[Royal Medical Broadside, cure for Scrofula] “At the Court of Whitehall the Ninth of [J]anuary 1683..."

King's Evil or SCROFULA, broadside. – CHARLES II, King of England.

[Royal Medical Broadside, cure for Scrofula] "At the Court of Whitehall the Ninth of [J]anuary 1683. … Whereas by the Grace and Bl[e]ssing of God, the Kings and Queens of this Realm by many Ages past, have had the happiness by their Sacred Touch, and Invocation of the name of God, to cure those who are afflicted with the Disease called the Kings-Evil … His Majesty was therefore pleased to Declare in Council His Royal Will and Pleasure to be, That …the times of Publick Healings shall from henceforth be from the Feast of All Saints … till a week before Christmas: and after Christmas until the First day of March …".

London: printed by the Assigns of John Bill Deceas'd; And by Henry Hills, and Thomas Newcomb, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty, 1683.

Printed broadside (14 ¼ x 11 ¼ inches approx.). Woodcut royal arms at head, large decorative initial.

Condition: laid down onto old tissue, some loss at old folds, margins frayed, some surface soiling.

From the Middle Ages in England and France it was believed that scrofula, or "the King’s Evil," could be cured by the Monarch’s touch; ceremonies were held in which hundreds of the afflicted would gather to be touched, and "healed." The present broadside, setting the dates for a number of such ceremonies, is rare on the market: no copies are listed for sale, and none have appeared at auction.

The last English monarch to carry out this practice was Queen Anne, who died in 1714, but it continued in France. Louis XV touched more than 2000 scrofula sufferers, and the last French monarch to do this was Charles X in 1825 (Science Museum, London).

Cf. F Barlow, "The King's Evil," The English Historical Review, 95/374 (January 1980), pp 3-27; M Bloch,The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973).

ESTC R34884 (11 copies in UK, 6 in US); OCLC 15328355 (2 copies); Wing E-831