In the Middle Ages it was believed that "royal touch", the touch of the sovereign of England or France, could cure diseases because sovereigns were appointed by the Divine. Scrofula was therefore also known as the King's Evil. The kings were thought to have received this power due to their descent from Edward the Confessor, who, according to some legends, received it from Saint Remigius. From 1633, the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church contained a ceremony for this, and it was traditional for the monarch (king or queen) to present to the touched person a coin —usually an Angel, a gold coin the value of which varied from about 6 shillings to about 10 shillings. King Henry IV of France is reported as often touching and healing as many as 1,500 individuals at a time.
Queen Anne touched the infant (later Doctor) Samuel Johnson in 1712, but King George I put an end to the practice as being "too Catholic". The kings of France continued the custom until Louis XV stopped it in the 1700s, though it was briefly revived to universal derision in 1825
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