A01=Stephen Brogan
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Stephen Brogan
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belief
body politic
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HB
Category=HD
Category=N
cessation of miracles
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
early modern debates
Early Modern England
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
governance
healing
intellectual history
Language_English
medicine
monarch
monarchical authority
PA=Available
politics
power struggle
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
religious healing ceremony
Royal Touch
scepticism
scrofula
softlaunch
Stuart reigns
Tudor reigns
Product details
- ISBN 9780861933525
- Weight: 424g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 21 Feb 2020
- Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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First modern analysis of the custom of the "royal touch" in the Tudor and Stuart reigns.
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.
This 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 problemsfor those organising the ceremony. The healing rite is situated in the context of a number of early 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 to scepticism. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources including images, coins, medals, and playing cards, as well as manuscripts and printed texts, it provides animportant new perspective on the evolving relationship between politics, medicine and sin in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England.
Stephen Brogan is a Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he teaches early modern history.
