The Book of the Governor

It was dedicated to Henry VIII and is largely a treatise on how to properly train statesmen.

His major works include:[3] The Boke named the Governour is considered to be the first educational treatise in English.

the principal cause of its popularity was the current vogue for its subject – it is a treatise on moral philosophy, laying down the lines on which the education of those destined to govern should be directed, and inculcating the high moral principles which should rule them in the performance of their duties.

There was nothing very original or revolutionary in the thoughts expressed: Elyot acknowledges his debt to the Institutio Principis Christiani of Erasmus and Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano, though not that to Francesco Patrizzi, Bishop of Gaeta at the end of the fifteenth century, whose De Rego et Regis Institutione was certainly the model for The Governour.

Nevertheless it remained a textbook for behaviour for generations and had a lasting effect on the writing of English."