Royal touch

Royal touch was a ritual in which English and French monarchs touched people believed to have scrofula, invoking sacred royal power to heal them.

Scrofula: Scrofula is a form of tuberculosis that causes chronic swelling of lymph nodes, especially in the neck. Its neck swellings were the ailment the royal touch was meant to cure.
Edward the Confessor: Edward the Confessor was an eleventh-century English king later venerated as a saint. Later tradition credited Edward with establishing the English monarch’s healing touch.
Charles II of England: Charles II was king of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1660 to 1685. He performed royal-touch ceremonies on an unusually large scale after the Restoration.
King's Evil: The King's Evil was the historical English name for scrofula, associated with a supposed royal cure. The disease’s name itself recorded the custom’s association with royal healing.
Healing shrine: A healing shrine is a sacred site where people seek cures through prayer, pilgrimage, or contact with relics. Unlike a shrine, royal touch centered healing on the living monarch’s person.
Divine right of kings: Divine right of kings is the doctrine that a monarch’s authority comes directly from God. The ritual presented healing power as evidence of a monarch’s God-given status.
Philip I of France: Philip I was king of France from 1060 to 1108. He is among the earliest French kings associated with touching sufferers of scrofula.
William III of England: William III was king of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1689 to 1702. His reluctance to perform the rite exposed doubts about its place in Protestant monarchy.
Jacobitism: Jacobitism was a movement supporting the restoration of the deposed Stuart dynasty. Stuart claims to healing power became a political asset after the dynasty’s overthrow.
Relic: A relic is a physical object associated with a saint or other sacred person and venerated for religious significance. Relic-based healing located sacred power in objects rather than a monarch’s touch.

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