, translated variously as Instruction for a Ruler or The Instruction of Princes is a medieval Latin treatise on kingship by Gerald of Wales. The first distinction, or book, takes the form of a traditional "mirror for princes", centred on the difference between a good prince and a tyrant. The second and third present a narrative of Henry II's rise and fall, framed through divine providence and a wheel of fortune, and constitute a sustained polemic against him and the Angevin dynasty.
The first distinction likely circulated , while the complete work was likely released during the First Barons' War when the Angevin dynasty appeared on the verge of collapse.
Surviving only in a single manuscript, Cotton MS Julius B XIII, De principis instructione did not circulate widely though it was used for the Polychronicon by Ranulph Higden. Extracts were first printed in 1715, and most of the work was published in 1891 in the Rolls Series. The complete work with parallel text translation was published in 2018.
Modern scholars consider it an important source for historical events of the period, including as evidence for views critical of the English monarchy at the time of the Magna Carta.
Background
In the twelfth century Henry II came to rule over a collection of territories often termed by historians the Angevin Empire, consisting of the English monarchy and extensive lands in France, and stretching from Northumberland to the Pyrenees.
Henry II planned to partition his lands among his sons. His eldest son, Henry, was to receive the Kingdom of England and the County of Anjou, and was crowned Junior King in 1170. Richard received the Duchy of Aquitaine in 1172, and Geoffrey was to become count of Brittany through his 1166 betrothal to its heiress. John, born in 1167, was not initially allocated lands, and Henry II's later attempts to provide for him created tensions with his older sons, culminating in their rebellion of 1173-1174.
The Young King Henry died in 1183, and Geoffrey died in 1186, but Henry II's continued efforts to grant lands to John fomented resentment in Richard. Fearing disinheritance in John's favour, Richard allied with King Philip II of France against his father in 1188-1189.
Henry II died in July 1189, shortly after learning that John too had abandoned him, and Richard inherited his lands. Richard died childless in 1199 and was succeeded by John. In 1204 John lost most of his French territories to Philip and his attempts to recover them, and the resulting financial burdens imposed on his subjects, helped drive the English barons into rebellion in 1215.
In late 1215 the barons offered the English Crown to Philip's son Louis, who landed in England in May 1216. John died of illness in October and was succeeded by his young son, Henry III. In November the regency government reissued Magna Carta, and in December eleven of the twelve bishops who supported Louis went over to Henry. This may have weakened the resolve of Louis's supporters, but it did not produce a wider wave of baronial defections. In May 1217 Louis's army was defeated at Lincoln, and his fleet was defeated off Sandwich in August. The war ended in September with the Treaty of Lambeth.
Mirror for princes The mirror for princes genre emerged in medieval Latin Christendom as a form of political advice literature. Drawing on classical, biblical, and patristic precedents, these texts offered rulers guidance on virtues and vices, counsel and governance, often framed through exempla of good and bad monarchs. They circulated from the early Middle Ages and especially in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The first mirror for princes written in England was Policraticus, written by John of Salisbury. It was followed decades later by Gerald's De principis instructione. No further mirrors would be written in England until , when Thomas Hoccleve wrote Regement of Princes.
Gerald of Wales Gerald of Wales was a scholar and churchman, born to a mixed Norman and Welsh family among the marcher gentry of South Wales. He studied in St Peter's Abbey in Gloucester before moving to Paris where he studied the trivium.
After this first period in Paris he returned to Wales, where in 1176 he sought election to the see of St Davids but due to Henry II's opposition was unsuccessful despite the support from the monks. He then returned to Paris for about three years, until , where he studied canon law and theology, lecturing on the former.
In February 1183 he visited Ireland with his cousin, Philip de Barry, and stayed for about a year, later using this experience to write his Topographia Hibernica and Expugnatio Hibernica. After returning and at the urging of Henry II, he reluctantly accepted the position of royal clerk, where he was employed .
By the early 1190s he had become dissatisfied with the rewards he had received for his service under Henry II and Richard I. His frustration, sharpened by John's refusal to confirm his election to the see of St Davids in 1199, is reflected in the writing of De principis instructione which was completed when Gerald's hopes of advancement through Angevin patronage had largely faded.
By the 1210s Gerald's hostility to the Angevins climaxed in a desire to see England under French rule, and during the First Barons' War, when French forces landed in England to oppose King John, Gerald supported the French.
Composition and textual history De principis instructione, sometimes rendered as Liber de principis instructione and translated variously as The Instruction of Princes or Instruction for a Ruler, is a medieval Latin treatise on kingship by Gerald of Wales that serves as a polemical critique of contemporary English governance. Consisting of three books, termed by Gerald distinctiones, the first takes the form of a traditional "mirror for princes", while the second and third are an extended polemic against Henry II and his heirs, identifying and denouncing their vices.
