and Archbishop of Canterbury, described the usage in question as already
long-established in his time; and Sir John Fortescue, Lord Chief Justice
of England, during Henry the Sixth's reign, declared that the English
kings had exercised this privilege from time immemorial.

In a small tract published by His Majesty's command, entitled, "The
Ceremonies for the Healing of them that be diseased with the King's
Evil, used in the Time of King Henry VII" (1456-1509), we find that it
was customary for the patients to kneel before the king during the
religious exercises, which were conducted by the chaplain. After laying
his hands upon them, the monarch crossed the affected portion of the
body of each patient with an "Angel of Gold Noble." This coin bore as
its device the archangel Michael, standing upon and piercing a dragon.
In later reigns it was replaced by a small golden or silver medal,
having the same emblem, and known as a _touch-piece_.

Andrew Borde, in his "Breviary of Health" (1547, the last year of the
reign of Henry VIII), in reference to the King's Evil, wrote as follows:
"For this matter, let every man make friendes to the Kynges Majestie,
for it doth perteyne to a Kynge to helpe this infirmitie, by the grace
of God, the which is geven to a king anoynted. But forasmuch as some men
doth judge divers times a fystle or a French pocke to be the king's
evill, in such matters it behoveth not a kynge to medle withall."

Queen Elizabeth, who reigned from 1558 to 1603, continued the practice,
as we are informed by her chaplain, Rev. Dr. William Tooker, who
published in 1590 a quarto volume on the subject, in which he claimed
that the power of healing by touch had been exercised by royal
personages from a very early period. He asserted that the Queen never
refused touching any one who applied for relief, if, upon examination by
her medical advisers, the applicant was found to be affected with the
King's Evil. The Queen was especially disposed to touch indigent
persons, who were unable to pay for private treatment. Although averse
to the practice, Queen Elizabeth continued to exercise the prerogative,
doubtless from philanthropic motives, and in deference to the popular
wish. William Clowes, an eminent contemporary practitioner, and chief
surgeon of Bartholomew's Hospital, London, in a monograph issued in
1602, wrote that the _struma_ or _evill_ was known to be "miraculously
healed by the sacred hands of the Queene's most