Henri IV Touching for Scrofula

This engraving by **Pierre Firens**, dated 1609, illustrates the medical treatise of **André du Laurens**, the king's personal physician, devoted to the ritual of the **royal touch for scrofula**. According to this monarchical tradition inherited from the Middle Ages, the King of France, anointed at his coronation, was believed capable of curing by mere touch those afflicted with scrofula, a tubercular lymphatic condition then widespread. For **Henri IV**, a Protestant converted to Catholicism in 1593 under circumstances many considered essentially political, the public and repeated practice of this ritual held particular importance: it constituted a visible demonstration of his sacred legitimacy, intended to convince a still-sceptical portion of the Catholic nobility of the sincerity of his conversion.