The Mysterious History of the Coronation Stone | The Stone of Destiny

hi I'm Dan snow and I'm at Westminster Abbey and it is here that the Kings and themes of England and Britain have been crowned since 1066 with one or two exceptions and I'm here because the world will be watching their TVs on May the 6th as King Charles arrives for his coronation a ceremony of Pomp and pageantry carefully choreographed elements of which have Traditions that stretch back for a thousand years but there's one element that's always fascinated me and that is the legendary Stone of schoon the mysterious Stone of Destiny it sits beneath the Throne of The Sovereign as they're being crowns but it's a symbol of Scottish sovereignty and that's made it a cause of controversy right up to the present day the Sandstone slab no bigger than a small suitcase has only the barest of decoration a roughly carved cross plus iron Rings fitted at either end it's also special about this frankly unremarkable looking Rock well according to one Celtic Legend the stone is actually the biblical Stone of Jacob from The Book of Genesis in the Old Testament Jacob used the stone as a pillow when he has his famous vision of a Stairway leading to Heaven which becomes known as Jacob's Ladder from the Holy Land the stone reportedly traveled around the Mediterranean popping up in Egypt Sicily in Spain before reaching Ireland with an invading Army in around 700 BC here it was placed on the sacred Hill of Tara and his skern in County meath and named the Leia foil or speaking Stone it was said to groan aloud if the claimant was of Royal Blood but remained silent if he was a pretender and then at long last the stone made its way to Scotland in the hands of King Fergus an Irish ruler who moved his seat of power Dunedin Argyle in 498 A.D well so much for the legend the only source we have for this part of the story is the Scottish Declaration of our growth which was written up in 1320 and mentions an honor passing through the Mediterranean Sea and coming from Israel the Declaration was an attempt to get the pope to recognize Scottish independence and it does tend to bend the truth a little on slightly firmer historical ground it's believed the stone was taken to Schooner Abby in Persia after Kenneth mcalpin who United the Scots and pictish kingdoms and is known as the first King of Scotland moved his Capital to schoon in around 840 A.D while much of the origin story is disputed we think that it was in use between the 9th and the 13th centuries in schoon Palace in perthshire as a seat for the crowning of Kings but we don't actually know what it looked like at the time today the stone is a simple block of pinkish sandstone back in the Middle Ages described very differently this has led some historians to speculate that the stone King Charles will use in his coronation is not the same one as was used back then some stories say the real Stone was hidden from the English Invaders and a replica is now being used in its place more on that later contemporary accounts of what the stone looked like at schoon vary some describe it as being hollowed out like a chair or seat some state was blackish or made of marble some sculpted and some that it was carved others believe it was branded with metal and set with lifting rings at Each corner whatever the stone looked like it had a sacred and important role and was used for coronation ceremonies whenever a new Scottish Monarch came to power the stone sat Outside The Abbey at a place called moot Hill which is where the ceremonies took place during those years many Scottish kings were inaugurated here including familiar names like Macbeth the 11th century King immortalized by William Shakespeare the stone stayed in schoon until 1296 when it was unceremoniously removed by King Edward the first of England AKA The Hammer of the Scots King Edward's nickname stemmed from his involvement in a series of bloody conflicts between England and Scotland in the late 13th and early 14th centuries called the wars of Scottish independence a succession crisis sparked by the deaths of Alexander III in 1286 and his young granddaughter Margaret the maid of Norway four years later was the cause of this particular neighborly Feud a lack of any obvious Monarch to sit on the Scottish Throne gave Edward the first the chance to intervene making his preferred candidate King for that man John baliel soon proved insufficiently loyal for Edward's liking in 1296 he invaded Scotland sweeping all resistance before him The Fugitive King John was forced into a humiliating surrender and was sent south in captivity Edward seized the symbolic Stone of schoon along with other relics and took them back to London with him the stone was then fitted into a specially commissioned coronation chair remarkably it's the same chair still used to this day however some maintain the real Stone was actually Hidden Away by monks from The Abbey and a fake was taken by King Edward geologists have proven the slab in use today was quarried near schoon itself adding to the mystery regardless the stone that Edward took undoubtedly became a powerful symbol of England's dominion over Scotland the stone has been used in almost all of the coronations of English and British sovereigns ever since although there was one occasion in 1328 when it came close to leaving the capital at the end of the first war of Scottish independence a treaty was negotiated that included a clause where Edward III agreed to return the stone of Destiny to Scotland however when the time came to transport it rioting crowds prevented it from being removed from Westminster Abbey and it stayed put since then the stone has played host to a lot of Royal bums one noteworthy coronation was out of Stuart King James the first when Queen Elizabeth the first died childless she was succeeded by King James VI of Scotland who became King James the first of England because James was a Scotsman his coronation on the stone of schoon in 1603 was said to fulfill an ancient prophecy which was once written onto its surface the passage as interpreted by Sir Walter Scott read unless the fates be faulty grown and prophet's voice be vain Who air is found this sacred stone the Scottish race shall reign it wasn't until a chilly Christmas morning in 1950 that the stone headed off for a brief return to its ancestral Homeland in Scotland thanks to a group of Scottish nationalist Glasgow University students the stone was stolen from Westminster Abbey at five in the morning by a group of young people who had broken in determined to return it to its spiritual home it's truly an amazing story reportedly a policeman stopped two of the students involved in the heist as they were leaving Westminster Abbey wanted to know why they were parked outside the male and female student pretended they were locked in a passionate embrace and explained they hadn't been able to find a hotel the policeman was rather lenient chatting to them before moving them along he had no idea that they had had in their car a broken chunk of the stone of Destiny the ancient symbol of Scotland which hadn't been moved for seven centuries the stone had split into us they dislodged it from the chair and the two pieces were brought back from Scotland in the boot of their car spider Nationwide search the stone wasn't discovered until four months later but it was found draped in the Scottish flag on the altar of arbroath Abbey no charges were brought against the students and the stone was returned to London that's not the only upheaval the stone has witnessed in the last hundred years in 1914 suffragettes detonated an explosive under the coronation chair as part of their bombing and arson campaign and badly damaged it and during World War II concerns about the German bombing led to the stone being secretly buried under Westminster Abbey while the coronation chair was moved to Gloucester Cathedral until the war was over at the end of the turbulent 20th century the stone returned to Scotland for good in 1996 British prime minister John Major made an attempt to silence calls for Scottish independence by announcing the stone would be taken to Edinburgh Castle where it's now kept with the Scottish crown jewels when the stone was returned to Edinburgh 27 years ago it was agreed that we only head back down south in the events of a coronation and so in the last few weeks the stone has made that Journey while many people resent the use of this symbol of the Scottish nation in the crowning of a British monarch it really does emphasize the importance of history of tradition in this coronation right which has remained largely Unchained for nearly a thousand years it's also a powerful symbol of the complicated relationship between England and Scotland which remains a political Hot Topic to this day thanks for watching this video on the history Hit YouTube channel you can subscribe right here to make sure you don't miss any of our great films that are coming out or if you are 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Channel: History Hit

Views: 391,668

Keywords: history hit, history hit youtube, stone of destiny, stone of scone, king charles iii, coronation stone, king charles, royal family, westminster abbey, stone of destiny stolen, stone of destiny heist, stone of destiny documentary, what is the stone of scone, what is the stone of destiny, what is the coronation stone, the stone of scotland, king charles coronation, king charles coronation ceremony, dan snow, history hit dan snow, scottish history

Id: b3dT4nnmrzc

Length: 10min 22sec (622 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 28 2023