|
 It
was also Edward I "The Hammer of the Scots" who
carried south the emblem of Scottish kingship (the Stone
of Scone or Destiny) from one of his
earlier campaigns, and placed it within the base of the
coronation chair in Westminster Cathedral in London.
John Prebble, in The Lion in the North, says:
The seat of kings was moved [from Dalriada] to
Scone, sacred centre of Pictland, and the royal sons of
Alpin accepted their inheritance upon a stone slab which
tradition believes was taken from Tara in Ireland, built
into the wall of Dunstaffanage Castle, and then brought
reverently to Scone.
However, tradition or not, geologists say the block of
sandstone was quarried locally not far from Scone
in Perthshire. Since then every king and queen of England
(and Great Britain since the Union of the Crowns in
1603) has been crowned on this chair.
And there it remained until 1950, when four young Scottish
patriots took the stone from Westminster, and after
four months, returned it, not to London, but to Arbroath
Abbey, and placed it before the high altar.
In 1996, the Stone was returned to Scotland and now lies
with the Honours of Scotland in Edinburgh Castle.
|
