CHAPTER 7: SMALL BUSINESS STRATEGIES: IMITATION WITH A TWIST
Chapter Summary
This chapter introduces a number of tools – some of which have been touched on in earlier chapters: industry analysis, SWOT analysis, industry life cycle, and Porter’s generic strategies. The strategic planning process is discussed as are the strategic options a firm faces. The types of benefits that win customers are explored and the concept of competitive advantage is introduced.
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, the student should be able to:
1. Describe the decisions needed to establish a foundation for strategic planning.
2. Identify the forms for imitative and innovative businesses.
3. Articulate the benefits that win over customers.
4. Assess how industry changes affect strategies.
5. Explain the major strategies of business – differentiation, cost, and focus.
6. Determine how to sustain competitive advantage through attracting customers and discouraging competition.
Focus on Small Business: Mindnautilus.com
Taking a family idea that had been proposed at the wrong time, Nick Tostenrude and Dennis Moulton formed Mindnautilus, a firm that sold cognitive functioning software via the Internet to people recovering from brain trauma. They have since expanded into related assistive devices and other software for disabled or injured people through their firm Enablemart. The key to their success? Finding the right niche.
Instructor information:
The Mindnautilus case is a great example of the idea of the “corridor principle.” While most folks in entrepreneurship think of it as coming from Bob Ronstadt (Ronstadt, R.C. 1988. The corridor principle. Journal of Business Venturing, 3, no. 1: 31-40), the idea was actually a major tenet of career theorist Samuel Osipow’s open systems model of careers (Theories of career development, 1973). Both authors liken career experience (regular or entrepreneurial) to walking down a corridor full of closed doors. As you walk down the corridor of life as an entrepreneur, you get the chance to open some of the doors. Some of the doors may set you on a new path.
That is what happened to Nick and Dennis. They ended up changing the fundamental strategies of their business – from software to retailing, from conventional sales to the fledgling internet sales, and from a focus on their own products to a focus on the products
of others. What was comparatively constant in their approach was their focus on their customer segment (those with handicaps who would benefit from assistive devices), and how to best serve this group.
The case is a great starting point for students who only have an inkling of what kind of business they think might work, and it serves as a cautionary tale to those who are absolutely certain they know exactly what needs to be done. Nick and Dennis’ strength from a strategic analysis standpoint is that they let the information they gathered guide their identification and articulation of a business. Their initial passion for the software sustained their hard work learning about the industry, the market and the needs out there, but when the data began to point to other businesses, they let reason come to the front, helping to identify a business that would work. Armed with this insight, they reignited and refocused their passion on making the retailing business work.
For all these reasons, Mindnautilus is a great starting point for thinking about the power of strategic analysis, and a good transition from the discussion of entrepreneurial paths, which we’ve looked at in the prior 2 chapters, to the discussion of specific entrepreneurial actions.
Discussion Questions
1. What were the strengths Mindnautilus possessed? What were the weaknesses it faced?
Their strengths were that they had an in-depth understanding of the target market – people with cognitive disabilities. The market was large. They also had extensive (for the time) knowledge about creating Internet shopping sites using available software. Combining the large market and the Internet, they had a good fit of sales channel (online) and market (diffuse). They had the some support from Dennis’ father (who created the software), and there were two partners available to work, Nick and Dennis, and they had time to devote to the business.
The weaknesses were a lack of suitable sales channels for the product, a lack of customers with the right equipment for using the therapeutic software, and ramping up the software to meet customer expectations in a more sophisticated market. The team lacked the funds to finish the R&D.
2. What would Mindnautilus do better than its competition?
Mindnautilus focused on being a superior marketing organization. Their website offered a variety of assistive products. They marketed their website to major organizations (like Microsoft and Goodwill) gaining credibility and visibility. Building on this, they would become one of the most effective sales outlets for many of their suppliers, strengthening their relationships with suppliers, and decreasing the chance of suppliers competing with
3. What kind of strategy did Nick and Dennis plan for Mindnautilus?
The original plan was to create a software company. The final plan was to create an online store (or catalog). Some folks will take Nick’s comment at face value “Find a niche”. Indeed, Mindnautilus fills a niche for assistive technologies for the disabled. But is the disabled a niche? It absolutely can be seen as one.
However, some folks could make the argument that the disabled are actually a mass market (millions of people scattered all over the country or world), and Mindnautilus followed a differentiation strategy, giving their mass market customers a broader selection, or the convenience of one-stop shopping, or the benefit of the expertise of Mindnautilus. Using this sort of approach, an answer of a mass-market differentiation strategy might be supportable. Not knowing from the case the advertising approach used, a student could reasonably go either way, although the niche market approach is the simpler and more straightforward answer.
4. Do you think Dennis and Nick could have predicted they would start Enablemart when they started Mindnautilus? Why or why not?
It is unlikely that Dennis and Nick could have predicted their becoming a retailer when their intention was to sell software. They might have figured they would have to market their own product, but the idea of become a clearinghouse for other companies’ products might have seemed at first to be a major distraction from their goal of getting their own software into the marketplace.
Extended Chapter Outline
Objective 1: Describe the decisions needed to establish a foundation for strategic planning.
• Strategy is the idea and actions that explain how the firm will make its profit.
o Good strategy leads to greater chances of survival and higher profits
o Since most small businesses are imitative rather than innovative, strategy becomes very important.
• Strategy is a four step process:
o Goals, customer and benefits, industry dynamics and analysis, and strategy selection and implementation.
o Each have specific tool discussed in the book.
o After these four steps there is the continuing post start-up tactics phase.
o The types of customers you seek and what benefits you plan to offer them.
o The stag and trend of your chosen industry.
o The specific generic and supra strategies you choose to pursue.
• The goals segment is the time for five basic decisions:
o What do you expect from the business?
o What is your product or service?
o How innovative or imitative will you be?
o Who do you plan to sell to?
o Where do you plan to sell?
• The first goal question to answer deals with your own expectations
o What rewards (as discussed in Chapter 1) are important to you?
o What is your magic number?
o This reward is the “why” which drives the process of entrepreneurship.
Skills Module 7.1: Finding Your Magic Number
o
Working with the income you’d like to draw from your business, you compute backwards to the total sales figure your firm will need. This number can then be used to calculate what you need to accomplish each day in order to make those sales.
• The product or service is the second goal decision to be made.
o 37% of businesses start with an idea while another 21 % have the idea and the desire to start a business simultaneously.
o The idea gets real as either a product or service.
o A product or service idea implies an industry.
Select an industry that offers good potential for making a profit and with a minimum of risk and competition, a combination known as industry attractiveness.
Use either the NAICS or SIC code to find more information about the industry.
Skill Module 7.2: Finding Your Firm’s Industry
This exercise helps students determine their firm’s NAICS and SIC codes.
If the classroom is smart, work through this exercise in class, but for something other than a restaurant. Use this industry throughout the lecture to illustrate other techniques as well.
Teaching tool: Have the students work in groups. Give each group several copies of trade magazines for different industries. If available, have them use the Internet to find NAICS or SIC number, and other trade associations that might be affiliated with the industry. Have them visit the Websites of these associations and other trade magazines. From all this information, they should be able to compose a list of helps for starting a business in this industry.
Objective 2: Identify the forms for imitative and innovative businesses.
