Chapter 5 surveys non-royal discourse for evidence of how royal texts, and their material and linguistic properties, were recognised, understood and used by Tudor subjects. The chapter looks first at the documented afterlives of many royal texts, via manuscript circulation and publication, before examining metacommunicative remarks relating to royal letters and proclamations in manuscript letters and printed texts of the period. Proclamations have a wider range of discussion, likely reflecting their more public profile and dissemination, but both types of texts are used to justify the actions of the writer.