Le Roy le veult (/lə ˈrɔɪ lə ˌvʌlt/, "The King wills it") or La Reyne le veult (/læ ˈreɪn lə ˌvʌlt/, "The Queen wills it") is a Norman French phrase used in the Parliament of the United Kingdom to signify that a public bill, including a private member's bill, has received royal assent from the monarch.[1] During the Anglo-Norman rule of England, the kings were titled Roy, Roi, Rey, Rei and the Latin Rex, all meaning "King".[2] Usage of this phrase is a legacy of the time prior to 1488 when parliamentary and judicial business was conducted in Norman, the language of the educated classes dating to the Norman Conquest of 1066. It is one of a small number of Norman phrases that continue to be used in the course of parliamentary procedure.
He did so using the formulas le roy le veult to signify assent and le roy s'avisera to withhold it. Until the latter part of the reign of Edward III (1327‑77), all parliamentary proceedings were conducted in Norman French. The use of English was extremely rare until the reign of Henry IV (1399‑1413). Beginning with the reign of Henry VII (1485‑1509), English was used for all proceedings, with the exception of the Royal Assent, which was always expressed in French
The series of images of English kings from Edward the Confessor to Edward I in London, British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius A. XIII/1 is widely familiar from television, textbooks, websites, and exhibitions. In spite of this, the origins and context of this set of four leaves are mysterious. The limited attention given to them has focused on the images rather than the Anglo-Norman captions attached to them, which forms a genealogy of the kings, derived from earlier sources. "Sir Lowys fiz le Roy Phylippe de Fraunce en Engletere. Le Roy Jon regna .xvii. aunz e demy..." "Sir Louis, the son of Philip king of France, came into England.... King John reigned for seventeen and a half years..."