This chapter provides an overview of the key theoretical concepts that inform the analysis and argument of the book. The main focus is on the practices of royal power in the sixteenth century, particularly in the variable experiences subjects would have had of their monarch (i.e . social rank, literacy), and on the sociolinguistic concepts that underpin the notion of 'royal voices'. The latter includes a summary of enregisterment, register, entextualisation and other theoretical concepts that inform the interpretation of the linguistic and visual evidence. The chapter concludes with a summary of the material collected for analysis in chapters 1-8.