• For most small businesses, the owner will want to be a lot alike the rest of the industry – with something that distinguishes them from their competition.
• Businesses have several choices.
o Many do more or less what others do in an imitative strategy.
Advantages include being able to buy existing technology.
Vendors and service suppliers are familiar with what you are doing.
Customers already know about your product or service and you don’t have to educate them.
o An innovative strategy is pursued by those firms doing something very different than what’s been done before.
The advantage here is making your business precisely fit your own ideas and preferences.
The main disadvantage is in the energy needed to market these products.
o Most firms operate somewhere on the continuum of purely innovative to “cloned,” imitative businesses, and varying on degrees of similarity.
If your business if basically the same as the competition with a few minor differences, you are following a parallel competition approach.
Add a few more significant changes in one or two key areas, and you are following an incremental innovation approach.
A brand new product or service is pure innovation, also known as blue ocean strategy.
Parallel innovation makes up of using the standard-setter’s approach for lower start-up costs but without the standard-setter’s mistakes.
Incremental innovation takes it to a new level by picking one area in which to do much better than the pioneer or to borrow something from another industry and use it.
• The second step in the strategy process focuses on the kind of customer to whom you want to sell and the benefits that will attract them.
• A market is a business term for the population of customers for your product or service.
A market’s scale may cover large portions of the populations – a mass market.
It may also cover a narrowly defined segment of the populations – a niche market.
Most industries have both mass and niche markets
o Scope looks at the market’s geographic spread.
A market’s scope may be local to global; most small businesses tend to be local in scope.
Scope helps you determine where to focus your sales and advertising efforts.
Scope also helps you identify the more important competitors.
o In the goal step, the key is to bring together the decisions that underlie the business you hope to run.
Objective 3: Articulate the benefits that win over customers.
• Strategy and marketing are closely connected in the planning and everyday operations of a business because they define the who, how and why of the business operation.
o Marketing is the actin of a business related to promoting and selling goods or services.
Marketing focuses on value proposition while strategy focuses on competitive advantage.
The focus here is on the kind of customer to whom you want to sell and the benefits that will attract them.
• There are certain groups of customers considered attractive:
o Corporate customers: B2B sales exceed B2C.
o Loyal customers: the ones who return and are pre-sold.
o Local customers: in the digital age “local” has more to do with the relationship you develop.
o Passionate customers: those who rave about your business.
• Thinking about who your potential customers will be helps you find them.
Skill
o One key decision in finding the customers is to offer them benefits they want.
Module 7.3:
Checking Customer Opinion Online
This exercise leads students through checking for on-line opinions in order to be able to produce and market a new iPhone case acceptable to consumers.
Students are lead through a series of increasingly less direct ways to find opinions and are warned of fraudulent reviews.
• Benefits are how you appeal to your target customer base.
o Value benefits include quality, style, delivery, service, technology, shopping ease, personalization, assurance, place, credit, brand reputation, belonging and altruism.
o Cost benefits come from lower costs, scale savings, or scope savings and learning and organizational practices.
• As you decide what benefits to offer you can use perceptual mapping, a powerful strategic analysis tool explored further in the Skills Module below.
Skills Module 7.4: Building Perceptual Maps
The Skills Module leads students through the process of creating a perceptual map of EnableMart.
Objective 4: Assess how industry changes affect strategy
• Industry refers also to your competitors.
o You will want to consider your industry dynamics, that is, the changes in competitors, sales and profits.
o Industries move in traditional ways:
During introduction stage there are only a few firms.
• They are innovative.
• The number of firms and their sales grow slowly.
Once customers are more aware there are two growth stage possibilities:
• Most firms grow at a regular rate where the growth in new firms more or less meets customer demand.
• Alternatively, there are some ‘hot” products or services with grow extremely rapidly.
o Other firms jump into the market to take advantage of this growth or boom.
o As the boom ends, there is a shake-out where many of the firms close down.
Once the industry reached a fairly stable number of firms, the industry has reached the maturity stage
Eventually mature industries start to decline.
Decline results in death for some industries while other go through retrenchment.
o Industry dynamics inform you about the prospects of your industry as a whole and can be evaluated through an industry analysis. Industry analysis can be a good way for you to look at cutting costs or leveraging other resources in order to meet you magic number.
o Knowing the stage or trend of the industry will help you make certain business decisions.
If the industry is established, you will be able to find location, equipment and experienced workers.
If the industry is in earlier stages, you may need to spend more time and money as those resources will not be readily available.
If the analysis shows a large number of competitors, you will carefully analyze their positions to see if you can find the right niche in order to be successful
• A table with current sources of data of IA is provided.
•
Skill Module 7.5: Short and Sweet Industry Analysis:
This exercise helps the student conduct the five steps of an Industry Analysis:
1. SIC/NACIS number
2. Industry size over time
3. Profitability, including gross profit, net profit, and profit before taxes.
4. How profits are made
5. Target market competitor concentration
6. Analysis
7. Sources
While doing an IA is an important step in exploring possible industries, the fact that some of this information is “for pay” only can be discouraging. Many universities allow graduates (and sometimes the general public) permanent access to library resources. Other times, a SCORE office may be affiliated with a university and may be able to help get the information you need.
Objective 5: Explain the major strategies of business – differentiation, cost, and focus.
• The three classic strategies possible are so widely applicable that they are called generic strategies.
o Showing how your products or services are different than your competition’s products or services is known as differentiation strategy. This strategy is aimed at a mass market.
o Cost strategy, also aimed at mass markets, shows how your product or service offers cost benefits the competition does not.
o Concentrating efforts on a segment of the mass market is known as focus strategy.
A focus strategy generally uses aspects of cost or differentiation as well.
A small firm (especially service firms) often focuses on a specific geographic area and competes within this area on cost or differentiation.
• As an extension, there are a number of small business supra-strategies that can be pursued:
Teaching tool: List a number of businesses with which your students are familiar. For the purposes of this exercise, you may use both small and large businesses. Have students decide which generic strategy then think they follow as well as suprastrategies strategies as appropriate.
• Knowing your intended level of imitation tells you a lot about your business as shown in Table 7.2.
• Occasionally, however, opportunities pop up and you may need to consider a quick pivot.
o These opportunities are called entry wedges:
Supply shortages.
Unutilized resources
Customer contracting.
Second sourcing.
Market relinquishment.
Favored purchasing.
Government rules.
Small Business Insights: Initiative for a Competitive Inner City
Sundra Ryce founded SLR Construction Service Company in Buffalo, New York’s inner city, using the “unutilized resources” entry wedge.
Have students identify other companies that have made use of this entry wedge.
• At this point:
o The industry analysis shows you if you are in the right industry and where your competitors are and the current industry stage.
o Your earlier decision about imitative or innovative strategy has been made.
o Now it’s time to decide how to set up your firm in order to implement these strategies.
Objective 6: Determine how to sustain competitive advantage through attracting customers and discouraging competition.
• The goal of strategy after the start-up stage is to maximize profits or other rewards and protecting your business from competition.
o This is the step of securing competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is the particular way your firm stays ahead of other firms in the industry based on the way you implement the customer benefits you have selected
o It’s harder than it looks to determine this because there are a number of threats a firm faces. These are captured in Porter’s five force model:
Suppliers
Buyers
New Entrants
Substitutions
Competition
• The major ways you cope with competitive pressures is by undertaking a combination of strategic actions and tactical actions.
o Exhibit 7.3 lists strategic and tactical competitive actions.
