King's Evil
Preserved but no longer current.
Scrofula; so called from a notion which prevailed from the reign of Edward the Confessor to that of Queen Anne that it could be cured by the royal touch. The Jacobites considered that the power did not descend to William III and Anne because the "divine" hereditary right was not fully pos- sessed by them, but the office remained m our Prayer-Book till 1719.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “King's Evil” mean?
Scrofula; so called from a notion which prevailed from the reign of Edward the Confessor to that of Queen Anne that it could be cured by the royal touch. The Jacobites considered that the power did not descend to William III and Anne because the "divine" hereditary right was not fully pos- sessed by them, but the office remained m our Prayer-Book till 1719.
Is “King's Evil” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.