5 min readNew DelhiMay 2, 2023 08:27 AM IST
First published on: May 1, 2023 at 02:41 PM IST
With Britain’s King Charles III set to have his coronation ceremony later this week on May 6 (Saturday), preparations are afoot for a day associated with specific objects and traditions as part of the world’s few remaining monarchies.
The event is expected to draw a significant audience from across the world. The interest here may also be because of the fact that the last time a coronation happened in the UK royal family was in 1953, after Charles’s mother Queen Elizabeth II was crowned Queen following the death of her father, King George VI, around a year prior. The Queen passed away on September 8, 2022. Given the scale of the coronation ceremonies, they take place some months after the monarch’s death. Although, the proclamation of Charles as King happened soon after the Queen’s death in a small ceremony.
The stone would be placed in a section underneath the seat of the Coronation Chair. (Wikimedia Commons)
One of the objects which will be seen here, with a history stretching as far back as nearly a thousand years, is the Stone of Scone. It was recently moved from Scotland’s Edinburgh Castle to London in preparation for the coronation.
What is the Stone of Scone?
The 150kg red sandstone slab has some marks on it, along with two attached metal rings. Also known as the Stone of Destiny, the stone has long resided in Scotland and is seen as a sacred, historic symbol of its monarchy and nationhood.
It was believed to have been used in the inauguration of Scottish kings as far back as the early 9th century. Many of these inaugurations took place at the Scone Palace in the city of Perth in Scotland, hence the name of the stone. The monarchs would have their inauguration as kings while sitting on it. Writing in The Conversation, the University of Winchester professors Gordon McKelvie and Katherine Weikert explained how early on the Scottish kings would not have crowns and other regalia. The stone, as one of the few objects present in the inauguration, therefore became an important symbol of the Scottish royals, representing a solid foundation to the kingdom.
According to the Edinburgh Castle’s website, “In 1296, King Edward I of England seized the stone from the Scots, and had it built into a new throne at Westminster.” It was incorporated into a small section underneath the wooden Coronation Chair, ordered in 1308 for London’s Westminster Abbey. That chair has since been used in the coronation ceremonies of English and British monarchs since Henry IV in 1399. It was used in Elizabeth II’s coronation as well.
There have also been instances of the stone disappearing or suffering damage. Suffragettes, or women activists campaigning for voting rights in the country, once set off a bomb near the chair in the early 20th century, and as a result, both the chair and the stone sustained some damage.
On Christmas Day in 1950, four nationalist Scottish students removed the stone from Westminster Abbey. Three months later it turned up nearly 800 kilometres away, in the Arbroath Abbey in Scotland, a building long associated with Scottish independence, as Scottish nobles swore their independence from England here in the 14th century. The stone, therefore, also became embroiled in the cause of Scottish nationalism. In 1996, the stone was officially returned to Scotland. Today, it is on display in the Crown Room of the Castle and is only “borrowed” for coronations.
What is the legend associated with the Stone of Scone?
According to a BBC report, legend says it was originally in West Asia and has associations with Biblical stories. It was believed to be the same stone used by the biblical figure of Jacob (the father of the Israelites) as a pillow when he dreamed of a ladder reaching up to heaven. “From here, one of Jacob’s sons is said to have taken it to Egypt, from where it travelled to Spain and later to Ireland when the Spanish king’s son, Simon Brech, invaded the island in 700 BCE,” it states.
There it was placed upon the sacred Hill of Tara, and called “Lia-Fail”, the “fatal” stone, or “stone of destiny”. The Westminster Abbey website states that Fergus Mor MacEirc, the founder of the Scottish monarchy, and one of the Blood Royal of Ireland, received it in Scotland.
Another legend, according to the report, states instead of King Edward seizing the stone, monks at the Scone Palace hid the “real stone” in a nearby river and gave English soldiers a replica.
The stone was believed to have been used in the inauguration of Scottish kings as far back as the early 9th century. The monarchs would be proclaimed as kings while sitting on it. (Wikimedia Commons) 
The stone would be placed in a section underneath the seat of the Coronation Chair. (Wikimedia Commons)
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