• Strategy is the way an entrepreneur plots the path to success. Every business has a strategy and successful businesses have strategies that fit their industry, market and resources
Key Terms
Blue ocean strategy: a strategy based on creating a new product or service which has no competition.
Boom: a stage of extremely rapid growth.
Competitive advantage: the particular way a firm implements customer benefits that keeps the firm ahead of other firms in the industry or market.
Competitors: any other businesses in the same industry as yours
Cost strategy: a generic strategy aimed at mass markets in which a firm offers a combination of cost benefits that appeal to the customer.
Decline: a life cycle stage in which when sales and profits of the industry begin a falling trend.
Degree of similarity: the extent to which a product or service is like another.
Differentiation strategy: a type of generic strategy that is aimed at clarifying how one product is unlike another in a mass market.
Maturity stage: the third life cycle stage marked by a stabilization of demand, with firms in the industry moving to stabilize or improve profits through cost strategies.
Net profit: what is left after operating expenses for the business.
Niche market: a narrowly defined segment of the population that is likely to share interests or concerns.
Parallel competition: an imitative business competing locally with others in the same industry.
Perceptual map: a graphic display which positions produce, services, brands or companies according to their score on important strategic dimensions.
Profit before taxes: what the owner or owners take out of the firm annually.
Pure innovation: the process of creating new products or services, which results in a previously unseen product or service.
Retrenchment: an organizational life cycle stage for established firms that involves finding new approaches pursued to improve the business and its chances for survival.
Scale: a characteristic of a market, which describes is the size of the market; a mass market or a niche market.
Scope: a characteristic of a market, which tells the geographic range covered by the market – from local to global.
Shake-out: after a boom when only the strongest firms remain viable.
Strategic actions: competitive responses requiring a major commitment of resources.
Supply chain: a way to think about the line of distribution of a product from its start a material s outside the target firm, to its handling in the target firm, to its handling by seller, with placement into the hands of the customers.
Tactical actions: responses with low resources requirements.
Value proposition: small business owners’ unique selling points (or benefits) that customers can expect from your goods or services including benefits that differentiate your offering from those of competition
Discussion Questions:
NOTE: many questions allow for a number of different answers. Below are some suggestions.
1. The book asserts “All strategy stars with the owner.” Many of the gurus of strategy say strategy starts with the environment outside the firm. Which do you think is true? Be ready to back it up.
Answers will vary. There is some truth in both statements. A potential entrepreneur starts with an idea and develops a strategy to take it to fruition; this is support for the first. What in happening in the environment, separate and most likely preceding the entrepreneur’s decisions has a tremendous effect on what the entrepreneur should do or even if his idea is feasible; in other words, the entrepreneur’s strategy is molded by the environment.
2. A lot of famous entrepreneurs brag how innovative their product is, when it is fundamentally like the competition, although better in one way or another. How do you classify such entrepreneurs in terms of the innovation/imitation balance?
While there is room for discussion, most would agree that they are really purely imitative or incrementally imitative.
3. Imagine you have developed a new two-way GPS system for trucks and their dispatchers. Trucking companies are all over the country. So are you looking at a mass market? Why or why not?
NOTE: This question advances some ideas about target markets further developed in the marketing chapters to follow.
No, in a true mass market, anyone is a potential customer. In this niche market, only a small sub-segment of the B2B market (trucking companies) are the market. (Yes, there may be spillover sales into other B2B or B2C markets, but this is not likely where the firm would put its efforts.)
4. What are the differences between innovative and imitative strategies? Which is more likely to be something a small business can pursue?
Businesses pursuing imitative strategies do more or less what other businesses in that industry are doing. Businesses pursuing an innovative strategy are trying to do something substantially different from what has been done to date in that industry (or even – in extreme cases - start a new industry). They differ in the level of prior knowledge about the product, service or market (imitative reflects higher prior knowledge). They differ in the level of risk perceived –with innovation seen as riskier. They differ in the assurance people perceive in cost and profit projections – again with innovation seen as riskier.
Small businesses are more likely to pursue (and be able to pursue) an imitative
strategy. It is more likely because more people do elect imitative approaches (as the PSED shows), and the existence of franchising as a major approach to start-ups reflects an extreme version of imitation. Following an imitative strategy also helps a small business leverage existing technologies, markets and knowledge about your product or service among customers and other stakeholders. This approach increases the initial legitimacy of a small business.
Some small business founders elect an innovative strategy. It allows them to do things their own way, and can possibly position them where competition is less. It is riskier insofar as customers, investors or suppliers may be uncertain about the innovation or its likelihood of success, and this makes legitimating the business more problematic.
5. Pick a small business with which all the class is familiar. Discuss what are the customer benefits that the business is trying to offer. Could they do a better job if they chose some other benefit?
Answers will vary.
6. Small businesses that pursue cost (or focus) strategy often do so by using a location in a very low-rent district, with the store itself made up of used furniture, no decoration, and a very no-frills atmosphere. What is the problem with such an approach? Can you think of other ways to achieve low-cost without encountering similar problems?
The low-rent, no-frills approach forgoes almost any possible value benefit the consumer might get from purchasing the product or service.
Answers will vary as to solutions but some things that could be considered include starting with an Internet only approach, use consignment, start at home or forgo some size in order to afford a better location or fixtures.
7. What is the competitive advantage of a business, and how does it lead to success?
Competitive advantage is the particular way you implement your customer benefits that keeps your firm ahead of other firms in your industry or market. Competitive advantage is your firm’s “edge” in meeting and beating the competition.
Competitive advantage works by helping customers distinguish your firm from others in the industry or locality. When your advantage matches the customer’s desires, loyalty is built and sales are strengthened. Having a competitive advantage that is difficult for others to copy can help you sustain
the sales and loyalty advantages. It offers protection from competition.
8. In the life cycle of a young firm, how can you tell when it has left the introductory stage and entered the growth stage?
a. In the growth stage, customers begin to notice the product or service and buy significantly more of it (vs. a need for the seller to educate the potential customer about the product in the introductory stage).
b. In the Growth Stage there is a burst of new companies providing the product or service, and high variation in the offerings (vs. few companies and some variation in offerings for introductory stage).
c. In the Growth Stage, sales boom, suggesting the beginnings of a mass market (vs. niche for introductory stage).
d. In the Growth Stage, the major customer segment is the Early Majority (vs. Early Adopter for introductory stage).
Experiential Exercises
1. Get the industry statistic you need form the government. Go to Census Industry Snapshot page (www.census.gov/econ/snapshots) and look up “lawn and garden equipment and supplies stores” (NAICS 4442 ). Our goal is to get information on stores in Vermont, so check Vermont on “Change Geography: option to see the statewide numbers. How many stores were the statewide last count?
At press time the answer was 85 for 2012.
2. Look at hamburger restaurants. How do they pursue imitative status and when do they offer innovation.
Answers will vary.
3. Pick five online businesses in the same industry. From their websites, see if you can identify what they think is their competitive advantage. Do you agree with their assessment? Why or why not?
