FASTOLF, fas'tolf, SIR John, English soldier: b. Caister, near Yarmouth, about 1378; d. there, 5 Nov. 1459. He saw much service in the French wars and distinguished himself in the battle of Agincourt, the capture of Caen, the siege of Rouen and other events. He was knighted about 1417, and made governor of the Bastile in 1420. In 1429 he was ordered to bring supplies to the English camp in front of Orleans, then in a state of siege. He went to Paris and obtained the provisions, but when re turning was attacked at Rouvray by a French force much stronger than his own. In spite of this disadvantage, however, he succeeded in driving off the attacking party, mainly owing to the skilful manner in which he used barrels of herrings for defensive purposes. The battle is usually known from the last-mentioned circum stance as the Battle of the Herrings. Some
have charged him with cowardly behavior in the subsequent battle at Patay, and it is said that the Duke of Bedford deprived him of the Garter which had been conferred on him in 1426. This charge, however, has never been substantiated. In 1432 he was appointed Eng lish Ambassador to the Council of Basel, and in 1441 he withdrew from the army. The Letters) (q.v.) contain a long account of his later life in Norfolk, and show him to have been keenly bent on amassing a large fortune. He has been regarded by some authorities as the prototype of Shakespeare's John Falstaff.> a name for the menhaden (q.v.) and for certain mullets, in allusion to the thickness of the dorsal adipose tissue.
a name among sailors for the guacharo; and among sportsmen in New Jersey for the pectoral sandpiper.