The earliest notices of cramp rings are from entries made in the reign of Edward II (1307–1327), recording the Good Friday gifts of coins by the sovereign to the altar, the metal of which, or else an equivalent quantity of metal, was to be made up into rings. Although no cramp ring has been preserved--at least none concerning which there is any good evidence--it has been considered probable that it was a simple gold hoop. Its curative power was not connected with any image or inscription, but solely due to the magic effect of the royal blessing. Some old wills contain bequests of cramp rings, or what we may assume to have been such rings. Thus John Baret of Bury St. Edmunds, in his will dated in 1463, left a “rowund ryng of the Kynges silver,” that is of the silver coins of the royal offering; another bequest in the same will is that of a “crampe ryng with blak innamel, and a part of silver and gilt.” A few years later, in the reign of Henry VIII, Edmund Zee wills to his niece a “gold ryng with a turkes (turquoise) and a crampe ryng of gold.”[561] At his coronation, Edward II of England offered at the high altar of Westminster Abbey a pound weight of gold, fashioned with “the likeness of a king holding a ring in his hand, to this was added a golden image weighing eight ounces (⅔ pound), representing a pilgrim stretching forth his hand to take the proffered ring.” The offering of a pound of gold has persisted down to modern times, although the later offerings have been in the form of plain ingots, while in medieval times the sovereign would have it formed into the saintly figure or figures to which he paid particular devotion, as Edward II did to St. Edward the Confessor.[562] [Illustration: Massive gold ring engraved with the Wounds of Christ. A healing talisman; English; Fifteenth Century. Found at Coventry, 1802 British Museum] [Illustration: Edward the Confessor bestowing his ring upon the beggar. From a tile in the Chapter House at Westminster. Thirteenth Century British Museum] [Illustration: The sapphire as an eye-stone. The woman points to her eye, which the physician is about to relieve by applying a sapphire ring Johannis de Cuba, “Ortus Sanitatis,” [Strassburg, 1483], De lapidibus, cap. cix] [Illustration: Curious test of the genuineness of a garnet set in a ring. Should the stone not be an imitation, flies and wasps will not alight on the wearer’s body, even though it be smeared with oil Johannis de Cuba, “Ortus Sanitatis,” [Strassburg, 1483], De lapidibus, cap. lx] [Illustration: Jeweller offering rings Johannis de Cuba, “Ortus Sanitatis,” [Strassburg, 1483], De lapidibus, cap. lxv]