You can go about this having students (or student teams) work up their comparisons. Make sure they write down their comparison points (and their basis for making the point – otherwise they get lost or forgotten). You can also specify an industry and sites and let students report on their findings – a “see what you can add” approach works well to get new ideas up on the board.
To stick with the hamburger example McDonalds keeps trying all sorts of ways to change what folks see as its competitive advantages (ready availability, absolute consistency, low price, relatively low price, relatively fast drive-through, little kids’ acceptance), to something more upscale and
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before him; but that title was afterward discontinued, and not used by any succeeding monarch, till the reign of James the first. The most potent among these crowned heads was Canute, being the sovereign of Denmark and Norway as well as of England. That he possessed great talents is allowed on all hands; and though he was cruel here at first, he gradually became mild, devout, and popular. Though an usurper and a foreigner, he was, perhaps, next to Alfred, the wisest of our ancient kings, if not also the most virtuous and enlightened, especially towards the close of his reign: of which his memorable adventure, or experiment with the tide, and with the miserable sycophants of his court, on the seashore, seems a pretty strong indication. That he was also superstitious, and an admirer of relics, must not be denied: but it was likewise the case with all the most eminent of the princes of those days, the great Alfred himself not excepted. There is a remarkable air of honest simplicity in the reason given by Canute for undertaking a voyage, or journey to Rome, which he did a few years before he died:—“I had been told (said he) that the apostle Peter had received great authority from the Lord, and carried the keys of heaven: therefore I thought it absolutely necessary to secure his favour by a pilgrimage to Rome.”—How many of our modern visionaries and devotees would appear more respectable than Canute, were they as honestly to avow their motives, or give the reason of their proceedings?
In adverting to the princes, or sovereigns of this period, to whom the town of Lynn was in subjection, Edward, called the Confessor, must not be left unnoticed: not so much for any shining qualities, or great respectability of character which he possessed, for there he appears to have been very deficient, as for certain incidents or events which distinguished his reign, independent of any personal worth or merit of his own. With the monks and ecclesiastics he was certainly a great favourite, but what made him so redounded not at all to his honour, but may be said to be a disgrace, rather than any credit to his memory.
The most important and laudable occurrence of his reign was the reformation of the law of the land. Before his time different parts of the kingdom were governed by different laws: Wessex, by the West Saxon; Mercia, by the Mercian; and Northumberland, by the Danish laws. In his reign they were reduced into one body, by the name of the laws of Edward the confessor, which then became common to all England. This together with the abolition of that odious tax called Danegelt, seem to have been his best and most commendable deeds, though probably to be ascribed to his counsellors, such as Goodwin, Leofric, and Siward, rather than to himself. It is said, however, that he was humane, temperate, and charitable, and gave much alms: and, moreover, that he had visions and revelations, the gift of prophecy, and even that of working miracles, his extensive fame for which continued long, and procured him, about two hundred years after his death, from pope Alexander III. the high honour of canonization, under the name of SaintEdwardthe Confessor, an appellation that must have been very oddly and unaccountably applied.
But of all his memorable achievements, or traits of character, his touchingfor the Evil, or Scrofula, and pretending to the gift or power of miraculously healing that complaint, are the most remarkable. As this pretended gift or power is supposed to have originated with him, [288a] and to have descended from him to all his legitimate successors on the English throne, a sketch of the history of the practice, from first to last, it is presumed, would not prove unacceptable or unentertaining to the reader. And as the disorder, for whose cure this practice was introduced, is said to be nowhere more common, or prevalent, than at and about Lynn, [288b] which is supposed to have been also the case for many generations, it may naturally and safely be concluded that frequent applications to the throne for a cure would be made, time after time, from these parts, while every body believed that the sovereign’s touchwould infallibly remove the malady. Myriads and myriads, labouring under scrofulous complaints, have certainly applied to the throne for relief during the long interval between the time of the Confessor, when the
said practice commenced, and the accession of George I. when it was finally laid aside. Even in the single reign of that mostreligious prince (as he has been called) Charles II. the number, it is said, amounted to aboveninetythousand; and it is morally certain that not a few of that multitude, and of the rest, who resorted, before and since, to our different sovereigns, for relief in the same case, were Norfolk and Lynn patients. The insertion therefore, in this volume, of the proposed Sketch of this notable affair, or practice of the royal touch, cannot, it is presumed, be deemed any material deviation from propriety:—so it shall appear in the last section of this chapter, at the conclusion of this second part of the work.
In the time of the Confessor, as he has been already suggested, Lynn was a place of considerable and growing consequence. The town then, and the adjacent country belonged to three of the principal men of the realm. Harold, who afterwards ascended the throne, was then Earl, or Duke of the East Angles, [289] which must have placed Lynn under his jurisdiction. He had besides, great possessions here, being chief proprietor and lord of South Lynn and other places. Great Massingham, Westacre &c. did also belong to him. Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, likewise bore then no small sway in this town and neighbourhood, as lord of Rising, &c. So also
did his brother Ailmer, bishop of Elmham, to which see, even at that early period, the government of the borough of Lynn seems to have been a kind of appendage. These two prelates were Anglo-Saxons, which was the case, it seems, with but three more of the order in the kingdom; [290] the rest being all foreigners, and mostly French, or Normans. These being his countrymen, and in a manner his subjects, we need not wonder at the facility with which the Conqueror obtained the English Crown; especially as the Pope also patronized the undertaking. Though those bishops could not prevent the accession of Harold, owing to his great popularity and power, yet they kept themselves ready to promote the cause and interest of his rival whenever a fair opportunity should offer, and it was not long before they had their wishes completely gratified.
Harold during the latter part of the Confessor’s reign was the most powerful subject in the kingdom. He possessed also great talents and courage, with no small share of ambition, and had acquired vast and unrivalled popularity. It was therefore no great wonder that he should pretty easily make his way to the throne at the very first vacancy. He had had for sometime the chief management of public affairs, and his conduct in the mean while appears to have given general satisfaction. No one in the kingdom was better qualified, or perhaps more deserving than he to wear the crown; and whatever the Norman, or monkish historians may have said to the contrary, it seems pretty certain that he ascended the throne with the general assent and approbation of the people.
His reign however, was soon disturbed, first by a Danish, or Norwegian invasion in the north, beaded by Harfager, or Helfager king of Norway, aided by Harold’s own worthless brother Tosti; and shortly after by a French invasion in the south, under William the bastard, Duke of Normandy. The former Harold opposed with success; the invaders were defeated with great slaughter, and the two chiefs, Harfager and Tosti, fell in the action. Great and rich booty is said to have fallen into the hands of the victors, including a considerable quantity of gold. Here Harold appears to have
committed a great error, and to have departed most unwisely and unaccountably from his usual policy, by retaining all the spoil for himself, instead of sharing it with his soldiers, which excited great discontents among them, and proved afterwards, in no small measure, detrimental to his cause.
