Touching for the King’s Evil. It is said that scrofulous diseases were at one time very prevalent in the island, and that Edward the Confessor, in answer to earnest prayer, was told it would be cured by the royal touch. Edward, being gifted with this miraculous power, transmitted it as an heir-loom to his successors. Henry VII. presented each person touched with a small coin, called a touch-piece or touch-penny.
Charles II. of England, during his reign, touched as many as 92,107 persons; the smallest number (2983) being in the year 1669, and the largest number in 1684, when many were trampled to death (see Macaulay’s History of England, xiv.). In these “touchings,” John Brown, a royal surgeon, superintended the ceremony. (See Macbeth, act iv. sc. 3.)
Prince Charles Edward, who claimed to be prince of Wales, touched a female child for the disease in 1745.
The French kings claimed the same divine power from Anne of Clovis, A.D. 481. And on Easter Sunday, 1686, Louis XIV. touched 1600, using these words, Le roy te touche, Dieu te guerisse.
⁂ Dr. Johnson was the last person touched. The touch-piece given to him has on one side this legend, Soli Deo gloria, and on the other side, Anna D: G. M. BR. F: et H. REG. (“Anne, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, queen”).
Our good Edward he, the Confessor and king ...
That cancred evil cured, bred ’twixt the throat and jaws,
When physic could not find the remedy nor cause ...
He of Almighty God obtained by earnest prayer,
This tumor by a king might curêd be alone,