The Coronation Chair and Stone of Scone: History, Archaeology and Conservation

By Warwick Rodwell

Constructed in 1297−1300 for King Edward I, the Coronation Chair ranks amongst the most remarkable and precious treasures to have survived from the Middle Ages. It incorporated in its seat a block of sandstone, which the king seized at Scone, following his victory over the Scots in 1296. For centuries, Scottish kings had been inaugurated on this symbolic ‘Stone of Scone’, to which a copious mythology had also become attached. Edward I presented the Chair, as a holy relic, to the Shrine of St Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey, and most English monarchs since the fourteenth century have been crowned in it, the last being HM Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953.

The Chair and the Stone have had eventful histories: in addition to physical alterations, they suffered abuse in the eighteenth century, suffragettes attached a bomb to them in 1914, they were hidden underground during the Second World War, and both were damaged by the gang that sacrilegiously broke into Westminster Abbey and stole the Stone in 1950. It was recovered and restored to the Chair, but since 1996 the Stone has been exhibited on loan in Edinburgh Castle.

Now somewhat battered through age, the Chair was once highly ornate, being embellished with gilding, painting and colored glass. Yet, despite its profound historical significance, until now it has never been the subject of detailed archaeological recording. Moreover, the remaining fragile decoration was in need of urgent conservation, which was carried out in 2010−12, accompanied by the first holistic study of the Chair and Stone. In 2013 the Chair was redisplayed to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of the Coronation of HM The Queen.

The latest investigations have revealed and documented the complex history of the Chair: it has been modified on several occasions, and the Stone has been reshaped and much altered since it left Scone. This volume assembles, for the first time, the complementary evidence derived from history, archaeology and conservation, and presents a factual account of the Coronation Chair and the Stone of Scone, not as separate artifacts, but as the entity that they have been for seven centuries. Their combined significance to the British Monarchy and State – and to the history and archaeology of the English and Scottish nations – is greater than the sum of their parts.

Also published here for the first time is the second Coronation Chair, made for Queen Mary II in 1689. Finally, accounts are given of the various full-size replica chairs in Britain and Canada, along with a selection of the many models in metal and ceramic which have been made during the last two centuries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Release date: Jun 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781782971535

Warwick Rodwell

Professor Warwick Rodwell, OBE, is Consultant Archaeologist to Westminster Abbey.

Book preview

Frontispiece: The Coronation Chair in St Edward’s Chapel, displayed with the Sword of State and shield of Edward III, and the cap and cape of General Monck, Duke of Albemarle. This is one of the earliest views showing upholstery on the arms. From a watercolour by Thomas Scandrett, 1845. Knight 1845

Published by

Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK

© Oxbow Books, Warwick Rodwell

and the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, 2013

ISBN 978-1-84217-152-8

PRINT ISBN: 978-1-78297-152-8

EPUB ISBN: 978-1-78297-153-5

PRC ISBN: 978-1-78297-154-2

Westminster Abbey Occasional Papers (series 3), no. 2

The Dean and Chapter of Westminster gratefully acknowledge the generous support

of AkzoNobel towards the re-display of the Coronation Chair and publishing this volume

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Front cover:

The Coronation Chair and Stone of Scone. David Lambert, © Dean and Chapter of Westminster

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rodwell, Warwick.

  The coronation chair and Stone of Scone : history, archaeology and conservation / by Warwick Rodwell ; with sections by Marie Louise

Sauerberg ; and contributions by Ptolemy Dean and Eddie Smith ; foreword by the Dean of Westminster.

    pages cm -- (Westminster Abbey occasional papers ; series 3, number 2)

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-1-78297-152-8

  1. Stone of Scone. 2. Coronations--Great Britain--History. 3. Westminster Abbey--History. I. Title.

  CR4480.R56 2013

  394’.4--dc23

2013008383

Printed in Great Britain by

***

****

Dedicated to

Her Majesty The Queen,

by gracious permission,

to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary

of her Coronation on 2nd June 1953

Contents

Foreword by The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster

Preface

Acknowledgements

Appendix 1

Timeline of events connected with the Coronation Chair and Stone of Scone

Appendix 2

‘Damaged by wanton mischief’: graffiti on the Coronation Chairs by Eddie Smith

Notes and references

Bibliography

Index

Foreword

by The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster

The Coronation Chair has been, for more than 700 years, one of the most remarkable and precious objects in the Abbey collection. It is also one of the most battered. It has been subject, from a contemporary perspective, to the most extraordinary treatment over the years. It was stripped of much of its decoration, not in a single act of vandalism but progressively through the centuries by people wanting mementoes. When the superficial decoration had gone, great chunks were carved from it with the same purpose. Westminster boys and others carved their names on the surface of the Chair. It was once, for the celebration of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, covered with brown paint. A suffragette suspended a small but effective bomb from one of its finials. The Stone of Scone, the sacred relic which it was made to house, was removed from it more than once by force and has been again more recently by government decision.

Despite this shocking mistreatment, the Coronation Chair remains an object of fascinating history and of prevailing interest. People approach it with a degree of awe. They may not remember that monarchs have sat on it at their Coronation since the fourteenth century. They may not remember that the king known as Malleus Scotorum (Hammer of the Scots), Edward I (1272 to 1307), had the Chair constructed as a reliquary for the Stone he had seized on which Scottish Kings had been inaugurated for centuries. They remember at least that The Queen was seated on the chair when Her Majesty was anointed and crowned in the Abbey on 2nd June 1953.

In preparation for the sixtieth anniversary of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the Dean and Chapter, with the aid of a government grant, has undertaken necessary conservation of the Chair, in association with the Hamilton Kerr Institute. The Coronation Chair has only ever been removed from the Abbey on two or three occasions, most significantly for the proclamation of the Lord Protector in Westminster Hall during the Interregnum (1649 to 1660), and for safety during the Second World War. I was most concerned that the Chair should not be removed from the Abbey for the conservation work, which was therefore undertaken in a purpose-built studio in St George’s Chapel behind glass, so that the visitor could see what was happening.

We have also decided to reposition the Chair, from the uneasy place it has occupied since 1998 in the ambulatory to the east of the tomb of Henry V, into St George’s Chapel in the south-west corner of the nave. Our intention is that, against the southern wall of the chapel, the Chair will be more easily seen and appreciated by the visitor and, on steps and under a canopy, will also have a place of fitting dignity.

The conservation work, undertaken from 2010 to 2012, has enabled a fuller study of the Chair than ever before. A great deal has been discovered both by the conservators, under the leadership of Marie Louise Sauerberg, and by the Dean and Chapter’s consultant archaeologist Professor Warwick Rodwell, in association with members of the Westminster Abbey Fabric Commission.

This book, of interest to the expert and general reader alike, enables those who undertook the work to share the fruits of their fresh and fascinating research. Although there have been many studies of aspects of the Chair and of the Stone of Scone over the centuries, none has been as comprehensive as this, nor have the studies achieved the coherence of understanding and perception reached and displayed here.

I am confident that the Coronation Chair will continue to be one of the most remarkable and precious objects in the Abbey collection. It will also, with the Stone of Scone restored at least on each occasion to its proper place, be where Monarchs of the United Kingdom are anointed and crowned under Almighty God long into the future: a sacred relic and its sacred reliquary reunited for their hallowed purpose.

Preface

The Coronation Chair ranks amongst the most remarkable and precious treasures to have survived from the Middle Ages, and its interest extends far beyond the shores of the United Kingdom. In Western European terms, it is one of the two most important royal chairs still in existence, the other being Charlemagne’s marble throne in Aachen Cathedral (Germany).

The construction of the piece of oak furniture which today we call the Coronation Chair was ordered in 1297 by King Edward I, and its sole raison d’être was to enshrine a block of Scottish sandstone in its base. The king then presented the Chair to the Shrine of St Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. Edward had seized the Stone from Scone Abbey in Perthshire, following his military victory over the Scots in the previous year. For centuries, Scottish kings had been inaugurated at Scone, seated upon this Stone, and as a result it had acquired huge symbolic importance, a fact which was not lost on Edward. It has also attracted to itself a copious mythology. The Stone still holds a special significance for many Scots, and even now reference to Edward I’s appropriation of it occasionally arises in political debate.

The Chair was highly ornate, being embellished with gilding, painting, coloured glass and other decoration. Its historic name is ‘St Edward’s Chair’, and it was universally known by that until relatively modern times. Initially, the Chair was not specifically associated with coronations, but acquired that additional function sometime during the fourteenth century. All the glass inlays and much of the gilt work have been lost over the course of centuries, and the Chair has assumed something of a battered appearance. It is nevertheless still a powerful symbol of monarchy and plays a seminal role in every coronation.

The Coronation Chair is unique amongst surviving royal thrones on account of its having a block of sandstone housed within the seat compartment and, originally, forming the seat itself. Over the centuries the Stone has been known by various alternative names: the most accurate and longest attested is ‘Stone of Scone’, and for that reason it has been adopted here. Other names, such as ‘Stone of Destiny’, are more emotive and evoke myth rather than substantive history.

The mountain of myths which has been built around the Stone has obscured its true history and interest. Added to this, the frequent repetition of simple errors of fact and antiquarian guesswork of the past has done nothing to advance our understanding of the Stone, which has been yet further hampered by the irresponsible claims made by political propagandists. Much ink has been spilled in the writing of both pseudo-history and fiction, but all this has to be set aside since an understanding of the authentic history of the Stone can only be achieved by methodical, unemotional and, above all, rigorously scholarly study.

Regarding the Chair, in 1953 it was observed: ‘in spite of its importance, its profound historical significance, and its comparative accessibility for observation and recording, there is surprisingly little historical record or illustration concerning it. Much of the evidence which does exist of the changing appearance of the Chair, and of the reasons for these changes, is contradictory and confusing’.¹ That has remained a fair assessment down to the present time. The Coronation Chair has been mentioned and illustrated in innumerable books and articles over the past three centuries, but it has never been the subject of a systematic scholarly study, or detailed publication. The same was also true of the Stone of Scone until 2003, when the first in-depth study of it was published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.²

Curiously, the area that has received least scholarly attention concerns the archaeological relationship between the Chair and the Stone. Yet this relationship is fundamental to understanding the history and vicissitudes of the Stone from the moment that it arrived in Westminster. Having been integral components of a single artefact for seven hundred years, the Chair and the Stone are inseparable: neither makes sense without the other.