No sooner had the English monarch triumphed over the first invaders than he learnt that the Duke of Normandy with a great army had made good his landing in Sussex. He immediately commenced his march against that fierce and formidable adversary, with an army greatly reduced by the late bloody, though successful conflict, and rendered discontented by his own impolitic and unwise conduct, already mentioned. Yet notwithstanding those disadvantages, so rapid was his progress from Yorkshire to Sussex, that he actually arrived within sight of his enemies before they had proceeded but a little way from the place of debarkation. It had been better, no doubt, had he taken more time, to refresh and recruit his army, or acted on the defensive, for sometime at least, which could hardly have failed of being very materially to his advantage, as he was then circumstanced. But so impetuous was he, and resolute to bring the contest to a speedy termination, that he absolutely rejected the wholesome counsel given him by one of his brothers, to adopt a different course. To his opponent this must have been perfectly agreeable, and the very thing he wanted, as nothing could have been less his interest than a defensive war on the part of the English, or to find in Harold another Fabius. Both parties accordingly prepared for a speedy and decisive engagement. The two armies are said to have spent the preceding night very differently: the English impiously passed it in riot and revelry; but the Normans, good creatures! were all the time occupied in the duties of religion; for which, to be sure, from the nature of their errand, and the object of their visit, they must have been preeminently qualified! This story, we may presume, was fabricated afterwards by the monks and priests and Norman historians, who were in the interest of the Conqueror, and wished to pay their court to the reigning family. Be that as it might, the battle of Hastings
forms a memorable era in the history of this country. Both armies fought with desperate valour, as if determined to conquer or die; but the invaders proved victorious. Harold and his two brothers, with the flower of the English army, fell in that bloody and fatal field; and that single victory may be said to have placed the conqueror on the throne of England, and advanced him to the first rank among the European potentates of that age. In promptness, decision, military and political talents, as well as good fortune, he may be said strongly to resemble the present sovereign of Normandy and the French Empire. But it is to be hoped that the resemblance will not hold, in case the latter should ever attempt to accomplish his long threatened invasion of this kingdom.
From the disastrous and fatal field of Hastings, Edwin and Morcar, the principal surviving English commanders, with the shattered remains of Harold’s army, retreated in the night to London, where they convened the people, and such of the grandees of the realm as were there to be found, to consult upon the best mode of proceeding, at so critical and desperate a conjuncture. They themselves were for placing Edgar Atheling, the next heir, on the throne, and adopting vigorous measures for the discomfiture and expulsion of the invaders; but their advice was not taken, their reasons were set at nought, and every idea of any further resistance was abandoned; so that William obtained the crown without fighting another battle, or encountering any further difficulty. Nothing could exceed the pusillanimity, or dastardly conduct of the English on that memorable occasion, instead of the present prevailing and flattering idea, that one Englishman can beat two or three Frenchmen, they seemed to believe, on the contrary, that one Frenchman could beat, at least, two or three Englishmen. In short, they appear to have erred as much on the one hand as we do on the other. But it was not the only time when our dear countrymen discovered a diffidence of their own superiority.
The blame of rejecting the counsel of the two chieftains abovementioned has been imputed to the defection and machinations of
the bishops and clergy, who, as has been already suggested, were decidedly in the interest of the Norman, and, of course, inimical to the Anglo-Saxon or English, government, constitution, and succession. The chief reasons for which, were probably the following—1. Many of them, and most of the bishops were foreigners, and William’s countrymen and subjects; so that it was natural for them to favour his enterprize and pretensions.—2. Ecclesiastical power and priestly domination were more likely to be promoted, and the popular, or opposite spirit depressed and crushed under a Norman, than an Anglo-Saxon, or English government.—3. Even under the Confessor, monk-ridden and priest-ridden as he was, the civil power was so formidable, and superior to the ecclesiastical, that the parliament actually procured the deprivation and banishment of Robert, archbishop of Canterbury, as an incendiary and fomenter of disputes between the king and his subjects, and had Stigandappointed in his room: a change therefore, or such a revolution in the constitution and government as William was likely to effect or promote, must have been a desirable object with the whole clerical body.—4. The Pope had openly appeared in favour of the invasion, the success of which he was understood to have much at heart: and so careful had he been to let all see that William was his man, and the church’s favourite and champion, that he first made him a present of a consecrated standard, a golden Agnus Dei, and a ring, in which was pretended to be one of St. Peter’s hairs; (of course a most precious relic;) and then he solemnly excommunicated all that should oppose him. This conduct or example of the pope would alone have been sufficient lo influence and determine the bishops, clergy, and monks, or the whole body of the ecclesiastics, to betray and sacrifice the cause of the people, or of the nation, and promote to the utmost that of the invader. They would have done so without any other reason or inducement; but being further stimulated by those before mentioned, we may safely conclude that their zeal in the disgraceful cause which they had so basely espoused, must have been of no ordinary fervour.
This memorable co-operation of the clergy with the conqueror, so hostile to the liberty and independence of the country, has been pronounced, in a recent publication, to be “the true origin of the alliancebetweenchurchandstate, so much contended for by some of our ecclesiastics; who have renounced the penances of popery, but would fain retain both its pride and its power.” [296] But if it was really its origin here, yet it seems to have begun elsewhere at a much earlier period: for the world does not appear to have existed a very long while before statesmen and priests found it to be their interest to play into each others hands, and enter into partnership, for the better management of their respective concerns; or, in other words, for the sake of keeping the multitude more easily and effectually in subjection.
The papal presents and interference in favour of the Norman expedition, despicable as they appear, must have largely contributed to recruit William’s forces, inspire them with confidence and enthusiasm, and eventually promote and ensure his success. Nor was he himself wanting on his part. Nothing that an intrepid adventurer, and able leader could do to give effect to his undertaking was by him omitted. He even went so far as to make very liberal promises to divide the lands of the English among his followers, in case he proved victorious; which promises he afterwards very punctually and amply performed, so that the English grandees were deprived of their possessions, or if they were permitted to retain any part of them, they held the same under the Normans, who then became every where the great lords and proprietors of the country.
The whole English nation, in the meantime, was so completely subdued and degraded, as to become, like the ancient Gibeonites, mere hewers of wood and drawers of water for their haughty conquerors, whom providence seemed to employ, like the Danes before, as instruments of retaliation and vengeance, for the atrocities formerly committed on the original inhabitants. The English language itself was now in a manner prohibited and proscribed, and the Frenchsubstituted for it, or introduced in its
room, especially in the courts of law, and all legal transactions, which continued to be the case for a long time. [297] French also became now the sole language of gentlemen, or of all who moved in the high and polite circles. None could be admitted into such circles, or allowed the name of gentlemen, without that language, which bore very hard, no doubt, upon many an English buck of those days; hence that well known old proverb, “Jack would be a gentleman, but that he can talk no French.”
The changes which the Norman Conquest produced in this country shall be further noticed in the next part or division of this work, where it will be seen how Lynn in particular, and its vicinity were affected by that memorable and humiliating revolution.
During the period of which we have been treating, Lynn exhibited no appearance of a borough, or corporate town: that state, or order of things belonged to the policy of a subsequent period, and resulted from the revolution effected by the conquest, and the odious feudal system, for their attachment to which the Normans were so very remarkable. Of the population of Lynn before the conquest, a great part probably consisted of slavesof different descriptions, the vassals and property of the bishop and other great men. The artificers, tradesmen, and merchants of Lynn were then all, perhaps, in that condition, and following their respective employments or professions, by the permission, and under the protection or patronage of their lordly superiors and proprietors, and also for their, as well as their own behoof or emolument. It is not very clear or probable that the condition of these people and of the rest of their unfree or enslaved countrymen, did or could, by the conquest, suffer any very material deterioration. But with their superiors, the high and mighty, or great men of the land, their lordly and unfeeling oppressors, the case is known to have been far otherwise: that event, like some modern conquests and revolutions, degraded and humbled them with a vengeance.
