The Legendary Stone of Scottish Coronations

I
II
llll'
'X
THE COEONATION STONE
Privted by R. Clark,
EDMONSTON
LONDON
S:
DOUGLAS, EDINRURGH.
AnA^L';,
HAMILTON,
AMD
CO.
Clje Coronation g>tone
WILLIAM
F.
SKENE
':<^=-f#?2l^
EDINBURGH
EDMONSTON & DOUGLAS

MDCCCLXIX.
PREFATORY NOTE.
This analysis of the legends connected with the Coronation Stone was
read by the author, as Senior Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, at a Meeting of the Society held on the 8th of
March
last.
limited
impression
is
now published with Notes and
Illus-
trations.
The
I.
latter consist of
The Coronation
Chair, with the stone under the seat, as
it is
at present seen in
II.
Westminster Abbey, im
the rover.
The reverse of the Seal of the Abbey of Scone, showing the Scottish King seated in the Eoyal Chair, on the title-page.
Ancient Scone, as i-epresented in the year 1693 in Slezer's
III.
Theatntm Scofim,
a. h.
c.
to
precede page
Chantorgait.
Friar's
Den.
Site of
Abbey.
d.
e.
/'.
Palace.
Moot Hill, with the Church The river Tay.

as
built in
1624 upon
it.
IV.
The Coronation Chair

ptoge 12.
shewn by HoUinshed
in
1577,
V. Coronation of Alexander
III.,
from the MS. of Fordun, con-
tained in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
This
is
MS.
of the Scoticronicon, as altered, interpolated,

ojyposite
and continued by Bower,

Appendix, page 47.
20 Inverleith Kow, Edinbukgh,
7///
Latin
description
in
the
Jan,' 1869.
The Prospect of
a.
/'.
the
Horn
Chantorcjait.
Fkiak's Dkn.
i.
SlTK OF AliKEV.
Pai.ack.
./.
**safl<W.-:
~^
""^|if"~^
,^>---.^-
W-
!i
and Town of
e.
SkUTN.
bih.t in 1624 upok
it.
/.
Moot Hill, with the Church The River Tay.
\ft
axomtmx
of the
at
Stout.
[he
Legend
is
Coronation Stone
of Scotland,
formerly
Scone, and
now
in
Westminster
Abbey,
intimately connected with the fabu-
lous history of Scotland.
The
its
tale of its
wanderings from
Egypt
way,
to Scone,
and of
various resting-places
by the
is,
in fact, closely interwoven with that spurious hisfirst
tory which,
emerging in the controversy with England
regarding the independence of Scotland, was ^vrought into
a consistent narrative by Fordun, and finally elaborated by
Hector Boece into that formidable
list
of mythic monarchs,
who swayed
the sceptre over the Scottish race from "the
Marble Chair" in Dunstafihage.
The mists
dispelled.
cast
around the true history of Scotland by

have now been, in a great measure,
criticism has demolished the forty kings
this fictitious narrative
Modern
whose
portraits adorn the walls of the gallery in Holyrood,

at such
and whose speeches are given

pages of Boece.
wearisome length in the

of Destiny,
But the legend of the Stone

from
or Fatal Chair, has taken such hold of the Scottish mind,
that
it is less
easily dislodged
its
place in the received
THE CORONATION STONE.

history of the country
;
and there
it
still
stands, in all its
naked
imj)robability, a solitary waif
from the sea of myth
and
fable,
with which modern criticism has hardly ventured
to meddle,
question.
and which modern scepticism has not cared

It is still believed that the stone
to
was peculiarly
it
connected with the fortunes of the Scottish race, that
was preserved
that
it
for
many
generations at Dunstaffnage, and

to
was transferred from Argyllshire
Scone in the
ninth century,
when
the Scots are said to have conquered
the Pictish nation.
But the history with which

surely an inquiry of
this legend is connected

it is
having now been rejected as unquestionably spurious,
some
interest to
what extent any part

far it
of this legend
is
really historical, or
how
must share
the
The popularly-received account of the stone may be shortly stated in the words of Pennant
same
fate.
:
" In the church
of the abbey
(of
Scone) was preserved
the
famous
chair,
whose bottom
Jacob for
was
;
the
fatal
stone,
the palladium of the Scottish monarchy
the stone, which
had
first
served
his
it
pillow,
was afterwards
as a seat of
It after-
transported into Spain, where

justice
was used
in
till
by Gethalus, contemporary with Moses.

found
its
wards
way
to
Dunstaffnage
Argyllshire,
continued there as the Coronation Chair
the reign of
it
Kenneth
There
it
II.,
who, to secure his empire, removed

it
to Scone.
remained, and in
till
every Scottish monarch was
inaugurated
the year 1296,
when Edward
it
L, to the
mortification of North Britain, translated
to
Westminster
THE CORONATION STONK.

