ABSTRACT
The Sir John Oldcastle dramatists based their version of the story of the late fourteenth century and early fifteenth century Lollard Lord Cobham on two popular sixteenth century historical sources: Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles and John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, which was commonly called The Book of Martyrs. Holinshed details Cobham’s capture on Lord Powis’ lands and his summary execution, incidents which were surely treated in 2 Oldcastle. The primary historical source, Foxe’s discussion of Cobham in his Book of Martyrs, is nothing more than a lightly edited version of John Bale’s earlier Brief Chronicle of Oldcastle. In Oldcastle the conversation with the king takes place after the summonings, presumably to show that for the Oldcastle dramatists Cobham is completely loyal to King Harry and blameless in the mistreatment of the Sumner. In Death there are a few details that seem to have been adopted in Oldcastle.