SECTION IX.
Sketchofthepracticeoftheroyal touch inEngland, ora historicalEssayonthememorableempiricism of our English sovereigns, fromEdwardtheConfessortoGeorgetheFirst.
It is generally agreed that this notable practice, which appears to have been long deemed as a branch of the royal prerogative, began in this kingdom with, or in the person of Edward the Confessor. [299a] Some however seem to think it to have existed in France at an earlier period: if so, Edward, who had long lived in that country, and appeared very partial to it, and fond of French fashions, might take the hint from thence, and introduce it here upon his accession to the throne, which he might easily manage by the help of the monks, with whom he was so great a favourite.
Clovis, and Robertof sainted memory, are named among the early French sovereigns who successfully practised the royal touch, and were greatly admired and venerated by their subjects on that account. In the reign ofPhilipthe first, the virtue is supposed to have been somehow lost, but happily revived again with undiminished splendor in that of Lewis the fat, after which it seems to have long and regularly continued. Francis I. [299b] and Henry IV. are represented as eminent practitioners; how it was with the succeeding monarchs, descended from the latter, we are not informed. No particular attention appears to have been paid to it yet by the emperor Napoleon. What he may think proper to do hereafter, no tongue can tell. Whether he possesses this power or not, it is certain that he possesses some other powers in as great a degree, at least, as any of his royal or imperial predecessors.
But this miraculous gift of healing did not, it seems, belong exclusively to the kings of France and England. [300a] The Earls, or princes of the house of Hapsburg also, are reported to have had it in no scanty measure. They cured the strumous, or scrofulous, it is said, by giving them drink, and the stammerers, by kissing them. But the Kings of Hungary seem to have exceeded all; for we are told that they couldcure, not only the king’s evil, but all disorders
occasioned by poison, the bite of a viper, or any other venomous animal.
“Mr. Bel, who tells us this, observes (what is as remarkable as the account itself) that he cannot find in history, that these Hungarian kings ever exercised this wonderful power. [300b] More shame for them, the unfeeling wretches! if they possessed it.
“The case was otherwise with the royal doctors of France and England, who have not been so shy of exerting this power, or rather, of practising this quackery. Some French writers (says Carte) ascribe this gift of healing to the king’s devotion towards the relics of St. Marculf, in the Church of Corbigny, in Champagne, to which the kings of France, immediately after their coronation at Rheims, used to go in solemn procession: and it must be owned there was formerly a great veneration paid to this saint in England. It was in memory of him that a room in the palace of Westminster frequently mentioned in the rolls of parliament, was called the chamber of St. Marculf; being probably the place where our kings touched for the Evil. It is now (our historian adds) called the painted chamber: and though the name of that saint hath been long forgot in this nation, yet the sanative virtue of our kings still continues.” [301a]
Of the most noted among our sovereigns, as practitioners in this healing art, the following is thought a pretty complete list. Nothing seems to be known in this way of Harold II. or yet of the four succeeding princes; but that Henry II. practised very successfully is said to be attested by Petrus Blesensis, who had been his chaplain. [301b] It seems highly probable that Henry III. likewise was often applied to, and successfully practised in the same way, as John of Geddesden, a physician, who is said to live about that time, advises a scorfulous patient, after his remedies had proved ineffectual, to apply to the king for a cure: for which he has been much blamed, and seemingly not without reason, as, in case he deemed the royal touch a certain care or remedy, he ought to have sent the patient to
the king at first, without troubling him with operation and medicine. [302a]
Henry’s great son, Edward I, also appears to have been no mean master of this same art; and so, probably, might be his son, Edward II, though otherwise no great conjuror; but as to his son, Edward III, few, if any, seem to have gone beyond him in this sanative employment. Bradwardine, who attended him in his wars, and whose counsel is said to have contributed to his success, gives a pompous advertisement, in his book DeCausaDei, of the wonderful cures wrought by that prince. F.leBrun, however, pays no regard to this. He looks upon it as a crafty stratagem, and says, he does not doubt but that Edward’s pretensions to the crown of France excited his zeal to touch those who were diseased; which is not unlikely; princes often, when nothing but politics lie at the bottom, chusing to make religion to swim on the top. [302b] Edward’s grandson, Richard II, cannot be supposed to drop or lay aside a practice for which his grandfather and immediate predecessor on the throne had been so celebrated. Nor is it at all likely that his successors, of the rival house of Lancaster, should discontinue this practice, as that might have been construed to imply a consciousness of inferiority to the princes of the other house, or something like a defect in their own title to the crown.
Least of all is it to be supposed that this practice should be dropt or neglected afterwards, on the restoration of the York line, in the person of EdwardIV, who would naturally take care to exercise every prerogative or power supposed to have belonged to his ancestors, and which had any way contributed to their popularity, consequence, or celebrity. This monarch, though of a far less religious or devout cast than his immediate predecessor Henry VI. might not on that account be the less qualified to work these miracles, any more than CharlesII.afterwards; who, though by his clerical subjects denominated mostreligious, was yet certainly, in fact, one of the mostirreligiousand profligate wretches that ever wore a crown: nevertheless he unquestionably practiced the royal
touch, as extensively, effectually, and successfully as any one whatever in the whole list of our crowned, or kingly practitioners. And why not?—as the extraordinary gift, supernatural virtue, or miraculous power, belonged entirely, it seems, to his regal quality or dignity; [303] and had nothing at all, apparently, to do with his personal or moral character.
RichardIII. also, after he ascended the throne, may be supposed to possess as much of this supernatural and sanative virtue (whatever may be said of the other virtues) as any one of his predecessors or successors; and as it was evidently his interest to omit no popular observance, and to avail himself of whatever had a tendency to excite or gain the admiration of the people, and reconcile them to his government, we may be sure he would not fail to follow, with spirit, the practice in question; and so, by a copious display of its sanative virtue, compensate, in some sort, or degree, for the absence of virtues of another description. There is therefore abundant reason for setting him down among our royal miracleworkers.
