This chapter examines the changing fortunes of the royal touch during the reigns of William III, who did not practise it, and Anne, who revived and reformed it. In England the ceremony ceased to be performed once and for all in 1714, with the succession of the Hanoverian George I, although the Jacobite Pretenders on the continent continued to practise the rite. This explains why the debate concerning the ceremony's efficacy continued until the mid-eighteenth century. The Whig interpretation of the royal touch during its last stage, as exemplified by Lord Macaulay who referred to the ceremony as a ‘mummery’, maintained that William's decision not to touch the sick was a sound consequence of his acquiring the crown by parliament rather than divine right. The ceremony belonged to a pre-Enlightenment world in which ‘superstition’ reigned, it was maintained, and as such it was inevitably consigned to the dustbin during the Age of Reason. From this viewpoint, Anne's revival of royal therapeutics has to be seen as anachronistic, or ignored. These teleologies have long distorted the history of the royal touch during the early English Enlightenment.

By placing the royal touch within its political and religious contexts, this chapter argues that William's abandonment of the royal touch was not inevitable and Anne's revival was popular. This fits with the assertion of the previous chapters that the rite was a central feature of English culture throughout the early modern period. The present analysis supports recent scholarship that stresses the continuation of belief in the supernatural during the early Enlightenment. The circumstances under which William made his decision will be examined, together with the character of his kingship, and the reactions to his repudiation of his scrofula-related duties. Likewise the motives for Anne's revival will be analysed, as will her reform of the liturgy, and the scale on which she touched. The queen's reinstatement of royal therapeutics stimulated a new debate, which will be assessed; this will include teasing out the extent to which support for the royal touch was partypolitical. The decision of the Hanoverians to abandon the royal touch was not an inevitable result of ‘enlightenment’ but instead a calculated political act. Belief in the efficacy of the royal hand continued beyond 1714, which helps to explain why the debate was rehearsed well into the mid-century.