £119,400,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[viii]
From court proceedings in Paris in 1435 Overton v Fastolf
[ix]
The Real Falstaff - Cooper
[xi]
King of Hungary
[xii]
Now known as the Peloponnese
[xiii]
Fastolf’s secretary
[xiv]
Son of Henry le Scrope,
builder of Castle Bolton
in Wensleydale and Lord
Chancellor to Richard II
[xv]
A 120 ton clinker built 2 masted ship, used as scouts and raiding ships attached
to a fleet
[xvi]
The Real Falstaff - Cooper
[xviii]
Highly regarded by the Gaels as ‘general
protector to the poets of Ireland and Scotland’
[xix]
The Real Falstaff - Cooper
[xxi]
In 2013
the relative: historic standard of living
value of that income or wealth is £147,500.00
economic
status value of that income or wealth
is £4,149,000.00 economic power value of
that income or wealth is £63,040,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[xxiii]
In 2013
the relative: real price of that
commodity is £59.52labour value of that
commodity is £477.40 income value of that
commodity is £1,635.00 www.measuringworth.com
[xxiv]
In 2013
the relative: historic standard of living
value of that income or wealth is £5,020.00
economic
status value of that income or wealth
is £137,900.00 economic power value of
that income or wealth is £2,231,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[xxv]
The Real Falstaff - Cooper
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