# Cramp rings

*The Good Friday rings*

**Known today as.** Rings blessed by the kings of England on Good Friday, made from gold and silver offered at the cross.

Kind: Sacramental

## What was it used for?

Given away and worn against cramp and epilepsy, the “falling sickness.”

## What does modern science say?

A few survive in collections.

## What lore surrounds it?

The custom is recorded from the fourteenth century and ended with Mary I; the rings were a companion of the royal touch for scrofula, the king’s evil.

## Sources

- Bloch, M. (1924). *Les rois thaumaturges*. Strasbourg; in English as *The Royal Touch* (1973).
- Thomas, K. (1971). *Religion and the Decline of Magic*. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

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*Cramp rings.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-28. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/cramp-rings

Historical description, not medical advice.