Editions and dating Two editions of De principis instructione were created. A first edition was likely circulated , consisting only of the first distinction and an original prelude. This dating is based on a reference in a 1191 first edition manuscript of Gerald's Itinerarium Kambriae in which, referring to the death of Henry II, Gerald writes "as we have narrated in the book De principis instructione".
This also suggests that parts of the second and third distinctions had already been written, but that their publication was suppressed. A passage at the end of the first distinction states that they were "not yet completed and polished" and were "awaiting a safer and more serene time for publication".
A later date is possible, since the circulation of De principis instructione is closely tied to Gerald's departure from court, for which dates from 1191 to 1196 have been advanced. However, it is certain that it was issued at some point in the last decade of the twelfth century.
Better estimates are available for the second edition, which was released in 1216×1217 during the First Barons' War when the Angevin dynasty appeared on the verge of collapse, making it the safest time to publish a bitter polemic against King Henry II and his dynasty.
This dating is supported by internal and external evidence. In De iure et statu Menevensis ecclesia, written , Gerald mentions that he published De principis instructione when he was seventy. Since he was born , this would place publication . The text also cannot have been completed before Louis's landing in May 1216, since passages in it refer to his behaviour in the English campaign.
George F. Warner, editor of the Rolls Series, argued that the text took its final form after King John's death in October 1216. Bartlett, however, argues from internal evidence that it may have been completed earlier, since one passage states that John had "begun to be destroyed", which implies composition before his death. Gerald is himself equivocal, writing that "six or seven" of the Norman kings had died by the time of writing. If six had died, he was writing before John's death; if seven, after it.
Dedication Late in the composition of De principis instructione, Gerald inserted a quasi-dedication to Prince Louis of France, stating that if he were to dedicate the work, it would be to Louis "both because he has been deeply instructed in letters and the liberal arts from his earliest years . . . and because he is famous for his generosity". This late insertion indicates that the work was not originally intended for dedication to a specific ruler.
Contents Intended to instruct princes in governance, the first distinction of De principis instructione offers moral teaching drawn from earlier authors. The second and third distinctions give instruction through historical examples and narrate the reign of Henry II. They include material on French and English politics, as well as texts of letters and treaties, some of which survive only through Gerald.
The first distinction constitutes the majority of the work. Its chapters are far longer, averaging 2,530 words, compared with 492 in the second distinction and 758 in the third. It originally opened with a preface of about 4,400 words which criticised courtly values and framed Gerald's reward not in material terms but in the appreciation of future generations. For the second edition, this preface was shortened and the quasi-dedication to Prince Louis was inserted.
First distinction Gerald described the first distinction as "containing doctrine and precepts on the instruction of a prince drawn from theological, pagan, and moral writings". It offers moral teaching chiefly through historical anecdotes drawn from the Bible, Roman authors, the Church Fathers, and other sources. It mines biblical and ancient history for examples of good and wicked behaviour, with prominent attention to David, Julius Caesar, and Augustus, among other rulers.
It consists of twenty-one chapters, with the first fifteen chapters listing moral virtues that a ruler should possess. These are moderation, gentleness, shyness, chastity, patience, temperance, clemency, generosity, magnificence, justice, prudence, foresight, modesty, boldness and bravery, and glory and nobility. The final six chapters turn more broadly to the difference between good princes and tyrants.
The work also provides a few recent historical narratives, including material on the Picts and the Scots, the discovery of the tomb of King Arthur and Guinevere, Louis VII of France, Edward the Confessor, Thomas Becket, and recent Scottish kings.
Second distinction
The second distinction covers Henry's reign down to 1185, a period Gerald described as one in which "everything turned out victoriously."
In it Gerald levels a series of criticisms against Henry II: that he married his lord's wife, Eleanor, after abducting her, that he oppressed the nobility, that he sold and delayed justice, that he was fickle and deceitful, that he did not keep his word, faith, and oath, that he was adulterous and without devotion, and that he was "the hammer of the church and the son born for its destruction".
It includes an account of a conversation between Gerald and Henry which historians consider to be essentially true. Gerald says that he told Henry that Heraclius's visit to England brought honour to both the king and the kingdom. Henry, according to Gerald, did not take his words well and replied "If the patriarch or anyone else comes to us, they are seeking their own advantage, not ours". Gerald then answered that Henry should count it an honour to have been chosen for such service to the church, to which Henry replies "These clerks can incite us boldly to arms and danger, since they themselves will receive no blows in the struggle, nor will they undertake any burdens which they can avoid."