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Post by Jaga on Jan 1, 2015 15:11:07 GMT -7
Guys, just to start a New Year with something educational. What do we call as "Royal Touch" and how was it preventing from spreading the diseases in the Middle Ages and later and why did English kings stop doing it?  The reason is actually pretty funny. By the way, it was not just Jensen and Pasteur who discovered how to prevent small pox but people in Turkey and Egypt knew how to get infected in order not to get killed in the past also. |
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Post by JustJohn or JJ on Jan 2, 2015 11:30:11 GMT -7
The simplest answer is that it doesn't. Here's more info. The royal touch (also known as the king's touch) was a form of laying on of hands, whereby French and English monarchs would touch their subjects, regardless of social classes, with the intent to cure them of various diseases and conditions.[1][2][3][4] The thaumaturgic touch was most commonly applied to people suffering from tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis (better known as scrofula or the King's Evil), and exclusively to them from 16th century onwards.[2] The disease rarely resulted in death and often went into remission on its own, giving the impression that the monarch's touch cured it.[4] The claimed power was most notably exercised by monarchs who sought to demonstrate the legitimacy of their reign and of their newly founded dynasties. 
Mary I of England touching for scrofula.
Illustration to Queen Mary's manual for
blessing cramp-rings and touching for
the Evil by Levina Teerlinc (16th-century) Louis XIV touching the scrofulous
in 1690; painting by Jean JouvenetLouis XIII (r. 1610–1643) and Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715) both actively took part in touching ceremonies. The latter touched 1,600 people on Easter 1680. [3] Voltaire (1694–1778) scornfully wrote that he had lost confidence in the royal touch upon hearing that a mistress of Louis XIV died of scrofula "despite being very well touched by the king". [8] After 1722, the sentence exclaimed by the king upon touching the infected changed to the more hopeful: "The King touches you, may God heal you." (French: "Le Roy te touche et Dieu te guérisse.") The new formula, rather than implying that God would inevitably grant the monarch's wish, was a prayer that may or may not result in a cure. Louis XV (r. 1715–1774) was skeptical about the royal touch. He performed it early in his reign, but caused a scandal when he failed to summon the scrofulous at Eastertide in 1739 and never again touched the diseased.[9][10] The custom was thus suspended for 36 years, until Louis XVI (r. 1774–1792) revived it at his coronation on 11 June 1775 by touching 2,400 people. That was probably the only time he touched the scrofulous.[8][10] At his coronation on 29 May 1825, Charles X (r. 1824–1830) touched 121 of his subjects; the royal touch was never again employed.[5] |
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Post by Jaga on Jan 2, 2015 21:53:24 GMT -7
John, thanks for taking part in the research and finding out what Royal Touch is. Scrofulas were sometimes going away, so there was some valid suspicion that royals could help ! I am not surprised that Voltaire lost his faith is king's healing powers  |
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The reason is actually pretty funny.
