The royal touch in early modern England : politics, medicine and sin

Resource Information

The work The royal touch in early modern England : politics, medicine and sin represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The royal touch in early modern England : politics, medicine and sin

Title remainder

politics, medicine and sin

Statement of responsibility

Stephen Brogan

Creator

• Brogan, Stephen

Subject

• Healing -- Religious aspects -- 16th century
• Healing -- Religious aspects -- 17th century
• Kings and rulers -- Rites and ceremonies
• Queens -- Rites and ceremonies
• Royal touch
• Scrofula -- Treatment
• England

Language

eng

Summary

The royal touch was the religious healing ceremony at which the monarch stroked the sores on the face and necks of people who had scrofula in order to heal them in imitation of Christ. The rite was practised by all the Tudor and Stuart sovereigns apart from William III, reaching its zenith during the Restoration when some 100,000 people were touched by Charles II and James II.<BR> This ground-breaking book, the first devoted to the royal touch for almost a century, integrates political, religious, medical and intellectual history. The custom is analysed from above and below: the royal touch projected monarchical authority, but at the same time the great demand for it created numerous problems for those organising the ceremony. The healing rite is situated in the context of a number ofearly modern debates, including the cessation of miracles and the nature of the body politic. The book also assesses contemporary attitudes towards the royal touch, from belief through ambivalence toscepticism. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources including images, coins, medals, and playing cards, as well as manuscripts and printed texts, it provides an important new perspective on the evolving relationship between politics, medicine and sin in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England.--

Member of

• Royal Historical Society studies in history, New series

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Series statement

• Royal Historical Society Studies in History New Series,
• Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks