# Cramp-ring

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**Cramp-rings** are [rings](/source/Ring_(finger)) anciently worn as a cure for [cramp](/source/Cramp) and "falling-sickness" or [epilepsy](/source/Epilepsy).[1] The legend is that the first one was presented to [Edward the Confessor](/source/Edward_the_Confessor) by a pilgrim on his return from [Jerusalem](/source/Jerusalem), its miraculous properties being explained to the king. At his death it passed into the keeping of the abbot of [Westminster](/source/Westminster_Abbey), by whom it was used medically and was known as St Edwards Ring. From that time the belief grew that the successors of Edward inherited his powers, and that the rings blessed by them worked cures.[2]

Hence arose the custom for the successive sovereigns of [England](/source/England) each year on Good Friday formally to bless a number of **cramp-rings**. A service was held; prayers and psalms were said; and [holy water](/source/Holy_water), which had been blessed in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, was poured over the rings, which were always of gold or silver, and made from the metal that the king offered to the Cross on Good Friday. The ceremony survived until the reign of [Edward VI](/source/Edward_VI) and was briefly revived by [Mary I](/source/Mary_I_of_England).[3] The belief in the curative powers of similar circlets of sacred metal has lasted to the present day.[2]

[Marc Bloch](/source/Marc_Bloch) devotes a whole chapter of *[Thaumaturgic Kings](/source/Thaumaturgic_Kings)* to a description and history of cramp-rings that gave English kings the power to work cures.[4]

## References

1. Walter William Skeat & Anthony Lawson (1914). [*A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words: Especially from the Dramatists*](https://archive.org/details/aglossarytudora00mayhgoog). Original from the University of Michigan: Clarendon Press. p. [97](https://archive.org/details/aglossarytudora00mayhgoog/page/n121)

1. Chisholm 1911.

1. Judith Richards, "Examples and Admonitions", Alice Hunt & Anna Whitelock, *Tudor Queenship* (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), p. 37.

1. *Les Rois thaumaturges. Étude sur le caractère supernaturel attribué à la puissance royale particulièrement en France et en Angleterre* (Book II, chapter ii)

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