Much has happened to both the Chair and the Stone over the centuries. They have suffered not only the inevitable wear and tear that is to be expected during such an extended period, but both have also been subjected to deliberate damage and vandalism, not least by a gang that sacrilegiously broke into Westminster Abbey and stole the Stone in 1950. The Stone was recovered and restored to the Chair, but since 1996 it has been on loan to Scotland, and is currently on view in Edinburgh Castle. The Chair remains in Westminster Abbey.

The first detailed examination of the Chair itself was carried out by the Ministry of Works in 1953, during the preparations for the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Much-needed conservation work was undertaken at the same time. By 2004 it was becoming apparent that a further programme of conservation would soon be essential, and this was put in hand by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster in 2010. The work was carried out over a two-year period by the staff of the Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Rupert Featherstone and Marie Louise Sauerberg. At the same time, the opportunity was taken to compile a detailed record of all aspects of the Chair and its decoration, and to carry out the first in-depth archaeological appraisal, not only of it, but also of the critically important relationship between the Chair and the Stone. The Chair has now been cleaned, conserved and imaginatively redisplayed as a tribute for the sixtieth anniversary of the coronation of Her Majesty The Queen, on 2 June 2013.

The first-ever study has also been undertaken of the second and less famous chair, which was made in 1689 for the joint coronations of King William III and Queen Mary II, but which has hitherto been neglected by scholars. This chair was also in need of cleaning and conservation, which has now been carried out; it is displayed in Westminster Abbey Museum. The chair deserves to be better known, and we have devoted a chapter to it in this book.

The significance of St Edward’s Chair is such that it has left an extraordinary legacy: by the middle of the nineteenth century it was providing inspiration for the designers of thrones and other furnishings of state not only in Britain, but also in her dominions. The possession of a full-size copy of the Coronation Chair was once seen as a desirable asset by foreign magnates, and today replica chairs can still be found as far afield as Canada and New Zealand. While these are relatively few in number, the same is not true in respect of small-scale models of the Chair. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, they have been manufactured in their thousands, mainly in porcelain and a range of metals from gold to cast iron. The demand for models was steadily maintained throughout the twentieth century, but soared around the time of each coronation. A chapter is therefore also included on the legacy of the Coronation Chair in everyday life.

No attempt is made here to discuss the history or ritual of coronation per se, a subject which has been admirably covered by Sir Roy Strong and others.³ In this volume we have assembled the complementary evidence derived from history, archaeologyandconservation, and compiled a factual account of the Coronation Chair and the Stone of Scone, not as separate objects, but as the single entity that they have been for seven centuries. Taken together, their combined significance to the British monarchy and State – and to the pursuit of the history and archaeology of the English and Scottish nations – is much greater than the sum of their parts.

Warwick Rodwell

Westminster Abbey

St Andrew’s Day 2012

Acknowledgements

The compilation of this study has only been possible through the goodwill and generous collaboration of many colleagues at Westminster Abbey, and beyond. For support and encouragement I am grateful to the Dean, the Very Rev’d Dr John Hall, Sir Stephen Lamport kcvo (Receiver General), and Dr Tony Trowles (Librarian and Head of the Abbey Collection); Matthew Payne (Keeper of the Muniments); Christine Reynolds (Assistant Keeper of the Muniments), who was unstinting in her help with searching out and copying documents and illustrations; Jim Vincent (Clerk of the Works) for practical assistance with carrying out archaeological investigations and recording; Vanessa Simeoni(Head Conservator) for assistance in many ways; and Marie-Louise Sharpin (Information Technology) for rescuing me from the jaws of technological failure on innumerable occasions.

Ptolemy Dean (Surveyor of the Fabric) not only devised the inspirational redisplay of the Coronation Chair in St George’s Chapel, but also at short notice contributed a chapter to this volume. Eddie Smith (Westminster School), who has made a study of historic graffiti at Westminster Abbey and School, kindly contributed his notes for inclusion here in an appendix. Diane Gibbs (Museum Coordinator) undertook extensive research into replicas and images of the Coronation Chair held at various locations in the UK. She also contributed numerous ideas to the discussion of the Chair’s history. Marla Dobson’s assistance in researching and photographing the full-size copies of the Coronation Chair held in Toronto proved invaluable; Dr Richard Foster carried out research at The National Archive and elsewhere; Dr Mark Collins (Parliamentary Estates Archivist) supplied information on the Sovereign’s Throne in the House of Lords; Andrew Ford provided access to the plate vault at The Mansion House; and James Wilkinson very kindly made his collection of miniature models of the Coronation Chair available for study. For supplying other information and illustrations, I am indebted to Dr Nick Aitchison, Matthew Arnoldi mvo, James Alexander Cameron, Imogen Levy, Dr David Neal and Jane Spooner.

Tony Davies and Bill Mowatt of The Downland Partnership Ltd carried out photogrammetric surveys and laser scanning of St Edward’s and Mary II’s coronation chairs, providing the basis for a number of the drawings published here. David Lambert expertly photographed many items specially for this volume.

For the benefit of much valuable discussion concerning the Stone of Scone, I am indebted to Professor David Breeze, OBE (formerly Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Historic Scotland), Richard Welander (Head of Collections, Historic Scotland) and Dr Peter Hill, who made a detailed study with a stonemason’s eye. Michelle Andersson was most helpful in sourcing images in the collection of Historic Scotland.

The 2010−12 conservation programme was carried out by the Hamilton Kerr Institute, Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Rupert Featherstone and Marie Louise Sauerberg. Structural repairs were skilfully undertaken by Ray Marchant, whose astute observations and extended discussions with me have contributed much to the understanding of the design and construction of the Chair.

A great debt of gratitude is owed to Marie Louise Sauerberg, who has made major contributions to this volume, under considerable time-pressure. She wishes to acknowledge the following for their assistance at various stages in the conservation project: The Very Rev’d Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster, Lucy Ackland, Guy Arzi, Paul Binski, Simon Bobak, Tom Bobak, Lara Broecke, Nicola Costaras, Eric Dop, Jill Dunkerton, Rupert Featherstone, Abigail Granville, Catherine Higgitt, Larry Keith, Ray Marchant, Ian McClure, Rachel Morrison, Holger Nordmann, David Peggie, Unn Plahter, Ashok Roy, David Saunders, Peter Schade, Vanessa Simeoni, Jane Spooner, Marika Spring, Alison Stock, Satoko Tanimoto, Alice Tavares da Silva, Jim Vincent, Caroline von Saint-George, Sarah Staniforth, Eddie Vector, Lisa Wagner, James Wilkinson and Martin Wyld.

Authors

PROFESSOR WARWICK RODWELL, OBE

Consultant Archaeologist

Westminster Abbey

MARIE LOUISE SAUERBERG

Senior Conservator

Westminster Abbey

PTOLEMY DEAN

Surveyor of the Fabric

Westminster Abbey

EDDIE SMITH

formerly Keeper of the Sanctuary

Westminster Abbey

1

Historiography of the Chair and the Stone

‘. . . that chair where Kings and Queens are crowned’

(William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 2, Act 1:2)

Prologue

St Edward’s Chair – popularly known today as the Coronation Chair – is unique as a surviving piece of English medieval furniture with a documented history which begins in the closing years of the thirteenth century. It is not a museum object, but remains periodically in use in Westminster Abbey. With a few exceptions, English monarchs since the fourteenth century have been anointed and crowned in the Chair, before the high altar. Not surprisingly, the medieval records are meagre, and pictorial representations prior to the eighteenth century are few, with the consequence that there are lacunae in our knowledge. Some of these can be filled through archaeological and scientific study, while others will always remain.

There are two interwoven strands to the history of the Coronation Chair: the ornately decorated wooden chair itself, and the block of Scottish sandstone that it was designed to encapsulate within the seat compartment. The Stone of Scone (also known as the Stone of Destiny), was captured by King Edward I in the Scottish Wars of Independence and brought back to Westminster. It provided the raison d’être for the construction of the Chair, which began in 1297 and was finished by 1300.

Today, the Coronation Chair stands 2.05 m (6 ft 9 ins) high and comprises a medieval moulded oak frame, which was once richly embellished with gilding, foliate decoration, painting, imitation enamels and glass inlays. The original base having long been lost, it is now supported on a Georgian gilt-wood plinth which prominently incorporates four carved lions (Fig. 1).¹ For coronations from the later Middle Ages until 1838, it was customary to mask the Chair’s worn and damaged state by swathing it in rich textiles. The fabric was usually nailed to the framework, splitting the timber and causing considerable disfigurement. Moreover, during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Chair was regarded primarily as an object of antiquarian curiosity, and was not treated with due respect: graffiti were prolifically carved in the timber, and souvenirs taken.

1 The Coronation Chair after conservation, 2012. Chris Titmus, © Dean and Chapter of Westminster

The Chair has spent most of its life in the Abbey’s shrine, the chapel of St Edward the Confessor, but has latterly been displayed at other, more accessible locations within the building; in 2010−12 it was temporarily displayed in St George’s Chapel whilst undergoing conservation (Fig. 2). A permanent setting for the Chair has now been created in that chapel (Fig. 328). Since 1996, the compartment under the seat, where the Stone rested for seven centuries, has been empty, the Stone itself being on loan to Scotland. It is currently displayed, along with Scottish regalia, in the Crown Room at Edinburgh Castle (Figs 3 and 270).² The Stone will be returned to the Chair for all future coronations.

Antiquarian interest, c. 1560−1850

The Coronation Chairs

Medieval references to the Chair and Stone are few, and will be examined in the next chapter. However, after c. 1560, with the rise of antiquarianism, there is a steady increase in the material available to scholars. We begin with William Camden, one of Britain’s earliest and best-known antiquaries, and Westminster Abbey’s first librarian. He was familiar with the Abbey from at least 1575, when he was appointed Second Master at Westminster School. In 1600, he wrote the first guidebook to the Abbey, and in his description of the Solium Regni Scotici (‘Stone of the Scottish kings’), he referred to it dismissively as ‘the Stone of Jacob, as they call it’:

Solium Regni Scotici. Rex Edwardus Primus cum devictis Scotis triumphator 1297. rediisset sceptrum & coronam Regum Scotiae, unà cum folio in quo Scotorum Reges inaugurari solebant in Ecclesia Westmonasteriensi Deo obtulit. Quod quidem solium adhuc in hac Regia Capella seruatur cum Saxo Iacobi, ut vocant, imposito, & tabella pensili cum his versis.³

Camden then quoted the text that was written on a tablet placed on or beside the Chair:

Si quid habent veri vel chronica, cana fidesue, Clauditur hac cathedra nobilis ecce lapis. Ad caput eximius Iacob quondam Patriacha Quem posuit cernens numina mira poli; Quem tulit ex Scotis spolians quasi victor honoris, Edwardus Primus, Mars velut armipotens, Scotorum domitor, noster validissimus Hector, Anglorum decus, & gloria militiae.

Richard Bentley loosely translated the text as follows:

That if any faith is to be given to ancient Chronicles, a stone of great Note is enclosed in this Chair, being the same on which the Patriarch Jacob reposed when he beheld the miraculous descent of Angels. Edward I, the Mars and Hector of England, having conquered Scotland, brought it from thence.⁴

German travellers were particularly assiduous in keeping journals, and one of the earliest recorded visitors to the Abbey was Lupold von Wedel, in 1584−85, who remarked on the Chair and Stone.⁵ Another, Samuel Kiechel, also visited and commented in 1585.⁶ Both claimed that they saw the Chair in the ‘quire’ but, like some other early writers, were probably unfamiliar with the precise ecclesiastical nomenclature in use at the Abbey: it is likely from the context that they all meant the shrine chapel, and not the quire or sanctuary.⁷ There is no evidence to suggest that the Coronation Chair was ever displayed outside St Edward’s Chapel until 1998.⁸ In 1592, Frederick, Duke of Württemberg, visited the Abbey, and in 1598, Paul Hentzner, a German lawyer, noted in the account of his travels that near to the Coronation Chair was a Latin inscription, which he copied down. In the following year, a Swiss physician and tourist, Thomas Platter, similarly recorded his visit to the Abbey.⁹

As we move into the seventeenth century, more English descriptions become available. In his treatise, Ancient Funerall Monuments (1631), John Weever did not describe the Chair or Stone, but cited the mythical history of the latter, and reproduced several literary allusions to it, including John Hardyng’s, c. 1465 (p. 17).¹⁰

The earliest physical description of the Stone to incorporate archaeologically useful detail is by Henry Keepe, in his Monumenta Westmonasteriensia (1682). He informs us that the Chair stood in St Edward’s Chapel against the back of the altar screen, facing east, and that

2 (opposite) Ground plan of Westminster Abbey, showing the principal features and locations referred to in the text. Key: 1, Shrine and tomb of St Edward the Confessor; 2, High altar; 3, Ambulatory; 4, Abbot Islip’s Chapel; 5, Enclosure grille and tomb of Henry VII; 6, St George’s Chapel; 7, Crypt beneath the chapter house; 8, Pyx chamber; 9, Door from the south transept to Poets’ Corner yard; 10, RAF Chapel. Warwick Rodwell, © Dean and Chapter of Westminster

3 The Stone of Scone displayed in Edinburgh Castle. View from the front right. © Crown copyright, reproduced courtesy of Historic Scotland

4 The earliest engraved illustration of the Coronation Chair. The gilt punch-work on the interior has been rationalized, omitting the seated figure of a king on the back. Sandford 1687

. . . it appears extremely ancient both in its fashion and materials, being made of solid, hard, firm wood, with a back and sides of the same, under whose Seat, supported by four Lions curiously carved insteed (sic) of feet, lies that so much famed stone whereupon the Patriarch Jacob is said to have reposed his head in the Plain of Luza. It is of a blewish steel-like colour, mix’d with some eyes of red, triangular rather than any other form, and being broken resembles a Peble. The ruines of the Chair itself show that heretofore it hath been fairly painted, and gilt with Gold, but at present it is much defaced; you have a small Table of Verses hanging thereon, but by reason they give us little light concerning the ancient story of this stone and Chair. I shall trouble your patience with a short Narrative thereof . . . .¹¹

Keepe then recounts the Stone’s mythical past and provides a transcript of the text on the plaque that hung on the Chair; it is similar to that recorded by Camden in 1600.¹² Sandford’s account of the Chair in 1685 also refers to the Stone ‘of Blewish steel-like colour, mixed with some veins of Red’.¹³ Edward Brayley similarly describes the Stone and its natural inclusions, taking particular notice of the ‘dark brownish-red coloured flinty pebble, which from its hardness has not been cut through, though immediately crossed by the indent above mentioned’.¹⁴

A plan showing the internal layout of the Abbey in 1682 marks the position of the Chair against the east side of the altar screen, towards its southern end; the accompanying legend reads ‘Stone in the Coronation Chair’.¹⁵ The earliest engraved images of the Chair date from 1687, when it appears in Sandford’s views of the coronation of James II (1685), and is referred to as ‘King Edward’s Chair’.¹⁶ One view is highly detailed and fundamentally important for showing features that have since been lost (Fig. 4). The other two are almost inconsequential for our purposes (Figs 161 and 162). Sandford’s treatment of the decorative elements is not wholly reliable, since it contains several detectable errors and inventions.¹⁷

The German scholar, Zacharius Conrad von Uffenbach, visited Westminster in 1710 and wrote in his journal:

We noticed the two wooden coronation chairs in the Chapel of St Edward the Confessor. . . . They are so wretched and smoke-blackened that I should not care to have them among my household gear. They are, nevertheless, remarkable for their antiquity, and especially for the use to which they have been put. Under the chair which Edward I is said to have brought from Scotland we saw the famous stone of the Patriarch Jacob. I was vastly amazed that it was not of lapidem Marmoreum rudem, as Buchananus, who is generally most accurate, describes it in Lib. viii, De Rebus Scoticis, but, as was quite obvious, a great block of pure sandstone, which has nothing in common with marble either in texture or grain. I should much have liked to scrape off a little with my knife, which would have done little harm to this highly prized stone, but I dared not, for one is liable to punishment for even sitting on one of these chairs.¹⁸

In his account of the antiquities of Westminster Abbey, written in 1711, Jodocus Crull confirms that the Chair was ‘placed hard by the Skreen’.¹⁹ His description of the Chair and Stone paraphrase that of Keepe, but he refers to the four lions as ‘pretty well carved’. Crull then adds a new piece of information: ‘And there is now to be seen another Wooden Chair, not unlike the other, on which sits the Queen Consort of the Day of her solemn Inauguration.’ He is referring to the chair made for Mary II, for her joint coronation with William III in 1689 (chapter 9). Returning to the medieval one, he says, ‘This is what they tell us concerning this Chair, which [is] as we sheweth, that it has formerly been gilded. There are certain Latin Verses on a Table, which give you an Insight only as to its being brought into England, together with the Scottish scepter and Crown.’ He recites the contents of the plaque, copied from Keepe’s account. In the later editions of Crull’s book a naïve drawing of the Chair was included,²⁰ and is the only eighteenth-century engraving to show the quatrefoil grille in the front of the seat compartment (Fig. 5).²¹

In his magnum opus on Westminster Abbey, 1723, John Dart included a full-page engraving showing the altar screen at the west end of St Edward’s Chapel, with one of the chairs standing centrally in front of it (Figs 6 and 166).²² This is a stylized view, from which the second chair was probably omitted for the sake of the artistic composition. Dart refers to the Coronation Chair by that name, but his description of it is confined to detailed dimensions and a few words about what he terms the ‘Prophetick Stone, commonly call’d Jacob’s Pillar’; he also cites its legendary history.²³ However, it is Mary II’s chair that he actually depicts, rather than the medieval one (p. 136). The pinnacles are chunky and fitted with ball-finials, and there are distinctly framed panels in the back and at the front beneath the seat Moreover, there is no sign of the quatrefoil grille, which, if Crull is right, still existed at this time in the medieval Chair.

After Camden, the first pocket sized guidebook to the Abbey, published anonymously, appeared in the mid-eighteenth century and went through innumerable editions down to the close of the nineteenth.²⁴ It was known colloquially as ‘The Vergers’ Guide’. The Coronation Chairs and Stone received only brief mention: they were regarded as nothing more than ‘curiosities’. However, in the early nineteenth century, with the rise of tourism and increasing scholarly interest in the history of the monarchy, the medieval Chair made an appearance on the title page (Fig. 7).²⁵

5 A somewhat stylized engraving of the Coronation Chair, possibly drawn c. 1720. The arrow indicates a tiny moulding on the back post, which does not appear in any other view of the Chair, and had been lost by 1767; the scar remains. Crull 1742

6 View of the east face of the altar screen, showing the secondary chair made for the coronation of Queen Mary II in 1689. Dart 1723

7 Title page to the 1845 edition of the first general guidebook to Westminster Abbey, embellished with the Coronation Chair. Apart from a frontispiece, there were no other illustrations. Anon. 1845

8 (below) Annotated ink and pencil sketch by John Carter, 1767, of the front and right (dexter) elevations of the Coronation Chair. © Dean and Chapter of Westminster

The indefatigable draughtsman and antiquary, John Carter, was a frequent visitor to Westminster Abbey, and in 1767 he prepared a set of dimensioned and annotated sketches of the Chair,²⁶ which in 1807 he turned into scale drawings for publication (Figs 8−10).²⁷ As well as illustrating the three main elevations, he produced a series of drawings of decorative details, some of which have since been destroyed (Figs 53 and 54). Carter’s published version has provided the basis of all subsequent drawings of the Chair until now; some copyists added their own embellishments.²⁸ Carter also made a watercoloured drawing of St Edward’s Chapel in 1778, in which he showed the Coronation Chair standing against the west end of the shrine, on the site where the altar now is (Fig. 11).²⁹ This was, however, an artistic rearrangement, and in a drawing of 1786 Carter shows both chairs in their usual positions against the screen.³⁰ Another view purporting to show St Edward’s Chair adjacent to the shrine was drawn and engraved by John Coney in 1817, but for this artist it is uncharacteristically inaccurate in many details and is clearly derivative (Fig. 12).³¹ It would appear that several artists were anxious to capture both the shrine and the Chair in a single view.

William Capon, whose watercolours of lesser-known parts of the Abbey constitute an important archaeological record, illustrated the Chair in or slightly before 1810. His original artwork is lost, but an engraving made from it was published in The Beauties of England and Wales, and a coloured variant has survived (Fig. 13). It clearly depicts the last remnants of the quatrefoil grille at the front of the Chair. The description is brief and uncomplimentary, but mentions the second chair, concluding,

these dirty chairs, which are of clumsy ornamented oak, stand behind the altar with their backs to the beautiful screen . . . At the coronations of our kings and queens, one or both, as circumstances may require, are richly covered with gold tissue, and are brought before the altar.³²

9 (top left) Annotated ink and pencil sketch by John Carter, 1767, of the external rear elevation of the Coronation Chair. © Dean and Chapter of Westminster

