Royal touch
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The royal touch was a form of laying on of hands, whereby French and English monarchs touched their subjects, regardless of social classes, with the intent to cure them of various diseases and conditi
Mary I of England touching for scrofula, 16th-century illustration by Levina Teerlinc
A 15th-century manuscript depicting the tradition that Clovis I healed the scrofulous following his coronation.
Touch piece of Henry VI (r. 1422–1461)
Charles II performing the royal touch; engraving by Robert White (1684)
Anne, Queen of Great Britain
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Anne was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 8 March 1702, and Queen of Great Britain and Ireland following the ratification of the Acts of Union 1707 merging the kingdoms of England and Scot
Royal touch
…in what they considered superstition. When a subject asked him for a touch, William reputedly said: "God grant you better health and better sense." Anne (r. 1702–1714) reintroduced the practice almost as soon as she acceded, touching 30 people on 6 October and 20 on 19 December 1702. She took it very…
Anne (centre) and her sister Mary (left) with their parents, the Duke and Duchess of York, painted by Peter Lely and Benedetto Gennari II
Anne, c. 1684, painted by Willem Wissing and Jan van der Vaardt
Mary of Modena and James Francis Edward Stuart, Anne's stepmother and half-brother