ESSEX.
My liege, here is the strangest controversy,
Come from the country to be judg’d by you,
That e’er I heard. Shall I produce the men?
KING JOHN.
Let them approach.
[Exit Sheriff.]
Our abbeys and our priories shall pay
This expedition’s charge.
Enter Robert Faulconbridge and Philip, his Bastard brother.
What men are you?
BASTARD.
Your faithful subject I, a gentleman
Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest son,
As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge,
A soldier by the honour-giving hand
Of Cœur-de-lion knighted in the field.
KING JOHN.
What art thou?
ROBERT.
The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge.
KING JOHN.
Is that the elder, and art thou the heir?
You came not of one mother then, it seems.