14
Oct

The Stone of Destiny

   Posted by: Win Tonkin   in Medieval Miscellany

This is the first part of the fascinating talk Win presented to our Branch on 9 October 2010.

The Stone of Destiny and the Honours of Scotland that is the present Regalia have separate histories as they were never used together in a coronation.

The Stone of Destiny is the block of sandstone on which the ancient Kings of Scotland were crowned at Scone until it was stolen by King Edward I who took it to London where it was housed in Edward the Confessor’s chair until it was returned in 1996 except for a brief period in 1950 when four young Scottish Nationalists repossessed it.

The myth of the origin of the Stone is traced back to Biblical times when it is supposed to have been the pillow on which Jacob rested his head when he dreamed of the angels climbing up their heavenly ladder. It was acquired by Scota, daughter of a Pharaoh of Egypt and brought to Ireland and then to Scotland by Kenneth M’Alpine who became King of the Picts and Scots in 843 AD.

The Stone of Destiny in the Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey (anonymous engraver, 1855)

According to Ted Cowan, Professor of Scottish History at Glasgow University, King Constantin II who lived around 914 AD was the first King of the Emerging Kingdom uniting Picts and Scots from Ireland and it was he who took the Stone to Scone.

However, by the time of King Alexander III the Stone was in place at Scone near the town of Perth in 1249. The king, then a child of seven, was crowned as King of Scots. The scene was described later in John of Fordun’s Chronica Gentis Scottorum as follows:

They lead Alexander to the cross which stands in the churchyard at Scone and set him on the Stone which was decked with silken cloths interwoven with gold and the Bishop of St Andrews consecrated him. The king sat on the royal throne that is, the Stone, while the nobles spread their garments under his feet. It is recorded that “Now this Stone is reverently kept in a monastery for the coronation of the Kings of Alba and no king was ever wont to reign in Scotland unless he had first, on receiving the name of king, sat upon this Stone at Scone by which kings of old had appointed the capital of Alba.

Then the Highland bard recited in Gaelic the new king’s genealogy far back into the mythical past.

This ceremony for Alexander III took place in the open air. In the 13th century there was an abbey where the present Palace of Scone now stands. Today there are the remains of a church in which Charles II was crowned minus Stone in 1651.

Alexander III went on to rule with justice and fairness. There was a close relationship with England as he married Edward I’s sister Margaret but he was unfortunate with his children as he lost all three: Alexander the elder son, David and Margaret, his only daughter. His wife Margaret died in 1272. Margaret, his daughter, had married King Eric II of Norway. She died aged 22 years giving birth to a daughter also called Margaret, known as the ‘Maid of Norway’ who was the only surviving direct descendant of Alexander III.

On February 1284 the magnates of Scotland meeting at Scone acknowledged the child as heir presumptive, failing any further children of the King. Some of the nobility were unhappy about this arrangement – she was a child and a girl, and Scotland had never had a female ruler before and many of them felt that they had a claim to the throne.

Alexanders realised that he had to marry again. His new bride was Yolande, Countess of Montford. Their marriage took place on 14 October, 1285. However, this union did not last long. Tragedy struck again.

In March of the next year the king held a session of his council in Edinburgh, then he decided to set out to be with his young wife who was staying at a royal castle in Fife.

The account says that after a stormy crossing of the Firth of Forth he took a horse riding along the cliffs.

The horse stumbled and the king was thrown over and fell to his death. This report of his death has gone down in history and I have never known it to be questioned until I read a letter to the Editor of the Scots Magazine February 2010 issue which raised several questions and I quote:

LETTER RE KING ALEXANDER III, by Patricia Payne (in Scots Magazine)

The year 1286 is a long time ago but am I the only person to look at the death of King Alexander III and think: “This was no mishap, this was murder?”

The story is well known. King Alexander, who had lost his wife and all three children, married again in the hope of an heir for Scotland.

On a March day he attended Council in Edinburgh Castle, dined, then set out to ride to Kinghorn in Fife to rejoin his young wife, attended by three gentlemen.

He never arrived. His dead body was found the next morning and. Authority having announced the King’s horse had stumbled and thrown him over a cliff, this version was never questioned.

Now, there are 12 hours of daylight in mid-March aid the medieval dinner time was 10 o’clock in the morning. The King, starting at noon, had six hours of daylight to cover about 40 miles, counting the ferry crossing. He would ride at about six miles an hour which would have got him to Kinghorn before full dark.

Much has been made of the bad weather and how everyone warned the King not to go but the ferry rowed him over the Forth successfully and hindsight leads to many false prophecies.

History speaks of a dark night but they were written by men who dined at three or four and assumed the King did the same.

Motive for murder? Twelve prospective claimants to the throne of Alexander died without an heir including Robert Bruce Senior, John Balliol, John Comyn.

Who exactly were the three gentlemen riding with the King and what happened to them? Does anyone know?

So here we have the makings of another medieval mystery.

