King's Evil

‘6th July, 1660. His Majesty began first to touch for

THE evil! according to custom, thus: his Majesty sitting

under his state in the banqueting house, the chirurgeons

cause the sick to be brought, or led, up to the throne,

where they kneeling, the King strokes their faces, or

cheeks with both his hands at once, at which instant a

chaplain in his formalities says, * He put his hands upon

them, and he healed them. This is said to every one

in particular. When they have all been touched, they

come up again in the same order, and the other chaplain

kneeling, and having angel gold  strung on white ribbon

on his arm, delivers them one by one to his Majesty,

who puts them about the necks of the touched as they

pass, while the first chaplain repeats, "That is the true

light who came into the world.  Then follows, an Epistle

(as at first a Gospel) with the Liturgy, prayers for the

sick, with some alteration; lastly the blessing; and then

the Lord Chamberlain and the Comptroller of the House-

hold bring a basin, ewer, and towel, for his Majesty to

wash...'

 

John Evelyn (Diary) witnessed a day of healing called the king’s evil on July 6, 1660.  Sir Walter Scott, in his “Tales of a Grandfather”, uses the term for healing attributed to King Robert II - Robert the Wise -  in France, as far back as the 11^th century.

‘King Robert's domestic government was of the same judicious and moderate character which distinguished his foreign politics. He used his royal power for the benefit of his subjects, and protected the lower and oppressed part of them, as much as the temper of the times permitted. His private charity was so extensive, that upwards of a thousand poor persons dined at his expense every day, and, in the excess of his humility, were, notwithstanding their disgusting rags and sores, permitted to approach his royal person. It is pretended he used to exercise upon them the supposed gift, claimed afterwards both by the Kings of France and England, of curing the disease called the king's evil, by their touch and their prayers. King Robert I. died, universally regretted, in 1031…’

Treaty of Edinburgh

On July 6, 1560, the Treaty of Edinburgh was signed, between Elizabeth I of England and France.  This treaty ended the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France, and of more direct import, the Siege of Leith, which had begun the previous year.  French troops, which had been encamped at Leith for twelve years, removed from Scotland permanently at this point.

Sir Walter Scott makes a comment in the introduction to his "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border" regarding Leith:

'The flame of reformation, long stifled in Scotland, now burst forth, with the violence of a volcanic eruption. The siege of Leith was commenced, by the combined forces of the Congregation and of England. The borderers cared little about speculative points of religion; but they shewed themselves much interested in the treasures which passed through their country, for payment of the English forces at Edinburgh. Much alarm was excited, lest the marchers should intercept these weighty protestant arguments; and it was, probably, by voluntarily imparting a share in them to Lord Home, that he became a sudden convert to the new faith.'

Simond's Switzerland

July 6 (1828).—A day of hard work. The second volume is now well advanced—wellnigh one half. Dined alone, and pursued my course after dinner. Seven pages were finished. Solitude's a fine thing for work, but then you must lie by like a spider, till you collect materials to continue your web. Began Simond's Switzerland—clever and intelligent, but rather conceited, as the manner of an American Frenchman. I hope to knock something out of him though.

Scott was working on "Anne of Geierstein" in 1828, as reflected in the entry above from Scott's Journal.  Louis Simond's 1822 publication "Switzerland, or, A Journal of a Tour and Residence in that Country, in the Years 1817,1818, and 1819" was one of his sources for material about the novel's setting.