10 (above) Annotated ink and pencil sketch by John Carter, 1767, of the surviving gilt decoration on the back (interior) of the Coronation Chair, together with details of the mouldings and shields associated with the quatrefoil grille, and the roundel in the gable on the back (exterior). © Dean and Chapter of Westminster

In 1812, Rudolph Ackermann made only a passing mention of the Chairs, but published the first coloured aquatint of them standing side-by-side against the altar screen (Fig. 14).³³ Overall, the view is very similar to Dart’s, but not stylized. Ackermann shows the medieval Chair (on the left) as markedly wider than Mary’s one, perhaps to emphasize ancient status; in reality, the dimensional difference between them is slight. Only the medieval Chair appears in Neale’s drawing of 1817 (Fig. 15).³⁴ The Coronation Chair also featured significantly in some early histories of Scotland, such as Richard Burton’s (1813), where the frontispiece is a lithograph of it.³⁵ This clearly shows the remnants of the front grille (Fig. 16).

The first substantive discussion of the Chair and Stone was by Edward Brayley in 1823.³⁶ He mentions the iron ‘handles’ for lifting the Stone, alludes to the remnants of the shields in the quatrefoil grille around the compartment, and describes at some length the gilt decoration on both the interior and exterior of the Chair. He was also the first writer to comment on the fact that there had been inlays of coloured glass in the panels. Unfortunately, he did not describe the colours. While the majority of his account concerns the mythical history of the Stone before it reached Westminster, it is instructive to note that Brayley was not seduced into believing the fantasies recounted by medieval chroniclers, who simply copied one another, each adding his own embellishment or twist to the story. Medieval chroniclers, like later antiquaries, were shameless in plagiarizing previous writers. Brayley summed them up with admirable succinctness, before mentioning recent writers who had fallen into similar inaccuracies:

11 View of the shrine of St Edward from the north-west, showing the Coronation Chair on the site of the medieval altar. This was probably an artistic transposition effected for reasons of composition. Ink and watercolour drawing by John Carter, 1778. © Dean and Chapter of Westminster

12 John Coney’s engraved view of the shrine from the southwest, 1817, showing the Coronation Chair occupying the site of the medieval altar. The detailing is uncharacteristically inaccurate for Coney, and the Chair was probably not in this position at the time. Caley et al. 1846

It will be seen by the foregoing particulars with what little precision or correctness, in a descriptive point of view, our ancient historians have mentioned this Stone. Fordun calls it ‘a marble Chair, carved with ancient art by skilful workmen’; and again, ‘a marble Stone wrought like a Chair’; Boece styles it a ‘Chair of marble’, and the ‘Fatal Marble’; Hemingford, ‘a Stone made concave like a round Chair’; Knighton, ‘a Stone whereupon the Scotish Kings were wont to be placed at their Coronations’; Walsingham, ‘a Stone used for a Throne’; Matthew of Westminster, ‘a Tribunal, or Royal Seat’; Bishop Leslie, ‘a Marble Chair’; and Holinshed, ‘a Chair of Marble’, and ‘a Marble Stone’; Buchanan alone, though he errs in calling it a ‘Marble Stone’, has with due propriety attached the epithet ‘rude, or unwrought’.³⁷

Contemporary with Brayley’s account is a drawing of the two chairs together, in c. 1821, by Richard Parkes Bonington;³⁸ it captures archaeologically important details of both chairs (Fig. 168). It is difficult to decide how to interpret a drawing, dated 1825, in the Abbey Library; its authorship is uncertain, but it is possibly by Edward Blore (Fig. 17).³⁹ Many of the details, including the quatrefoil frieze, are exquisitely drawn, but the proportions of the Chair are square in plan, and the trefoiled heads of the blind arcade on the right arm are too squat; also the floor-frame upon which the supporting lions are based has been entirely omitted.

Both chairs are mentioned in an account written in 1829, when they were described thus:

The most ancient of the coronation chairs was brought with the regalia from Scotland by Edward I in the year 1297, and offered at the Shrine of St Edward. An oblong rough stone, brought from Scone in Scotland, is placed underneath the chair, and is said, and by many believed, to have been Jacob’s pillow.

Another old wooden chair on the left of this was made for the coronation of queen Mary II. These chairs which are of clumsy ornamented oak stand behind the shrine, with their faces to the beautiful screen already described . . . ⁴⁰

This account, if it is to be believed, implies that the two chairs stood against the west end of the shrine, facing west. No other source corroborates this. Moreover, in view of the incorrect assertion that the medieval Chair was brought from Scotland, and the fact that the accompanying wood engraving owes more to fantasy than to reality, this description cannot be regarded as having any evidential value.⁴¹ It is but one of many inaccurate accounts and fanciful illustrations that have appeared in guidebooks and topographical works. It is unnecessary to list all such material here.

