What "King" is "King's English" attributed to?

All I can contribute is a guess.
I am thinking it may be a general term attributing the formality to the highest level.
The term has been used a long time, and without sense of gender neutrality.
If this is the case, it could easily become the crown’s English.

People still say motherland also.

”‘King’s English’ n (1553) : standard, pure, or correct English speech or usage” -from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th. ed.

In 1553, the King of England was Henry VIII. (found in Adventures in English Literature, J. B. Priestly, Josephine Spear, printed by Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., USA, 1963, page 113.)

Currently since Elizabeth is on the throne, the proper term is “the queen’s English” And I’ve been having a jolly good time looking down my nose and sneering at Trump as he defiles the Queen’s English—scandalous!

@kritiper All the better that it started with Henry VIII because that would imply proper for the Anglican church, since it started with him. Excellent citation as well.

Thanks to all of you.

I might easily be wrong; but, I also discovered that the King’s English came into favor between 1545–1555 with one source stating 1553. Henry VIII was King 1507–1547 with his son Edward VI taking the throne after him from 1547–1553. Edward named Henry’s Great Grand Daughter Jane to succeed him but the other powers that be did NOT approve so Jane was only there part of 1553 with Mary I (Bloody Mary) succeeding her from 1553–1558. So, it might either be Henry or Edward because they are the ONLY 2 Kings during the 1545–1555 time frame. I think I can safely say that it wasn’t Jane who would receive credit & neither would it be Bloody Mary!!! Since so many of the Royal Family have taken the name of Edward, I’m going to guess that it was Edward.

I’m getting old!
I guess I’m blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other.
The term originated in 1553 when Mary took over so it could have been meant as an insult to the kings that preceded her.
But I’ll stick to Henry VIII because Edward VI was only in power for 6 years, and that’s not much time to influence people about speech.

We don’t speak any English remotely like how they spoke in King HenryIIIV time. and I am not sure how the BBC inched into this question, but if you want a correlation between the BBC and the Royal house of Windsor, here it is: The BBC was in operation during a King’s reign and that was King George and King Edward (who abdicated.) The BBC was established in 1922. King George the V was ruling at that time. When he died, Edward was the heir, but as you may recall, a certain American divorce’ got in the way and he abdicated a few months later and the current Queen, Elisabeth II, her father, George the VI took the throne for a time, with his stutter and very lovely human way about him. When he passed away, his daughter took the title and it is now known as ‘Queens English’ and even she doesn’t’ speak the same way as she did in the 1950’s. So, the expression is rather colloquial in it’s most literal term, I believe.

And yes, ‘England has a queen’... but she is also happens the queen of Great Britain.

I discovered there was a book written in 1906 called ‘The Kings English’. The king referred to would have been Edward the VII. So, perhaps this is the reference you found? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King%27s_English

Thanks, @ScienceChick

I’ve read about this in Bodner’s book, “The Loom of Language” but no longer have access to the book. And thanks also for helping me differentiate between earlier references to “Kings English” and early 20th century references, which I was inaccurately conflating.

People above seem to have the history of the term.

I use the term sometimes to differentiate between British English and American English regarding dialect and spelling. So much of it is becoming blurred now. I’ve written some words so many times “incorrectly” in my phone, that I think it sometimes now is autocorrecting to UK spelling. I don’t even know what’s “right” anymore sometimes.