None of all these princes appear to have made a greater figure, or to have proceeded with more parade, solemnity, and success, in this royal business or occupation, than Henry VII.—This politic prince, whatever right he might have to the crown, had probably as good a right as any one to try his hand at this notable and wonder working operation, the effect or fame of which he knew full well how to manage profitably and turn to the best account. He accordingly set about it in good earnest; and in order, as may be supposed, to give the process the most striking, sacred, and solemn appearance, and increase its effect, he had a new form, or office, composed and introduced for the purpose. [304] The project answered; and his success in this practice is said to have been very considerable. This prince would also sometimes take upon him to convertheretics; and he would even give them money to facilitate their conversion; [306] which was certainly no illadapted device, or unpromising expedient; and it is the more remarkable, as his majesty was himself so great a
lover of money, and appears to have been so exceedingly closefisted on other occasions. We may therefore be very sure that the conversion of heretics was of the highest importance in Henry’s estimation, and what lay very near to his royal heart. This monarch also, with his queen and eldest son, visited the town of Lynn, where he very probably exercised the royaltouch, as scrofulous patients may be supposed to have been then, as they are now, very numerous here, all of whom, as well as the rest of the inhabitants, would not fail to give full credit to his majesty’s ability to remove the malady and restore the patients to perfect health; and, of course, would be anxious to apply to him, which he would not be likely to discourage. As to heretics, there might be then none of them here for him to try his royal hand at their conversion. His son and high spirited successor, HenryVIII, would doubtless be careful to continue the practice of all the rites and ceremonies appertaining to the royal function, which had been handed down to him from his father: and there is every reason to believe that the operation in question would not be forgotten or omitted, were it only to be even with his neighbour and rival, FrancisI, who certainly performed it, and would not be likely to be suffered or allowed to go beyond him on such an occasion. Henry therefore may be safely set down among our said royal practitioners, and even among the most able and powerful of them all. But the King’sEvilwas not the only Evil in whose cure or removal he was particularly concerned: He was no less concerned in the cure or removal of the Pope’sEvil, another dreadful malady, which had long and grievously afflicted most of the good people of this country, and which was generally deemed incurable, till he took it in hand. All the world know how powerfully and effectually hisroyaltouchoperatedon that occasion.—It seems he had also the reputation of being endowed with extraordinary gifts for the cure or prevention of the cramp; and we find that he distinguished himself by the consecration of cramprings, which Stephen Gardiner says were much esteemed every where, and often sought for. [308] So very eminent was Henry among our royal doctors, and miracle mongers.
EdwardVI, Henry’s amiable son and successor, is not known to have been at all an adept at this princely practice, or even to have been in the least partial to it. He probably thought so very lightly of it as entirely to omit and discard it, as he is also said to have done with respect to the consecrationofcramprings, by which his royal father so much distinguished himself. It is likely that Edward, young as he was, had imbibed some sectarian notions which might unfit him for the performance of these sublime operations. Even the royal and episcopal work of burningheretics, so much approved of and delighted in by his predecessors, and afterwards by his immediate successor, and so much called for and applauded by ecclesiastics, was to him an object of utter aversion; and if he once suffered it to be done, it was involuntary and against his own better judgement, through the importunate intreaties and urgent expostulations of his bishops, and particularly Cranmer, to whom therefore the guilt and infamy of the deed must properly or chiefly belong. [309] There is reason to believe that no such doings would have sullied or disgraced his reign had he been left to judge and act for himself. It is probable he was left so to judge and act with respect to the royal touch; so that we need not be surprised at his declining the practice.
From Mary, his bloody sister and successor a different conduct might be expected: and her conduct certainly was, almost in every thing, very different from his. Superstitious as she was, and bigoted to the last degree, it is not to be supposed that she should shrink from the performance of any rite or ceremony, however absurd, that had been in request with her popish predecessors, or devoutly practiced by them. This of the royaltouchcould never escape her attention: nay it is expressly said that the office was indeed fairly written out for her use; [that very office probably, which has been above inserted;] so that there can be no question of her touching for the Evil, as devoutly, and as successfully perhaps, as any of the rest. [310a]
As to Elizabeth, heretic as she was, her legitimacy questioned, and her title litigated, she touchedfor the Evil with a success
acknowledged even by the papists themselves, who are said to ascribe it to the signofthecross. [310b] A case is mentioned by Carte of a Roman Catholic, who, being put into prison, perhaps for recusancy, and terribly afflicted with the Evil, was, after he had been there a tedious time, at a vast expence to physicians without the least relief, touchedby this queen, and perfectly cured: which gave him occasion to say, he was now convinced by undoubted experience, that the pope’s excommunication of her signified nothing, since she still continued blessed with so miraculous a quality. [310c] It was well for the poor fellow that he was not a puritan, or he might have gone long enough without his cure, as her majesty is known to have been inexorably pitiless and spiteful against that class of her subjects.
Of JamesI, with his strong faith in ghosts and witches, and lofty notions of indefeasible right, royal prerogative and king-craft, it was not to be supposed that he, of all men, would think meanly or lightly of this royal and religious operation. It accordingly appears that he very readily and warmly engaged in it, and actually became a most dexterous and eminent practitioner—to the no small satisfaction and comfort, as we may suppose, of his liege subjects, as well as advancement of his own fame, or at least, the gratification of his vanity, of which it is well known he possessed no common or scanty portion. Nothing could delight him more than the idea that he could work miracles: his courtiers called him Solomon; but that idea was calculated to make him think himself as still greater than even Solomon. We are not informed how many patients underwent or felt his royal touch; but there is every reason to suppose and believe that the number must have been very considerable.
His unfortunate son and successor CharlesI. was no less distinguished in this same way than his royal father had been. Great numbers are said to have been by him both touched and cured; of whom not a few were little children, which has been urged as a proof that it could not be ascribed to the effect or strength of imagination. Carte observes, that Dr. Heylyn, an eye witness of such
cures, says, “I have seen some children brought before the King by the hanging sleeves, some hanging at their mother’s breasts, and others in the arms of their nurses, all cured, without the help of a serviceable imagination.” [312a] Both Heylyn and Carte were full of faith in these miracles. If they were right, the decapitation of Charles must have been a great loss to the nation, and especially to those who were afflicted with the Evil. For twelve years or more, after that event, not one of these miracles appears to have been wrought in this country.
As to OliverCromwell, it does not appear that he ever tried his hand at this wonder-working operation; conscious, it may be supposed, that it did not belong to his province, or to the protectoral office and dignity, with which he was invested. What he would have done, had he accepted or assumed the regal title, cannot be said or known with absolute certainty: though the probability seems to bear against his even then becoming a practitioner, as it would hardly have met the approbation of his best friends, or accorded with the ideas of his most trusty and powerful coadjutors, or even with his own.
After a total cessation or suspension of this ancient princely practice, during the whole time of the Common wealth and Protectorate, it revived again at the memorable restoration; and CharlesII.took it up vigorously and solemnly, and on a very extensive scale. The Register of the Royal Chapel is said to exhibit a list of 92,107 persons touched by him for the Evil in a certain number of years; [312b] not including, it seems, the whole of his reign; so that double that number, or more for aught we know, may have passed under his hand during the whole course of his government. Yet we find he practised only at some particular seasons of the year; at least after the summer of 1662, when a royal proclamation was issued to inform the public that such would be the case from thenceforth. His majesty had been then a practitioner full two years, during which time there is reason to believe that he had touched some thousands. He began the work almost immediately after his restoration, so that it may be considered among the first acts of his
reign. Of the state of the practice in his royal hands, or under his wise management, a pretty accurate idea may be formed from the following extracts—out of some of the principal Public Papers of that era.
The following passage appeared in the weekly Paper called MercuriusPoliticus, of June 28, 1660—
“Saturday being appointed by his majesty to touch such as are troubled by the Evil, a great number of poor afflicted creatures were met together, many brought in chairs and flaskets; and being appointed by his majesty to repair to the Banqueting House, his majesty sat in a chair of state, and stroked all that were brought to him, and then put about each of their necks a white ribbon with an angel of gold on it. In this manner his majesty stroked above 600; and such was his princely patience and tenderness to the poor afflicted creatures, that though it took up a very long time, his majesty, never weary of well doing, was pleased to make enquiry, whether there were any more who had not been touched. After prayers were ended the duke of Buckingham brought a towel, and the earl Pembroke a bason and ewer; who, after they, had made obeysance to his majesty, kneeled down, till his majesty had washed.”
