r impediment," and
advises as follows: "For this matter let euery man make frendes to the
Kynges maiestie, for it doth pertayne to a Kynge to helpe this
infirmitie by the grace the whiche is geuen to a Kynge anoynted." In
his _Introduction to Knowledge_ (1547-1548) he continues: "The Kynges
of England by the power that God hath gyuen to them, dothe make sicke
men whole of a sickeness called the kynges euyll."[170]

There is a curious passage in Aubrey in which he says: "The curing of
the King's Evil by the touch of the king, does much puzzle our
philosophers, for whether our kings were of the house of York or
Lancaster, it did the cure for the most part." Sir John Fortescue, in
defending the House of Lancaster against the House of York, claimed
that the crown could not descend to a female because the Queen was not
qualified by the form of anointing her to cure the disease called the
king's-evil. It must have been very comforting to all concerned to find
that the power to cure disease by the royal touch had not been affected
by the change of sex of the reigning sovereign.

The gift was not impaired by the Reformation, and an obdurate Roman
Catholic was converted on finding that Elizabeth, after the Pope's
excommunication, could cure his scrofula. Elizabeth, however, could
not bring herself fully to accept the reality of these cures. She
continued the practice on account of the pressure of public opinion,
but upon one occasion she told a multitude of afflicted ones who had
applied to her for relief, "God alone can cure your diseases." Dr.
Tooker, the Queen's chaplain, though, certified freely to his own
knowledge of the cures wrought by her, as did also William Cowles, the
Queen's surgeon. Robert Laneham's letter, concerning the Queen's visit
to Kenilworth Castle, relates how, on July 18, 1575, her Majesty
touched for the evil, and that it was a "day of grace." "By her
highnes accustumed mercy and charitee, nyne cured of the peynfull and
daungerous diseaz, called the king's euill; for that Kings and Queenz
of this Realm withoout oother medsin (saue only by handling and
prayerz) only doo cure it."

James I wished to drop it as a worn-out superstition, but was warned
by his advisers that to do so would be to abate a prerogative of the
crown; the practice therefore continued, and good testimony exists as
to the cures wrought by him. The following is an extract from a letter
from John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton, am