Definition of "behest"

Moſt great and puiſant Monarke of the earth,Your Baſſoe wil accompliſh your beheſt: […]

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act III, scene i

to do his master's high behest

1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […]

I have spells for the north, I have charms for the west, / And the south and the east must obey my behest.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 302

Paul did not dare pronounce, let matters rest, / His master having given him no behest.

1951, Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill, The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977, page 278

The London Midland Region has announced receipt of authority from the Ministry of Transport to resume the reconstruction of Stafford station and layout, interrupted at the Minister's behest; contracts have now been placed for the erection of the new station buildings and the yardmaster's office.

1961 May, “Talking of Trains: Stourton and Stafford approved”, in Trains Illustrated, page 260

And young Mr. Fleetwood Vibe was here at the behest of his father, Wall Street eminence Scarsdale Vibe, who was effectively bankrolling the Expedition.

2007, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day

the House of Representatives will try to water down even this feeble effort at the behest of the unions whose members enjoy some of the most lavish policies.

2009 October 15, “What a waste”, in The Economist

The Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, is to meet with the BBC director general, Mark Thompson, at the behest of the Premier League in a bid to resolve their long-running feud.

2011 March 24, Owen Gibson, The Guardian

The time is come that I should send it her, if I keep the behest that I have made.

c. 1440, Markaryte Paston, letter to John Paston