The Royal Touch: When British and French Kings Were Thought to Have Healing Powers

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2020

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“The Hands of the King are the Hands of a Healer” -- this phrase appears in the Lord of the Rings, referring to how Aragorn was identified as the king of Gondor by his healing powers. Tolkien likely based this ability on an actual ceremony in England and France where thousands would gather to be touched by the king and be healed of their illnesses.

From the eleventh to nineteenth centuries, it was believed that a monarch could heal scrofula – called “The King's Evil” – by laying hands on the infected area. The belief of the Royal Touch began in the Middle Ages but survived, and even thrived, well into the Protestant Reformation, when other types of sacramental ceremonies were erased. It was enormously popular with the public. Charles II touch nearly 92,000 during his reign – over 4,500 a year. So many wanted the royal touch that officials demanded the afflicted produce a certificate to prove they had not already received it and were coming back for seconds.

The ritual persisted through very different eras and religious periods because kings and queens all used it to claim that God supported their reign.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast. The unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes,
0:08.8	Mythbust's historical lies, and rediscoveres the forgotten stories that changed our world.
0:15.5	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
0:20.7	From the 11th to 18th centuries, France and England's kings were believed to have the power to heal
0:26.7	just by laying their hands on subjects with illness. The first story we have of this goes back to
0:31.8	Edward the Confessor, one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England before William the Conqueror
0:37.1	took over England in 1066. William of Mom's Berry records the story in history of the kings of
0:43.0	England. He writes that Edward had several times cured the disease of scrafula, a variant of tuberculosis,
0:50.2	in Normandy, but only once in England. Here's how the passage goes. Let us now speak of the
0:56.5	miracles of Edward the Confessor. A young woman had married a husband of her own age,
1:02.2	having no issue by the union, the humours collecting abundantly around her neck,
1:07.2	she had contracted a sore disorder that glanced swelling in a dreadful manner.
1:12.4	And monishing a dream to have the part affected washed by the king, she entered the palace,
1:17.6	and the king himself fulfilled this labor of love by rubbing the woman's neck with his
1:21.7	fingers dipped in water. Joyce's health followed his healing hand, the lured skin opened,
1:28.2	so that worms flowed out with the periodilant matter and the tumour subsided. But as the orifice
1:34.0	of the ulcers was large and unsightly, he commanded her to be supported at the royal expense
1:38.9	till she could be perfectly cured. However, before a week was expired, a fair new skin returned,
1:45.3	and hid the scar so completely that nothing of the original wound could be discovered.
1:50.1	And within a year, becoming the mother of twins, she increased the admiration of Edward's holiness.
1:56.6	Those who knew him more intimately affirmed that he often cured this complaint in Normandy.
2:02.0	Once appears how false is their notion, who in our times assert that the cure of this disease
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Unplugged, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Unplugged and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.