This was within a month after his majesty’s arrival.
The next is from the ParliamentaryJournal, of July 9, 1660; a fortnight after the other; and is thus curiously worded—
“The kingdom having for a long time been troubled with the Evil, by reason of his majesty’s absence, great numbers have flocked for cure. His sacred majesty on Monday last touched 250 in the Banqueting-House; among whom, when his majesty was delivering the gold, one shuffled himself in, out of a hope of profit, which had not been stroked; but his majesty presently discovered him, saying, this man has not yet been touched. His majesty hath for the future appointed every Friday for the cure,
at which time 200 and no more are to be presented to him, who are first to repair to Mr.Knight, the King’s surgeon, living at the Cross Guns, in Russell Street, Covent Garden, over against the Rose Tavern, for their tickets. That none might lose their labour he thought fit to make it known that he will be at his house every Wednesday and Thursday, from two till six of the Clock, to attend that service. And if any personofqualityshall send to him he will wait upon them at their lodgings, upon notice given to him.”
In the same paper of July 30 and August 6, notice was given, that no more would be touched till about Michaelmas: and in the MercuriusPoliticus, of February 28, 1661, it is said, that manycame twiceorthriceforthesakeofthegold.
Another weekly paper, called MercuriusPublicus, February 21, 1661, had the following passage—
“We cannot but give notice that certain persons (too many one would think) who having the King’sEvill, and have been touched by his SACRED MAJESTY, have got the forehead to come twice or thrice, alleging they were never there before, till divers witnesses proved the contrary; which hath forced his MAJESTY to give order that whosoever hereafter comes to be touched, shall first bring to his MAJESTY’S Chirurgeons a certificate from the Ministerand Church-Wardens (where they live) that they never were touched by his MAJESTY before: the next healing will begin six weeks hence.”
In the same paper of May 9, 1661, appeared the following notice or advertisement:
“WHITEHALL. We are commanded to give notice, that his MAJESTY finds the Season already so hot, that it will be neither safe nor fit to continue his healing such as have the king’s Evil; and therefore that his MAJESTIES good subjects therein concerned, would at present forbear to come to court; Friday
next (may 10,) and Wednesday (May 15.) being the last days that his MAJESTY intends to heal, till the heat of the weather be allayed, and his MAJESTY’S further pleasure known, whereof his good subjects shall have timely notice.”
The same paper of August 15, 1661, contained the passage following:—
“We are commanded to give notice That his Majestyfinds the season such, that it will neither be safe nor fit to continue his Healing those that have the King’s Evil; and therefore that His Majestiesgood subjects therein concerned do forbear to come to Court till All-Saints Day next, till which time His Majestydoth not intend to Heal.”
In the very same Paper, of July 17, 1662, appeared the following curious courtly advertisement:
“HamptonCourt.—His Majesty lately set forth a Proclamationfor thebetterorderingofthosewhorepairtotheCourtforcureof thediseasecalledtheKing’sEvil, wherein his Majesty being as ready and willing to relieve the necessities and diseases of his good Subjects by his Sacred Touch, which shall come for cure, as any of his Royal Predecessors, in which, by the Grace and Blessing of God, he hath in an extraordinary measure had good success, and yet in his princely wisdom, foreseeing that fit times are necessary to be appointed for the performing of that great work of Charity, doth declare his Royal pleasure to be, that from henceforth the usual times for presenting such persons, shall be from the Feast of All-saints, commonly called Alhallowtide, to a week before Christmas, and in the month before Easter, being more convenient for the temperature of the season, and in respect of any contagion that may happen in this near access to his Majesties Sacred Person. His Majesty doth further command that none presume to repair to Court for cure of the said disease, but within the limits appointed, and that such persons
who come for that purpose, bring certificates under the hands of the Parson, Vicar, or Minister and Church-Wardens of the Parishes where they dwell, testifying that they have not at any time before been touched by the King; further charging all Justices of Peace, Constables, &c. that they suffer not any to pass but such as have such Certificates, under pain of his Majestys displeasure: And that his Majesties Subjects may have the better knowledge of it, his Majesties will is, that this Proclamation be published and affixed in some open place in every Market Town of this Realm.” [317a]
To the above Extracts, only one more shall be here added, from another Public Paper, called TheNewes, of May 18, 1664.—
“His Sacred Majesty having declared it to be his royal will and purpose to continue the healing of his people for the Evil during the month of May, and then give over till Michaelmas next, I am commanded to give Notice thereof, that the people may not come up to the town in the interim and lose their labour.” [317b]
From these premises it plainly appears that the king really pretended to be endowed with the power or gift of working miracles, and of healing or curing one of the most obstinate and incurable diseases incident to the human frame, even by his touch. Most curious and ludicrous it surely must be to see such a man as Charles making such a pretension, and affecting to be hand and glove with Heaven; and no less so to see the whole nation, or at least the whole body of the church folks, or national religionists, (clergy and laity) which constituted the great bulk of the people, giving him full credit for every thing, and deeming the least doubt or hesitation about his miraculous claims as a sure indication of disloyalty, and scarcely short of high treason. Allowing or supposing his majesty to have really possessed this miraculous power, or supernatural healing gift, still it must appear rather a queer case that it should be affected by the temperatureoftheseasons, and actually controlled, overpowered, and crippled, as it were, by the hotweather; and that
the royal operator, in the meantime, in case he persisted in his benevolent practice, or labour of love, during the dog-days, and for some time before and after, should be exposed to the imminent danger of some alarming contagion: at least he and his courtiers seemed evidently to have had such apprehension. In all this, however, his loyal and admiring subjects could discover nothing, either marvellous or suspicious, or yet any way inconsistent. Their sovereign’s miraculous claims found in them the most ready acquiescence. With some, indeed, especially among the poor persecuted nonconformists, the case was otherwise. They disbelieved those royal pretentions. But it only served to strengthen the public prejudice against them; being generally looked upon as an additional and sure proof of their disaffection, or their moral and political depravity.—So much for Charles’s supernatural powers and miraculous deeds.
His brother and successor, JamesII. another of our religious monarchs, continued this practice with unabated zeal, solemnity, and devotion. He appears to have made some improvement in the process; particularly by restoring the sign of the cross, which had been unaccountably omitted by his father, and grandfather. It is probable that none of its ancient appendages were by him forgotten, or left unrestored, if he did not also, in his princely wisdom, devise some others, equally suitable and edifying: and had the crown continued in his family, the good subjects of these realms would hardly have failed of having the institution or practice still preserved amongst them, and observed in all things according to the pattern exhibited by him. But his unexpected abdication forced things into another channel, and deprived us of so fair and important a chance. James is supposed to have practised at Whitehall as frequently, in proportion to the length of his reign, as his brother had done. But as his reign, compared with that of Charles, was very short, (though, in some respects, much too long) it is not to be supposed that he, like the other, could boast of his myriads of patients and cures. It appears, however, that he was very assiduous in this business, as well when his occasions called him abroad, as when detained within
