STONE OF SCONE FACTS | Stone of Destiny history | What is the coronation stone? | History Calling

it may not look like much to the untreated eye but this rock is so famous that it was stolen for 700 years and effectively used as a war Trophy this is the stone of schoon will get to the different pronunciations of its name in a minute and it's the rock which Scottish English and later British monarchs have been crimed upon on and off for roughly a millennium also known as the stone of Destiny or the coronation Stone it has an incredible history including teals that it features in a biblical story came to Scotland via Ireland and even has magical powers it's had a famous Throne built to house it been bombed by suffragettes hidden from Nazis and stolen for a second time by Scottish nationalists some even say that the stone we see today is a fig and that the real one has been hidden slash lost since either the Middle Ages or the 1950s this is history calling where I bring you new videos every week on all aspects of the past and today we're going to look at one of Scotland's most prized possessions and at some of the famous bottoms which have sat on it [Music] foreign let's get one of the most important issues out of the way first how do you say this Stone's name there are three popular pronunciations schoon scone and scone I'm going with schoon partly because that's what I've always called it and partly because when I went and looked up actual Scottish people saying it during research for this video that's the pronunciation I most often heard them using as well you can call it scone or schoon if you want to though in the grand scheme of things I don't think it matters that much if in doubt I recommend just calling it The Stone of Destiny to be on the safe side though on a little side note that DM only originated in the 16th century the Stone's Origins are shrouded in mystery and have attracted some pretty outlandish stories none of which have any documentary or archaeological support just for fun though I'm going to share a few of my favorites with you before we get on to more solid historical grind one popular teal has it that the rock is the same one which the biblical character Jacob used as a pillow whilst resting at Bethel after dreaming of God when he awoke he set Sam Stone up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it to Mark the location as a place of God another story continues this provenance by saying that it was then taken to Egypt followed by Spain and eventually Ireland where it was placed in County meath on the famous Hill of Tara and called The Leaf fall there it was reputed to displace Supernatural Powers roaring when a person of Royal Blood sat on it during the inaugurations of Irish Kings but remaining silent if a pretender touched it it was supposedly removed to Scotland by Fergus the great who died around 501 A.D and taken to the nine non-existent Monastery of schoon thus the name in around 846 by Kenneth mcgalpin of course this whole story finders pretty fast when we consider that there is no contemporary evidence to support it furthermore the Leah fall rock is still in County meath to this day and even if it's not the same rock that was there 1500 years ago the scientific evidence I'm going to share with you next has proven that the Lea fall and the stone of schoon cannot be one and the same geological Studies have shown that the stone of Destiny which measures 26.5 by 16.5 by 11 inches and weighs 152 kilograms or 336 pounds is sandstone and was quarried in Scotland probably around Perth and Dundee the local origins of the rock had been suspected by geologists as early as the 19th century but were then confirmed by microscopic analysis in 1937 the results of which were further refined by additional testing in 1998 the stone does not come from the Middle East Spain or Ireland and we can let go of all the fantasy stories which have grown up over the centuries which claim that it traveled to Scotland from abroad it didn't in fact the true existence of the stone can only be traced back to the 13th century in a description of the coronation of the seven-year-old King Alexander III at schoon in 1249 we are told by Scottish chronicler John for Dunn that the Scottish Nobles Laird Alexander soon to be their King up to the Cross which stands in the graveyard at the East End of the church there they set him on the Royal Throne which was decked with silken cloths in woven with gold and the bishop of Saint Andrews assisted by the rest consecrated him King as was meat so the king sat down upon the Royal Throne that is the stone while the Earls and other Nobles on bended knee strew their garments under his feet before the stone now this stone is reverently kept in that same Monastery for the consecration of the kings of Albania that's an old name for Scotland and not a reference to the current country of the cmnium and no King was ever won to reign in Scotland unless he had first on receiving the name of King sat upon this stone at schoon which by the kings of old have been appointed the capital of albionia bordon's Chronicle is not without its problems it was actually written up in about the mid 1300s with Burdon having gathered up earlier historical information from other sources and so we may have to take his story with a pinch of salt litter details in what is called for Don's Chronicle also seemed to have been added by other authors further complicating matters still there is nothing to disprove the broad Strokes of what he says that the ceremony took place at schoon and included the use of the stone and his work suggests that this ritual was well established by that point though this is not unprovable as the 13th century wore on the stone continued to be a crucial part of the ritual by which a new man or boy was made King of Scotland and we get another Peak at it 43 years later when it was used at the coronation of John billiel this time for Don's Chronicle says on the last day of November 1292 this John of Belial was made King at schoon and having been there set on the Royal Throne as is the custom he was promoted in Jew Manor given its obvious importance to Scotland then how did the stone of schoon come to be in England before I answer that if you're enjoying this content please hit the like button as this lets YouTube know that you approve and makes the video more likely to be recommended to other people if you want more history delivered straight to you please also hit the Subscribe button and switch on the notification Bell so that YouTube lets you know when I upload you can also find links to my social media and patreon sites in the description box below the stone ended up in England thanks to the actions of king Edward the first known to history as the Hammer of the Scots by 1296 relations between Scotland and England have been on a downward trajectory for some time it's too complicated to explain here and frankly not particularly relevant to our story but basically Edward had been seeking to exert more power over Scotland than the Scots were prepared to Ally and hostilities had broken out Edward invaded his Northern neighbor and won the Battle of Dunbar in April 1296 before moving to Perth at some point in the summer the Contemporary English Monk and chronicler William of rischanger tells us that Edward quote passed by the Abbey of schoon where having taken away the stone which the kings of Scots were accustomed at the time of their coronation to use for a throne carried it to Westminster comments by the way which were written at the time or soon after the events support what for Don would later say about the Stone's importance at Scottish inaugurations and therefore provide further evidence that it was definitely in existence and being used in this way by the 13th century after a brief stay in Edinburgh Castle it arrived in London in 1297 and the Contemporary Chronicle known as the Flores historiarum tells us that it was offered up at The Shrine of king Edward the Confessor on the 18th of June also offered were the Scottish regalia Cronin scepter which had been seized as well unlike the stone they have not survived but if you'd like to know about their later Replacements which do still exist and which are now the oldest set of crown jewels in the British Isles see my video on the wild history of the jewels known as the honors of Scotland descriptions of the rock over the following centuries vary quite wildly it is sometimes called a stone sometimes a chair sometimes it is said to be made of stone sometimes of marble and in the early 14th century Walter of geesborough who was a Canon at a Priory in Yorkshire said that it was hollowed out and fashioned in the form of a rounded throne how can we make sense of these conflicting descriptions which don't just disagree with each other but with this Stone we see today Warwick Rodwell and I've left his book on the stone linked below for you does so by explaining that medieval chroniclers were Shameless plagiarizers copying and embellishing each other's work so that one poor description could then be seized on by many other writers and spread through the sources like wildfire the original fake news if you will the idea that the stone was marble and therefore of much greater value came from a Scottish lawyer named baldrin Bessette and was included in a 1301 document sent to the papacy in order to further denounce the English seizure of the stone and any English claims on the Scottish throne Walter of geesborough meanwhile which I've also heard pronounced gasborough almost certainly never saw the stone and based his description of it being hollowed out on his knowledge of Old English Thrones including one called the frith stool at Beverly Minster close to where he resided in other words he wrote up a description of what he thought it should look like rather than a description of what it did look like the iron rings and chain links on the stone appear to be medieval yet are not mentioned in descriptions of it until 1823. the two most popular explanations for their presence are that they were added in order to allow it to be more easily lifted and carried or else so that it could be chained to the floor of Westminster Abbey as the chronicle of Jeffrey Le Baker written in the 1330s OR 1340s specifically says it was we'll get to the reasons why in a minute there is also a misunderstanding regarding a verse associated with the stone which some have mistakenly thought was actually inscribed on it this verse translated reads if Fields go right wherever this stone is found the Scots Sean monarchs of that realm be grind it is mentioned in an early 14th century Chronicle but that Chronicle does not say that it was actually carved into the stone of destiny that idea only came along in the 1520s of course people love this little prophecy because it came true in 1603 when James VI of Scotland became James the first of England and United the two crimes after 1297 the stone remained in the Abbey for most of the next 700 years it is listed as being there in records dating to 1303 to 4 where it was called the Great Stone upon which the kings of Scotland are accustomed to be crowned Edward the first needed a proper way to display this piece of famous War beauty though and show his metaphorical dominion over Scotland and so the coronation chair also called Saint Edward's chair was commissioned in 1297 and ultimately finished by 1300. this chair often referred to as a throne had a