Holy Man and Holy Days / I name this Castle /

Touching the King's Evil /Robbing the Poor / The Unlucky Sailor

Stories of the Castle

Touching the King's Evil

In the 1640s while England was split by Civil War, Jersey was held for the King. When Charles I was beheaded in 1649, his son was declared King Charles II, eleven years before he was crowned in England.

When Charles visited the island in 169 he was asked to perform a rather strange ceremony in Elizabeth Castle. Ever since the reign of Henry II in the 12^th century many people believed that the touch of a reigning monarch could cure the skin disease Scrofula which was more popularly known as the King's Evil.

On 4^th December eleven people diagnosed as scrofulous came to the castle where the new king touched each one "and all were cured". Altogether Charles cured 24 people during his stay in the island. He touched each person and said "May God heal thee" as they knelt in front of him.

After the Restoration in 1660 the "touchings" were a weekly event in London and it was said that 90,000 sufferers were touched. The last monarch to perform the ceremony was Charles' niece Queen Anne.

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