The fluctuations in the reputation of Sir John Fortescue as statesman, jurist and political theorist during the centuries since his death reflect changing priorities and values in law and politics. He was already known as an influential judge and politician by 1480; his long career and the interest and relevance of his polemical writings account for this. His family had much to gain by enhancing the reputation of their learned ancestor and were to do so on several occasions during the next four centuries. They took initiatives to spread Fortescue's renown by publishing his works over the following centuries. Their editions and those published by others provide good indicators of the changes in the reception of his works and the consequent fluctuations in his reputation. They are all surveyed in this chapter.

The ideas to be found in Fortescue's political works have sometimes been credited with contributing to the emergence of a ‘New Monarchy’ under Edward IV and Henry VII when royal finances were prudently managed and professional administrators were preferred as advisers to the traditional nobility. The concept of ‘New Monarchy’ itself is, however, controversial. K.B. McFarlane would have none of it, suggesting that many of its attributes could be found throughout the later middle ages. Even if it did exist, what evidence is there that Fortescue advocated it and that anyone paid attention to his views during that early period? John Watts suggested in 1995 that Edward IV and Henry VII's reigns did indeed mark ‘a new ffundacion’ achieved by the kings’ managerial skills and the devastating impact of the civil wars on networks of lordship. It has been suggested above that the final year of Henry VI's first reign, 1460, was marked by more prudent management of royal finances and that this can be attributed to the increasing influence of Fortescue over the government. This is a tenable hypothesis but no claim can be made that any prince actually read his work after 1470: no evidence has been found of royal ownership or use in any of the surviving manuscripts.

Edward IV and Henry VII certainly proved adept at increasing royal revenue, but the former never showed any inclination to shun his aristocratic companions on his council, even arrivistes like the Woodvilles, in favour of the sober lawyers and bureaucrats that Fortescue favoured.