does not seem to have attended the council, but assisted the Duc de Bretagne, then engaged in war with the Duc d'Alençon. He was in England early in 1433, when he constituted one John Fastolf of Oulton, Suffolk, his general attorney. Once again in the following year he was in the train of the Duke of Bedford in France, when he acted as one of the negotiators of the peace of Arras. In September 1435 Fastolf drew up a report on the recent management of the war, in which he advocated its continuance, but deprecated the policy of long sieges (Stevenson, ii. 578–85). Bedford died on 14 Sept. 1435, and Fastolf was one of the executors of his will. From 1436 to 1440 he continued in Normandy, but in 1440 he returned home, and withdrew from military service. In 1441 Richard, duke of York, Bedford's successor, awarded Fastolf an annuity of 20l. ‘pro notabili et laudabili servicio ac bono consilio.’ He was summoned to the privy council, but his advice was not frequently sought. That he was not popular with the lower orders is shown by the threats of Jack Cade in 1450. When the rebel leader was encamped at Blackheath Fastolf sent his servant, John Payn, to ascertain his plans. Payn's identity was discovered, and his master was denounced as the greatest traitor in England or France, who had diminished all the garrisons of Normandy, Le Mons, and Maine, and was responsible for the loss of the king's French inheritance. It was also stated that Fastolf had garrisoned his house at Southwark with old soldiers from Normandy to resist Cade's progress. Under certain conditions Payn was allowed to leave Cade's camp to warn Fastolf of the rebels' approach, and the knight deemed it wise to retire to the Tower of London. After Cade's rising was suppressed, Payn was imprisoned in the Marshalsea by Queen Margaret, and vain attempts were made to lead him to charge his master with treason.
Besides his property in Suffolk and in Norfolk, where he had fine houses both at Norwich and Yarmouth, Fastolf had a residence at Southwark, and his wife's property at Castle Combe, Wiltshire, was largely under his control. He seems in the early days of his retirement to have chiefly spent his time at Southwark, where he maintained a large establishment. In 1404 his mother had surrendered to him her manors of Caister and Repps, and as early as Henry V's reign he is said to have obtained a license for fortifying a dwelling at Caister, his birthplace. Before 1446 he had begun to build there a great castle, the foundation of which covered more than five acres. The building operations were still in progress in 1453. In 1443 he had obtained a license from the crown to keep six ships in his service, and these were afterwards employed in carrying building materials to Yarmouth for the castle. In addition to public rooms, chapel, and offices, there were twenty-six separate apartments. Before the close of 1454 the castle was completed, and there Fastolf lived until his death, five years later, only paying one visit to London during that period.
Fastolf's life in Norfolk is fully described in the ‘Paston Letters.’ John Paston, the author of the greater part of that valuable correspondence, was Fastolf's neighbour and intimate friend. Margaret Paston, John's wife, seems to have been a distant relative (Letters, i. 248). Paston came into possession of many of the knight's private papers at his death, and these have been preserved with his own letters. Fastolf shows himself in these papers a grasping man of business. ‘Every sentence in them refers to lawsuits and title-deeds, extortions and injuries received from others, forged processes affecting property, writs of one kind or another to be issued against his adversaries, and libels uttered against himself’ (ib. p. lxxxvi). His knowledge of all legal technicalities was so complete that he could give his agent, Sir Thomas Howes, to whom most of his extant letters are addressed, legal hints which would do credit to a pettifogging solicitor. His zeal in amassing wealth and in increasing his landed property was the chief characteristic of his old age. On 18 Dec. 1452 he lent 437l. to the Duke of York, to be repaid next Michaelmas, on the security of certain jewels (ib. i. 249). The jewels were still in Fastolf's possession at the time of his death; but his executor, John Paston, restored them to Edward IV. Fastolf's latest days were chiefly spent in reckoning up his debts against the crown. Some of these dated back to the French wars, in which he had never been fully paid the ransoms for the release of his prisoners—for Guillaume Reymond taken in 1423 at Pacy, and for John, duc d'Alençon, taken at Verneuil in 1424. Others related to recent quarrels with the Duke of Suffolk, who had seized portions of his property (ib. i. 358–68). That Fastolf was a testy neighbour and master is obvious from his repeated complaints of the lack of that respect which he thought due to himself. On 27 May 1450 he wrote to Sir Thomas Howes, his agent, that if any dare resist him ‘in my right,’ then they shall be requited ‘by Blackbeard or Whitebeard, that is to say, by God or the devil’ (ib. i. 131). His dependents had much to endure at his hands. ‘Cruel and vengeful