specially built compartment in its base in which to hose the stone of schoon it has been suggested that the stone was cut down at this early point in its English history in order to make it more easily fit into such a chair and while this is possible it is also impossible to prove the reasoning given for this assumption is that at its current size it does not really Merit the medieval description give it a minute ago of being a great Stone but I think the idea of what constitutes a huge rock is all in the eye of the beholder there was also evidence of masonrywork being carried out on its sides though not on its top and bottom which retain their natural geological features but we don't know when or why this might have occurred or how much of the stone it might have taken off a shallow rectangle has been cut into the top of it presumably with the intention of attaching something like an inscription plate into it but the work was evidently not completed and we don't know when it was undertaken or by whom there is also a visible crack in the Rock but again we don't know when it appeared and it is only mentioned in descriptions of the stone of schoon starting in 1865. there was not originally a seat board in the chair so the monarchs who sat on it some of whom you see here will have sat right on top of The Rock when the wooden seat was added is unclear but it was definitely there by 1685 when James II was crowned the Scots wanted their Stone bag of course and there were efforts during the 14th century to get it this is where Jeffrey Le Baker comes in he tells us of some of these efforts saying that this Stone was now fixed by Iron sheians to the floor of Westminster Abbey under the Royal Throne next to the high altar the Scots asked that the seam Stone should be released and given back to them so they could consecrate their King upon it as they had done of old this was King David II who ascended to the throne in 1324. the Council of the king meaning Edward III of England gave its Ascent to this petition and high-ranking envoys were sent to get the stone but when the Abbot of Westminster whose name was William of kirtlington heard the request of the envoys he wrote To The King and his Council saying that the stone had once been brought from Scotland with immense effort by Edward the king's grandfather and devoutly offered by him to The Abbey so that it nigh could not and should not be carried off from that church after this response the envoys returned to Scotland without the stone isn't super clear on the chronology here as it was actually 1328 by the time Edward III issued the Writ ordering that the stone be returned to Scotland and this was in response to another request from the Scots that it be given back furthermore as Warwick Rodwell has pointed out Edward probably only did so on the orders of his mother Isabella of France as he was just 16 years old at the time concerns about the stone being removed from the Abbey do help to explain why it was Shackled to the floor though and may well indicate when the iron rings in it were added which by the way I consider an act of vandalism which damaged the stone and inevitably led to some of it being lost as libeker notes the Scots were not successful in obtaining the stone at this time but they didn't give up and in 1363 there were further promises that if Lionel Duke of Clarence younger son of Edward III was made King of Scotland after David II's death it would be taken North once again for the coronation at schoon this never happened though thanks to Lionel's death in 1368. the stone therefore spent over half a millennium sitting almost without interruption in Westminster Abbey mostly in the coronation chair though I would imagine when that chair had to be moved around The Rock was lifted out to make life easier it has been used in the coronations of virtually every Monarch since Henry IV in 1399 and possibly before though not always for the moment of crying that tradition only dates to 1603 and the coronation of James the first who was also the first King of Scotland of course to sit on the stone since the 13th century even if it wasn't for his Scottish coronation the chair and probably the stone too did briefly leave The Abbey in 1657 to go across the street to Westminster Hall this was for the second installation of Oliver Cromwell as Lord protector but otherwise both remained in place they have been used for events other than coronations though Queen Victoria sat on the chair twice once at her haphazard and rather comical coronation in 1838 which I have a whole video on and once at her golden jubilee in 1887. others have rested on it too of course most of them not remotely famous allowing tourists to sit on the chair was a handy way of making some extra money for Abby's staff and was a practice which continued for centuries indeed I have no hesitation in saying that far more commoner bottoms have sat on or just above the stone of schoon than Royal tushes some went even further the chair is covered in graffiti and one piece tells us that a p Abbott slept in it and by extension on top of the stone of Destiny on the night of the 5th to the 6th of July 1800 like the chair The Rock has been damaged over the centuries too I've mentioned already that the act of putting the Rings into it will have forced some of the stone to be removed and other pieces have clearly been taken away since then as well as those rings are evidently more visible now than would have been intended at the time they were attached Rodwell suggests some of this removing was done to fit the stone more comfortably into the evolving coronation chair visitors to The Abbey have also doubtless chipped small pieces of it off as souvenirs as it was so poorly protected by those who had the care of it others hope to do far worse than chip at it though in 1884 there was a plot by Irish nationalists to steal the stone on the basis of its mythical connection to Ireland and the Lea fall but this plot was foiled and after that the information card next to the chair which mentioned this fictional connection was updated and the inaccurate information removed and so we enter the 20th century which was perhaps the most Sensational era for the stone since it was Spirited Away from Scotland on the 11th of June 1914 a small bomb was attached to the coronation chair and succeeded in damaging it though thankfully not too severely the stone was unharmed the perpetrator was never found and no one officially claimed responsibility for the attack but the suffragettes have been blamed as the bomber left behind some of her belongings including a handbag and feather boa evidently used to conceal the bomb as she made her way into the Abbey soon after both chair and stone were moved into the chapter house Crypt to protect them during World War one where they remained until hostility ceased in 1918. when World War II broke out in 1939 similar precautions were taken to protect these ancient items from Nazi bombs and the stone was hidden away in the Islip Chapel vault in the Abbey while the chair went to Gloucester Cathedral there were serious concerns that the Stone's location might be lost however if the Abbey was bombed and the few people in England who knew its location were killed as a security measure a detailed map of the location was therefore sent to the prime minister of Canada Mackenzie King who had it placed in the Vault of the bank of Ottawa another copy of the map went to the Canadian High Commissioner and was placed in a vault in the Bank of Montreal in Toronto when the war was over the two items were brought together again and put back on display at Westminster by this time there were increasing calls from Scottish nationalists to return the stone to its original Homeland a Scottish champagne named David Kirkwood had introduced a private members bill into the House of Commons in 1924 to that effect but it failed to pass then in 1950 one of the most dramatic moments in the Stone's history came when it was successfully stolen by a group of such nationalists on Christmas Day who concealed it for three and a half months and seriously damaged it in the process this group were aged between 20 and 55 so not just a bunch of students playing a pregnancy will often read unless please not romanticize them there were a bunch of morons who admitted later that they hadn't even thought about what to do with the stone once they removed it from The Abbey they also caused serious damage to the coronation chair when they broke pieces of it off with crowbars and split the stone of Destiny in two when they dragged it out of the chair and dropped it on the floor because they were too dim to realize how incredibly heavy it would be the smaller piece was carried outside to a car and driven away the larger it was dragged on a coat across the Abbey floor and outside to another car where it was very roughly handled upended and dumped into the vehicle these were not people with any great love or respect for Scottish history culture or the stone no matter what they claimed afterwards one even said he was relieved it broke into because it made the job of moving it easier in the course of driving it to Scotland the smaller piece fell out of the car boot it was in onto the road and the larger was hidden in a roadside field then drive to a new location during which it was Allied to toboggan their word not mine downhills this group of criminals caused massive additional damage to the stone not to mention what Warwick Rodwell calls the sacrilege and possible treason of robbing a church on Christmas Day and stealing crime property they then issued what amounted to a ransom note for the stone but this got them nowhere they took it to Scotland one of the gang members repaired it on the 26th of March 1951 removing some small pieces in the process which were not recovered and on the 11th of April it was left at the ruined arbuth Abbey dripped in a Scottish flag the police were called The Stone was recovered and it was sent to Glasgow from where it was returned to London arriving on the 13th by that time some of the gang had already been apprehended but incredibly none were ever prosecuted for their crimes apparently in case it caused outrage in Scotland several went on to write books give interviews and make money from their theft and abuse of the stone for decades there was another attempt to steal it in 1967 by a convicted Thief who immediately set off the pressure alarm which had been installed after the 1950 theft and was in any case unable to lift the stone by himself because like I said before it's really heavy and anyone who did even a modicum of research would know that yet another dimwit this Stone really does attract them it seems try to steal it by himself in 1974 and yet again set off the alarm couldn't move the rock alone and caused further damage to the coronation chair and the stone in the attempt again let's please not fall into the Trap of hero worshiping these criminal vandals as so many others have done these are people who destroy history they don't protect it if you see the stone of Destiny today you will see it in a much more damaged mutilated form than you would otherwise have done if these people and all the others over the centuries who chipped pieces off it for souvenirs reduced it in size to fit it into the coronation chair or fitted huge medieval Rings into it had just left it alone we've all lost out because of these entitled individuals who selfishly thought