The Stone of Scone

On this day in 1296, 730 years ago, soldiers from the army of King Edward I of England removed the ‘Stone of Destiny’, the Stone of Scone, from inside the abbey church of the Holy Trinity and St Michael at Scone and began the process of taking the traditional seat for Scottish coronations to Westminster, and its eventual inclusion in St Edward’s Chair.

Despite the agreement of the English government to its return in the Treaty of Northampton in 1328, the Stone remained at Westminster. Not until the coronation of King James VI as King James I in 1603 did a King of Scots, in effect, sit on it again. In 1996 the British government returned the Stone to Scotland and it was displayed with the Honours of Scotland in the Crown Room in Edinburgh Castle.

In 2023 it returned to Westminster with appropriate ceremony for a temporary return to St Edward’s Chair for the Corination of the present King. It was then returned to the new Museum in Perth, very close to the site of its ancient home at Scone Abbey.

A replica of the Stone of Destiny outside the seventeenth century chapel where King Charles II was crowned in 1651 on the Moot Hill at Scone

Image: Facebook/ Soul of Alba Photography

 

Wikipedia has a detailed account of the Stone, its legends and history at Stone of Scone

The World History Encyclopaedia has more about the legends associated with it at Stone of Scone

The Stone at Edinburgh Castle in 2023 before it was taken to Westminster for the Coronation.

The Duke of Buccleuch KT, Captain General of the Royal Company of Archers, stands behind it flanked by two members of the Court of the Lord Lyon

Image: NBC News

I have long been of the opinion, and said so on this blog  that I would favour the restoration of the Scottish Coronation within the constitution of the United Kingdom. There is however the problem that both the original Sword of State and the Sceptre are now said to be too fragile to be handled. That is very unfortunate but it is good to see the Crown in use at the Lying-in-State of the late Queen and the ceremonial opening of the Scottish Parliament.

  

The Seal of Scone Abbey dating from about 1250 depicting the coronation of a King of Scots

Image: Wikipedia