In 1844−45 the artist Thomas Scandrett was commissioned to prepare a series of watercolours to illustrate Charles Knight’s monumental compendium, Old England. Several of his paintings of Westminster Abbey were published as colour plates, including one of the Coronation Chair (frontispiece).⁴² This shows the Chair standing on its own, centrally against the screen. The arms were upholstered with red material. Three years earlier, John Wykeham Archer drew the two chairs, showing them with upholstered arms, standing side-by-side.⁴³

13 (above) The Coronation Chair, together with Edward III’s shield and Sword of State, displayed against the altar screen in 1810. Coloured engraving made from a watercolour by William Capon. © Dean and Chapter of Westminster

14 (left) Rudolph Ackermann’s aquatint showing the two Coronation Chairs standing against the east face of the altar screen. The medieval Chair is on the left. Ackermann 1812

15 John Preston Neale’s engraving of the medieval Chair against the altar screen, 1817. Brayley and Neale 1823

16 Frontispiece and title page of Richard Burton’s History of the Kingdom of Scotland, 1813. Courtesy of Peter Spain

17 (right) Pencil and watercolour drawing, probably by Edward Blore, 1825. Although exquisitely detailed, the proportions of the Chair are distorted. © Dean and Chapter of Westminster

The Stone of Scone

As already observed, much has been written about the Stone of Scone, from both the Scottish and the English perspectives, but the lines of demarcation between fact, plausible hypothesis and fantasy have all too often been blurred. Certain hypotheses which were advanced long ago – and were not unreasonable at the time – have, through frequent repetition, acquired the status of accepted ‘fact’. Advances in science and the study of history and art history have also substantially refined our understanding of the Stone. Unfortunately, these have not always been heeded and a great deal of politically motivated fabrication and dissemination of false information took place during the twentieth century, regarding the antiquity, authenticity and peregrinations of the Stone of Scone.

Serious scholars of the nineteenth century often cited the mythical history of the Stone out of interest, but they were not so gullible as to believe it. One neatly summed up the situation: ‘all these statements as to the origin of the stone and its travels are absolutely mythical’.⁴⁴ Another remarked, ‘It used to be asserted that this stone is the same which Jacob had for a pillow at Bethel; but, of course, this is an absurd tradition.’⁴⁵ See further, pp. 21−4.

Finally, it may be mentioned that the confusion of centuries has been further compounded in relatively modern times by introducing the Irish Lia Fáil or ‘Stone of Destiny’ at Tara (Co. Meath) into the equation. Despite fanciful claims, it has no relevance to the Stone of Scone: the Lia Fáil still stands at Tara (see also p. 27).⁴⁶

Scholarly study, 1850−2012

In 1863 William Burges published what may be regarded as the first academic appraisal of the Chair, accompanied by fine quality line drawings by Orlando Jewitt. His three-quarters view of the Chair shows the Stone well, and confirms that nothing remained of the quatrefoil grille at the front (Fig. 18).⁴⁷ The upholstery on the arms is prominent. Jewitt’s careful delineations of parts of the gilded decoration inside the Chair were the first such to be published (Figs 94 and 95), and they were taken from a set of full-sized, watercoloured drawings prepared by S.W. Tracy (Figs 91−93).⁴⁸ A series of pencil sketches of the designs on the external panels was made by W.R. Lethaby in 1900 (Fig. 96).⁴⁹ Various later drawings have been published, but these add nothing of substance to the overall picture.⁵⁰

The earliest photographs of the Chair date from the 1860s (Fig. 19). It is surprising to discover that the first depiction of the Stone alone was a simple sketch in Dean Stanley’s Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey, which was made from a photograph of 1865 (Fig. 20).⁵¹ He was also the first writer to discuss the Stone in a scholarly manner and to comment specifically on the crack in the block.⁵² When the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments compiled its extensive account of the architecture and furnishings of Westminster Abbey in the early 1920s, it briefly described and illustrated the Chair and published the first close-up photograph of the Stone in situ (Fig. 206).⁵³ Although photographs of the Chair (or chairs) in the later nineteenth century are common – as are postcards of the 1890s (Fig. 302) – few of them are precisely dated (Fig. 227).⁵⁴

Descriptions of the Chair, mostly quite brief, appeared in many academic publications of the first half of the twentieth century,⁵⁵ and the decoration was examined and described by E.W. Tristram, who also carried out unspecified conservation works shortly before 1924, and again in 1937.⁵⁶ Although invariably mentioned in general guidebooks, the first widely available publication devoted specifically to the Chair was a slim booklet which appeared in 1953.⁵⁷ In the same year a detailed study and record of the Chair was undertaken, while the Abbey was closed to the public during the preparations for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The study was facilitated by the Ministry of Works and the project was led by Westby Percival-Prescott.⁵⁸ The Courtauld Institute of Art was also involved, and Professor Stephen Rees Jones undertook X-radiography of various aspects of the Chair (p. 93). Stratigraphic study of the paint layers was carried out, together with chemical analyses. A substantial photographic record was compiled,⁵⁹ and a report on the findings was issued in 1957, but only for limited circulation.⁶⁰ Hence, the considerable amount of research carried out in 1953 has never been properly disseminated.

18 The first archaeologically detailed drawing of the Coronation Chair, by Orlando Jewitt. Burges 1863

19 Two of the earliest known photographs of the Coronation Chair. A, Early 1860s, by Victor Prout; B, Undated, c. 1870−80. Westminster Abbey Library

20 The earliest photograph of the Stone of Scone, probably taken in 1865, and the drawing made from it for publication in 1868. The crack, which is faintly visible in the photograph, under magnification, has been highlighted here in blue. Stanley 1868; © Dean and Chapter of Westminster

A new chapter in the study of the Stone of Scone opened around the turn of the millennium, resulting in the publication of several academic papers and two monographs of seminal importance. The significance and role of the Chair and Stone have been discussed by Professor Paul Binski, particularly in the context of the Plantagenet history of Westminster Abbey,⁶¹ and a thoroughly scholarly review of