The Herbalists (Quacks) Charter

By Katrina Borthwick

Henry VIII was the sixteenth century Tudor king famously known for having six wives with mainly scandalous fates - divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, and survived. It is less known that he also had an interest in amateur medicine. This interest went further than most, fuelled in particular by a painful and persistent ulcerous sore on his leg that came upon him early in his reign, and what appears to be some sort of unpleasant sexually transmitted infection.

Prior to his rule, surgeons had already been branching out into general practice, and the barber surgeons (expected to do only minor surgery like pulling out teeth) had expanded their practice and received royal charter in 1462 - those red stripes on barber's poles are blood. Then there were the apothecaries, who are the forerunners of our pharmacists, and part of the powerful Grocers' Company, who received their royal charter even before the barber surgeons. Then add the masses of unlearned, often illiterate, and often foreign people who practiced amateur medicine.

There was also a smaller gap between the outcomes from trained versus untrained physicians than we have today – bearing in mind this was the time of humours, treatments containing mercury, and sterilisation (using wine) was a novel approach.

All of this is in the context of a rapidly expanding population that, desperate for treatment, used whatever healthcare was at hand that was within their means. As you would expect, quacks thrived.

At the time, the training for a physician was primarily theoretical and the full degree course took up to fourteen years. To these classically trained and well-bred elite, the use of homegrown herbs by amateur ‘quacks' could not possibly compare to the compounds they devised for the wealthy. However, with the King's backing, these ‘amateurs' presented real competition, many of them calling themselves doctors. Not surprisingly, the physicians pushed for regulation.

As a result, laws were passed in 1512 to restrict the practice of medicine in London and surrounds, to Oxford or Cambridge graduates, or those licensed by the Bishop of London. In 1523 this was extended to the whole of Britain. More laws were passed in the early 1540s, that gave the physicians control over both surgeons and apothecaries, and formally united the Surgeons and Barber-Surgeons into one company and gave them control over surgical matters in an area extending one mile around the City of London. However, the barbers were strictly forbidden to practice surgery, which annoyed them greatly. They took their anger out on those practicing amateur medicine, the herbalists, with the issue escalating and finally landing at the door of parliament in 1542.

The reaction of parliament was not the one the surgeons expected. They hadn't banked on such strong support for herbalists from the King and those of influence in parliament. The result was the swift creation of the Herbalist Charter of 1542, which was signed into law as the Herbalist Act of the same year. The charter very harshly criticised the surgeons for allowing people to “rot and perish to death for lack of help” for their own profit. The Act then went on to legalise amateur herbalist practitioners in the broadest sense, with the proviso they could charge for the herbs, but not the advice.

There is an interesting parallel here with the promotion of a systemised form of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) by the Chinese government – the term first being used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1955. In both situations there was insufficient affordable trained medical capability to meet demand, there were established traditional practices, a distrust of the medical profession, and there was the risk of significant unrest should the population effectively be denied medical treatment.

This Herbalist Charter, which was often referred to as the ‘Quacks Charter' by physicians, applied to England and its dominions, which of course later included Aotearoa/New Zealand. In 1832 a delegation from Aotearoa led by Paratene Te Manu met William IV at Portsmouth in England and gifts were exchanged. The King was gifted with a dog skin cloak, in return the King granted a sovereign flag, the General Agreement on Trade (GAT) seals, the Rights of Man and you guessed it, the Henry VIII Herbalist Charter. The Charter was seen as a core document describing the freedoms, sovereignty and rights of citizens of the united kingdoms and this exchange is considered important when interpreting the intention behind te Tiriti o Waitangi. So, this Charter was no small thing.

The Herbalist Act remained in effect until it was replaced in England by the Medicines Act of 1968 which includes the same protections. We also have our own Medicines Act now that does not prevent these practices.

Many herbalist websites still refer to the Herbalist Charter being in effect and allowing their practice. We can expect there may be some noise around this as the Therapeutic products Bill progresses and there may be a matter between the Crown and herbalists to resolve if they feel that their rights have been impinged.

Here's what we've been able to find of the originally worded charter:

The Herbalists' Charter

"An Act that Persons, Being No Common Surgeons, May Administer Outward Medicines

"Where in the Parliament holden at Westminster in the third Year of the King's most gracious Reign, amongst other Things, for the avoiding of Sorceries, Witchcrafts and other Inconveniences, it was enacted, that no Person within the City of London, nor within Seven Miles of the same, should take upon him to exercise and occupy as Physician or Surgeon, except he be first examined, approved, and admitted by the Bishop of London and other, under and upon certain Pains and Penalties in the same Act mentioned;

"Sithence the making of which said Act, the Company and Fellowship of Surgeons of London, minding only their own Lucres and nothing the Profit or ease of the Diseased or Patient, have sued, troubled and vexed divers honest Persons, as well as Men and Women, whom God hath endued with the Knowledge of the Nature, Kind and Operation of certain Herbs, Roots and Waters, and the using and ministring of them to such as been pained with customable Diseases, as Women's Breasts beings sore, a Pin and the Web in the Eye, Uncomis of Hands, Burnings, Scaldings, Sore Mouths, the Stone, Strangury, Saucelim and Morphew, and such other like Diseases; and yet the said Persons have not taken anything for their Pains or Cunning, but have ministered the same to poor People only for Neighborhood and God's sake, and of Pity and Charity:

"And it is now well known that the Surgeons admitted will do no Cure to any Person but where they shall be rewarded with a greater Sum or Reward that the Cure extendeth unto; for in the case they would minister the Cunning unto sore People unrewarded, there should not so many rot and perish to death for Lack or Help of Surgery as daily do; but the greatest part of Surgeons admitted been much more to be blamed than those Persons that they troubled, for although the most Part of the Persons of the said Craft of Surgeons have small Cunning yet they will take great sums of Money, and do little therefore, and by Reason thereof they do oftentimes impair and hurt their Patients, rather than do them good.

"In consideration whereof, and for the Ease, Comfort, Succour, Help, Relief and Health of the King's poor Subjects, Inhabitants of this Realm, now pained or diseased:

"Be it ordained, established and enacted, by Authority of this present Parliament, That at all Time from henceforth it shall be lawful to every Person being the King's subject, having Knowledge and Experience of the Nature of Herbs, Roots and Waters, or of the Operation of the same, by Speculation or Practice, within any part of the Realm of England, or within any other the King's Dominions, to practice, use and minister in and to any outward Sore, Uncome Wound, Aposelmations, outward Swelling or Disease, any Herb or Herbs, Ointments, Baths, Pultess, and Emplaisters, according to their Cunning, Experience and Knowledge in any of the Diseases, Sorea and Maladies beforesaid, and all other like to the same, or Drinks for the Stone, Strangury or Agues, without suit, vexation, trouble, penalty or loss of their goods;

"The foresaid Statute in the foresaid Third Year of the King's most gracious Reign, or any other Act, Ordinance or Statues the contrary heretofore made in anywise, not withstanding."