The Regement of Princes
Hy noble and mighty Prince excellent, / My lord the Prince, o my lord gracious — / First and forward, the dignitee of kyng / Impressith in the botme of your mynde
Our renderingHigh, noble and mighty excellent Prince, my gracious lord — first and foremost, let the dignity of kingship be impressed in the depths of your mind.
What it is
Thomas Hoccleve, a clerk of the Privy Seal, composed this 5,000-line vernacular poem in Middle English and dedicated it directly to Henry, Prince of Wales — the future Henry V — as a guide to virtuous royal conduct. Drawing on Aegidius of Rome's Latin De Regimine Principum and the pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum Secretorum, the work instructs the prince on the Christian virtues a king must cultivate, including charity, humility, mercy, piety, and righteous largesse. The autograph copy British Library MS Royal 17 D.XVIII, written in Hoccleve's own hand, was the revised version given to John of Lancaster, later Duke of Bedford — cementing the text's direct Lancastrian royal use. With 43 surviving manuscripts it was one of the most widely copied Middle English texts, evidencing its authority as a formation document within the Lancastrian court.
Why it still matters
A Christian reader in leadership today can use its meditations on mercy, humility before God, and responsible stewardship of power as a personal examination of conscience; the freely available TEAMS edition makes the text accessible for devotional reading alongside a modern rendering.
Kept alongside
English Primer (The Prymer)
Prymer or Lay Folks' Prayer Book
The English Primer ('Prymer') was the standard lay devotional book in England from the 14th to 16th centuries, used by children and adults alike to learn both literacy and prayer. Beginning as a first reading book combining the alphabet, Pater Noster, Ave Maria, and Creed, it grew to include the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Seven Penitential Psalms, the Fifteen Gradual Psalms, the Litany of the Saints, and the Office of the Dead. Chaucer's reference in the Prioress's Tale (c. 1386) to a seven-year-old boy learning his 'primer' confirms its role in children's formation, and Eleanor of Castile purchased 'seven primers' in Cambridge in 1289 for royal household use. The royal culmination was Henry VIII's King's Primer (1545), principally compiled by Archbishop Cranmer and prescribed by royal proclamation as the only permitted primer in England.
Beaufort Hours (Beaufort/Beauchamp Hours)
Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis (Beaufort Hours)
The Beaufort Hours (British Library, Royal MS 2 A.XVIII) was made c. 1430–1443 and first owned by Margaret Beauchamp (c. 1410–1482), Duchess of Somerset, wife of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset. It passed to her daughter Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509), mother of Henry VII, who used it as her primary private devotional book throughout her adult life. Margaret Beaufort's handwritten Latin prayer followed by the English inscription 'This prier foloweg is for the king' confirms its use as an intercessory instrument for the Tudor dynasty, and she used its calendar to record major dynastic events including Henry VII's birth. The manuscript contains Hours of the Virgin, Office of the Dead, Penitential Psalms, suffrages, and a litany.
Myroure of Oure Ladye (Mirror of Our Lady)
Composed for the Brigittine nuns of Syon Abbey—England's sole Brigittine house, royally founded and endowed by Henry V in 1415—the Myroure is a detailed catechetical commentary on the Bridgettine Daily Office of Our Lady, translating and explaining every antiphon, hymn, versicle, and prayer of that entirely Marian liturgy into Middle English for sisters whose Latin was insufficient. Authorship is disputed between Thomas Fishbourne, first confessor-general of Syon, and Thomas Gascoigne; both are plausible and the question remains unresolved. The printed edition of 1530 extended the text beyond the cloister to educated lay readers, though it never achieved wide popular circulation outside devotional and antiquarian circles. Syon Abbey's royal patronage by Henry V and its later court associations make the text court-adjacent, but its primary function was always as a practical liturgical handbook for enclosed religious women.