Oldcastle Revolt
13th century proto-protestant uprising
The Oldcastle Revolt was a Lollard uprising directed against the Catholic Church and the English king, Henry V. The revolt was led by John Oldcastle, taking place on the night of 9th to the 10th of January 1414. The rebellion was crushed following a decisive battle on St. Giles's Fields.
Background
John Oldcastle was born in 1370 and in 1397 inherited his family estates, which included a manor in Almeley as well as lands in Kinnersley and Letton, Herefordshire, and property in and around Hereford. In July 1397, Oldcastle accompanied two Mortimer family retainers to Ireland, later serving under Roger Mortimer. Oldcastle was knighted in 1400, and took part in a campaign against Scotland the same year. In the aftermath of the 1401 outbreak of the Glyndŵr Rising, Oldcastle was appointed captain of Built and later Hay. In January 1404, Oldcastle briefly gained a Parliament seat representing Herefordshire, and was subsequently ordained a country bench member and, finally, sheriff. His loyal service during the pacification of Wales brought him 40 pounds of annuities and an additional issue of 40 marks in 1406. In 1408, he further increased his material wealth by marrying baroness Joan Cobham, thus inheriting lands in Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Wiltshire and Kent.
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This entry incorporates text from “Oldcastle Revolt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.