 Scholars have held different opinions about the royal touch , ranging from deprecation in the 19th and early 20th century to more sympathetic treatment . The Whig politician Lord Macaulay ( 1800 – 1859 ) ridiculed it as an " absurd superstition of a pre @-@ enlightened age " . The University of London medicine professor Sir Raymund Crawfurd published a study in 1911 , revealing his fascination with the " dubious if exotic " practice . A study by the French historian Marc Bloch followed in 1924 . Bloch was baffled by the tenacity of the esoteric practice and agreed with Lord Macaulay 's assessment that it was grounded in a form of mass hysteria . Recently , however , historians have avoided attributing the popularity of the royal touch to naivety of the masses . The British historian Keith Thomas discussed the royal touch in the context of religion and magic , while his colleague and compatriot J. C. D. Clark attributes the survival of the practice into the 18th century to the persisting notion of the divine right of kings . 
