Scrofula

During the Middle Ages it was believed in England and France that a touch from royalty could heal skin disease known as or the “monarch's evil touch”. Scrofula symptoms included swelling of the lymph nodes in the neck caused by tuberculosis. King Edward the Confessor in England (1003–1066) and Philip (1052–1108) in France first began this practice. English and French inherited this ‘king's touch’ with the idea of their right to rule was God-given. In ceremonies, kings would touch the crowds of people plagued with scrofula. The people received special gold coins called ‘touch–pieces’ which they treated as amulets.  By the late 1400s it was believed that an individual could be cured by an ‘angel’ coin that was touched by the monarch. Many kinds were not afraid to touch people such as King Henry IV of France, who touched up to 1500 diseased victims at one campaign. The last English monarch to carry out this practice was Queen Anne, who died in 1714 with the plague continuing in France long after her death. Louis XV had touched around two thousand scrofula victims and the last French monarch, Charles X touched a generous amount of 1825 victims. In the beginning of the 18^th c., Elizabeth Pearan, an Irish herbalist developed a treatment for scrofula. Involving herbs and a poultice this extraction cured the deadly disease. In 1815 Sir Gerard Noel petitioned to the House of Commons advocating Pearson’s treatment. Finally in the 19^th c., America advertised the cure for scrofula.