So here we have another medieval mystery worth investigating.

This untimely death plunged Scotland into a constitutional crisis, which lead to the War of Independence with England and Edward I.

His grand-daughter, the Maid of Norway, was formally accepted as Queen of Scots. Her marriage to Edward I’s son was discussed even though they were closely related and the thought of a union with England was unpopular after negotiation it was decided that Scotland would remain an independent country in the event of the marriage.

In 1290 ‘The Maid’ set sail for Scotland. It was a stormy crossing. The ship was driven off course to Orkney where Margaret, never a robust child, died and her body returned to her grieving family in Norway.

There were a number of claimants for the throne. Competitors they were called. In 1292 Edward I, as arbitrator, accepted the homage of John Balliol as King of Scots. Balliol left for Scone where he was inaugurated as King. The last time a King of Scots would sit on the Stone of Destiny in Scotland.

King John’s reign was fraught with problems. The Bruces did not support him. King Edward was on the move. It was war. Balliol surrendered and Edward made a triumphal progress north ransacking as he went. The great seal was broken, the Stone of Destiny was sent south. So finally with the possession of the Stone Edward believed that Scotland had ceased to be a kingdom that was the importance that he attached to it.

This was only the beginning of a struggle. In 1306 Robert Bruce was declared King of Scots at Scone minus Stone and Crown. The Countess of Buchan placed a simple gold circlet on his head for which action, when she was captured she spent four years in a wooden cage suspended from the battlements of Berwick Castle.

Time passed, the war continued but on 7th July 1307 Edward I (Long Shanks) died and was buried in Westminster Abbey in a tomb inscribed ‘The Hammer of the Scots’. Finally, at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 Scotland won its independence. In 1320 The Declaration of Arbroath was affirmed which said: “As long as an hundred of us remain alive we will submit in no least way to English domination. We fight not for wealth, nor honour, nor power but only and alone for freedom, which no good man surrenders but with his life.”

It also said that the king was answerable to his subjects and could be replaced.

The Stone was supposed to be returned to Scotland, but in effect until it was restored temporarily in 1950 taken South again and finally returned in 1996 by agreement of Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister John Major. It is now on display with the Honours in Edinburgh Castle.

The reclamation of the Stone in 1950 was the result of a daring plan by four young members of the Scottish Nationalist Party which had grown up between WW1 and WW2. It was to regain the Stone of Destiny, that icon of Scottish Independence.

Ian Hamilton, law student, Gavin Vernon, engineering student, Alan Stuart, who offered the use of his car, and Kay Matheson, the only girl, a home economics teacher, on Christmas Eve managed, what reads like a comedy of errors, to succeed in removing the Stone from Westminster Abbey during which a bit broke off. It weighed 152 kilograms.

On Christmas Day the news was announced the Stone had been stolen. The Hue and Cry was up. Road blocks on the way to Scotland. The Dean of Westminster was outraged. King George VI was distraught as there was a legend that the loss of the Stone would signal the end of his royal line. There was great popular support for the King and Queen, who was a Scot, because of their conduct during the war and having refused pressure to send the princesses to safety in Canada.

Pressure was put on those involved for the Stone to be given up. So, on April 11, 1951, the Stone, now repaired and in one piece, was put at the High Altar in Arbroath Abbey. It was whisked back to London and replaced in good time for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

I remember clearly the excitement that this escapade created in Scotland. No arrests were made and no one was prosecuted as the authorities realised it would be an unpopular move and might even cause another rebellion.

I had a personal interest in the venture as I had met two of the culprits, Ian and Gavin, when one of my friends shared student accommodation with them.

The full story can be read in lan’s book* re-released in 2008. Ian became a QC. Gavin went to Canada and, on the return of the Stone in 1996, he attended the ceremony in Edinburgh. Also, on the 50th anniversary of the repossession in 2000 the Abbey was opened for him with the words: “Welcome back Mr Vernon”. He died in 2004 and his obituary was published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

A final note on the Stone and the myths surrounding it. I have often wondered why geologists could not establish the origin of the Stone but when consulting the internet I found this entry from Wikepedia: “The Stone taken to Westminster has been confirmed by geologists to be of Lower Old Red Sandstone quarried in the vicinity of Scone”, which blows sky-high all the romantic myths about it. Nonetheless, it is still an icon of Scottish history and maybe Edward I did not get the right one after all.

It is on display in Edinburgh Castle.

*Ian R Hamilton, The Stone of Destiny.  Berlinn General, Edinburgh, UK, 2008.  ISBN 9781841587295 (pbk) RRP $24.95

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  1. Richard III Society of NSW » Blog Archive » The 2010 AGM and Meeting of the Richard III Society, NSW Branch    Oct 14 2010 / 12pm:

    […] Tonkin’s interesting and comprehensive presentations were about ‘The Stone of Destiny’, and ‘The Honours of Scotland’. The Stone of Destiny is the block of stone dating back to […]

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