Question from Alexandra - Sources for medieval and early modern ideas of kingship
posted by Lara | 8:10 PM
I've been keeping an eye on this excellent blog for a couple of years now (I usually pop up in the comments when there is a question about Latin), but now I have a question of my own.
I'm planning a paper for my Honours History of Medicine course in university about how attitudes towards kingship in medieval/early modern times made the king touching the neck of an afflicted person an acceptable cure for scrofula.
There are several primary source documents online that have to do with treating and curing scrofula, so I'm pretty much covered there. However, I have no idea where to start searching for primary sources on medieval/early modern ideas of kingship. I've found a lot of websites with a lot of primary sources; I just don't know what kind of documents I should concentrate on. Does anybody have any suggestions for sources I could use?
I'm planning a paper for my Honours History of Medicine course in university about how attitudes towards kingship in medieval/early modern times made the king touching the neck of an afflicted person an acceptable cure for scrofula.
There are several primary source documents online that have to do with treating and curing scrofula, so I'm pretty much covered there. However, I have no idea where to start searching for primary sources on medieval/early modern ideas of kingship. I've found a lot of websites with a lot of primary sources; I just don't know what kind of documents I should concentrate on. Does anybody have any suggestions for sources I could use?
8 Comments:
Good topic!
As a baseline, look at the coronation oaths, rituals (anointing with oil, consecration) and speeches of a couple monarchs.
Not sure exactly what time frame you're looking at but you might consider James VI/I's 'Basilicon Doron'. It should be available online in a variety of places. In it he writes about what he considers the king's role to be in the care of his people.
Other documents you might want to look at would be some of the writings of Elizabeth I printed in 'Elizabeth I: Collected Works' Marcus, Mueller and Rose (eds.). There are poems, speeches, and letters that show how Elizabeth considered her authority as monarch.
Kingship/queenship is a topic that uses analysis of how authority and power was recognized within the body of the monarch. So you can use a wide variety of sources to discuss the potency of the 'king'.
I'm sure others will have more ideas for you. But just about any document that discusses the power of the monarch will give you some material for your paper.
The chronicler William of Malmesbury describes Edward the Confessor touching for the King's Evil, but Henry VII could have been the first to have a special ceremony where he healed the sufferers and gave them a coin.
Comments on the healing powers of Francis I of France, Elizabeth I, Charles I etc from observers such as Wolsey, Cavendish & Pepys can be found at
www.thebookofdays.com/months/jan/9.htm
You can find King James's theories about the Divine Right of Kings in the speech he made to Parliament on 21 March 1609 (1610 new style) at
http://history.wisc.edu/
sommerville/351/Jamesdrk.htm
It begins,
'The State of Monarchie is the supremest thing upon earth: For Kings are not onely GODS Lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon GODS throne, but even by GOD himselfe they are called Gods.'
Also, his 'Trew Law of Free Monarchies' might interest you.
Hope this helps. Interesting topic - would love to know how you get on.
Marilyn R - Such very good suggestions!
Thanks for that, kb.
Alexandra,
I forgot to include the following when I made my first post - it has a good chapter called ‘The Royal Touch’, with lots of references,
'Primitive Psycho-Therapy & Quackery'
Robert Means Lawrence, M.D.
1910
I’ve just come upon it quite by chance when Googling (Google images) ‘Queen Mary king’s evil’, where it came up as the first reference. The whole book is online here at Project Gutenberg.
Google images also came up with the lovely decorated page showing Mary administering to a sufferer. Alas, I cannot remember where the page comes from! Perhaps you already know, or maybe someone else can help.
Is this the image you're referring to Marilyn?
http://tudorhistory.org/blogpics/marys_touch.jpg
I don't have the source at hand here at work, but I can look it up when I get home.
That's the one!
Argh! The only credits I keep finding for the image is "Westminster Cathedral Library" but no information on which book or manuscript it originally is from. By the way, there is another illustration that I assume is from the same source of "Mary Blessing Cramp Rings on Good Friday".
It might require a little deeper digging to find the original source, but I'll keep an eye out for it while I slowly work my way through putting my new image database together.
Oh wow! I've been holding off checking on this for a couple of days because I was worried this was too weird a topic and nobody would reply... I shouldn't have doubted.
Thank you all so much for your ideas! These are exactly what I was looking for.
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