that they knew best and should be able to do what they wanted with items of national importance I have nothing good to say about them and I certainly don't believe for one minute that anyone who loves Scotland which I Do by the way being part Scottish myself would Express that love by trashing one of its most ancient and important relics chair and stone then carried on as usual in the Abbey until on the 3rd of July 1996 very unexpectedly the then prime minister John Major announced that the stone of schoon was going to be returned to Scotland for the first time in 700 years I'm not counting its brief foray over the Border in 1951 as it was stolen property at that time there was considerable outcry at this as the dean of Westminster had not been consulted beforehand many objected to the separation of the chair and stone which had functioned as one artifact held in Westminster Abbey for centuries and which were of great historical importance to Great Britain and some suspected political motivations there was a general election coming up which the conservatives ended up losing anyway and calls for Scottish independence or Devolution which giving the storm back actually did nothing to dim nevertheless while it remains crime property a warrant was issued under Elizabeth II's name loaning it to Scotland and it left the Abbey on the 15th of November that year and was taken to Edinburgh there it was placed in a glass case in Edinburgh Castle along with this Scottish regalia the tiny room may be accessed through the door pointed out in this picture but as photography is not allowed inside that part of the building I cannot show you any pictures of it in situ here though I have visited a few times over the years as part of the conditions of its restoration to Scotland it is to be temporarily brought back to London for all future coronations so the stone is at last back in Scotland or is it let's finish by looking at the conspiracy theories which claim that The Rock We Now call the stone of schoon is a fake the first of these revolves around the idea that the original was hidden from the English in 1296 and a substitute given to them as with most conspiracy theories this idea rapidly Falls to Pieces when the evidence is examined as Warwick Rodwell has pointed out we don't have any contemporary descriptions of the stone while it was at schoon so no one can claim that the current Rock isn't the real thing because they don't even know where there's hypothetical real thing looked like second the Scots had no reason to expect Edward the first was going to steal the stone or indeed any of the regalia he took and therefore had no reason to hide it or take the precaution of having a fake mid third the efforts the Scots went to in the decades after the stone was taken to have it returned also indicate that the English had got the genuine article fourth if Edward had been duped the Scots would have been shouting it from the proverbial rooftops rather than being humiliated by having one of their most prized possessions in English hands they also would have used the real stone for future inaugurations given its importance to that ceremony finally there were numerous Englishmen who had seen the rock prior to 1296 when it was used at the inauguration of John Belial and who would have been able to tell Edward the first if a fake had been imposed on him they didn't however in short there's no reason to doubt that the English took the real Stone of schoon another equally desperate and groundless Theory holds that after the Stone's theft in 1950 a replacement such as the one you see in this image was substituted when it was returned in 1951. again Rodwell makes short work of this fantasy noting that no one involved in that theft made such a claim and frankly no fake could be produced which could withstand expert examination by people who knew every crack in the Rock and had plenty of pre-1950 photographs to compare it to Nora could it withstand scientific analysis which even in the 1950s would show if it was a real medieval artifact which had been cut with Medieval tools the top and bottom of the stone were not even worked by Masons they retain their original geological striations and these cannot be faked similarly the rusting and wear on the iron rings on the stone are centuries old and cannot be replicated the stone we see today is the cm1 which was in The Abbey pre-1950 the same one which came to England in 1297 and the same one which the Scots placed so much importance on as their inauguration Stone please don't be suckered by anyone claiming anything else I hope you've enjoyed this trip back through nearly 800 years of Scottish English and British history and that I've proven to you that some of this Jupiter theories about the stone of schoon are in fact codswallop thank you as always to my wonderful patrons whose support helps me to make this a viable career and to those of you who donate to the channel using the thanks button underneath videos as your support is also much appreciated let's have a slightly controversial question for the comments this week as I'm going to ask you if you think the stone should have gone back to Scotland or been left in Westminster Abbey I'm sure Scots and English people will favor their own countries but it'll be interesting to hear what non-brits make of the whole thing as well till next time please remember to keep learning

Channel: History Calling

Views: 265,995

Keywords: stone of scone facts, stone of destiny history, what is the coronation stone, the coronation stone, the stone of scone, stone of destiny, history calling, coronation of Charles III

Id: 6Px07RGN0QU

Length: 29min 12sec (1752 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 21 2023