Abbey, and with
empire of
it,
according to ancient prophecy,
the
Scotland.'"'^
The
latter part of this
account
is
unquestionably true.
;
It is true that such a stone
was preserved at Scone
it is it
true that Scottish monarchs were crowned

is
upon
to
it
and
true that in 1296

it
Edward
is,
I.
removed
it
Westminster
seat of
Abbey, where
now
and can be seen under the
the Coronation-Chair.
Fordun has
left
us a detailed account of the coronation
of Alexander III. at Scone, in the year 1249.

live to continue his historical narrative
He
did not
beyond the reign of
David
I.,
but in the MS. preserved at Trinity College,
Cambridge, are the materials collected by him for the

remainder of his history, in which this account
is
contained,
and
it
has been introduced, with some variations, by Bower,

It
in his continuation of Fordun's history.
has been
little
noticed by Scottish historians, and

it,
by those who do
is
refer to
very inaccurately represented, except by Mr. Robertson

his Scotland
;
in
under her Early Kings, who

form of
always
accurate
but he has taken his account from Bower's altered

it
version, instead of from the older
contained in the
it
Cambridge MS.
Scone.
In order to foUow^ the description,

first
will
be necessary that I should
produce to you ancient
The remains
of ancient Scone, such as they are, are all
contained within the present park of the palace of Scone,
which extends along the east bank of the river Tay from
1
Pennant's Tour in Scotland,
vol.
iii.,
]i.
116.
about a mile north of Perth for a considerable distance.
From
the
river,
the park extends with

east, till it reaches the
a gentle ascent
towards the north and

to Bridge of Isla.
road from Perth
Through the south part
of the park, a small
stream or burn flows into the Tay through a ravine called
The
Friars'
Den, and on the north side of this ravine were
situated the old abbey
and the royal
city of Scone.
The
present approach from Perth,

crosses this ravine
now
called the Queen's Drive,
by a
bridge,
and enters a broad

till it
terrace
through a gate termed the Terrace Gate,
reaches the
north-east front of the present palace of Scone, situated about
300 yards from the Den.

river,
The present palace
faces the
which here runs in a south-easterly
direction.
is
About
an old
100 yards from the south-east corner of the palace

the foundation of a small room or
burying-ground, and in 1841, in altering one of the terraces,

cell
was found between

seats about 15
the burying-ground and the palace, and within 20 yards of the former.
It
was surrounded by stone
inches broad, and might be from 10 to 12 feet in dimension.
It
was probably part of the abbey

is
buildings.
About
and
70 yards to the north of this
an oval-shaped rising ground
or hillock, called popularly the
Moot
Hill of Scone,
having on the top a

this
flat
area of about 100 yards by 60

Placiti of the
was the ancient Mons
Regiam Majesof Belief of the
tatem, and the GoUis Ci'edulitatis or

Chronicles.
Mount
About 200 yards due

is
east of the north-east

still
front of the present palace

served,
an ancient gateway
pre-
and 30
yards east of
it
stood an ancient cross,
now
removed
to another
site.
From
this
gateway proceeded
walls, built
on the foundation of other walls, which seem to
have enclosed these possessions of the abbey as well as the
Moot
Hill.
The south wall
is
on a
line
with the east wall
of the burying-ground.
The ancient palace of the abbots, with the abbey and abbey church, was entirely destroyed by a mob in 1559,
who
there
built
set fire to
is
them, and burnt them to the ground
but
is
little
reason to doubt that the present palace

the old palace.
first
on the
site of
The rebuilding
of the
palace was
commenced by the
Sir
Commendator
after the
Eeformation, the Earl of Gowrie, and extended and completed
by
David Murray, who, on the
forfeiture of the
Earl of Gowrie in 1600, received a grant of the lands of the
abbey of Scone, which were erected into the lordship of Scone in 1605. This building was replaced by the present
palace in 1803.
In 1624 Sir David Murray took
down
the
few remaining fragments of the walls of the abbey church,
and erected a new church on the top of the Moot
Hill.
The
old gateway appears also to belong to his period.
We
know from
the old descriptions that the cimiterium lay on
the north side of the abbey, and between
it and the Moot Hill, and that the abbey church was immediately west of the
cimiterium.
there
is
If the
burying-ground which
it
is
now found
the same as the old cimiterium,

;
would determine
the site of the buildings
but
it
contains no gravestones as
inconsistent with the
old as the Reformation, and
its site is
old descriptions, while the remains of the stone wall
and
seats
()

to
seem evidently
have formed part of the abbey buildings.
The abbey was

gate.
Hill,
situated, therefore, in all probability,
between
the present palace and the old wall south of the ancient
On
the north side of
it,
and almost under the Moot

Outside of
was the cimiterium
or burying-ground, and, at the
west end of the cimiterium, the abbey church.

this wall,
and extending along the

preserves the
is
Friars'
is
Den, was the
royal city of Scone, the site of
which
marked by an
at the south
avenue which
still
name
of the Chantor Gate,
leading from what
called the Gallows

till it
Knowe,
end, across the ravine,
reached the road leading to the

it
old gate from the east, which
joined 50 yards from the gate.
Through
this
avenue proceeded the old road from Perth.^

III.
11.
Fordun's description of the coronation of Alexander

is
as follows.
After narrating the death of Alexander
at
Kerreray, on Thursday, the 8 th of July, in the year
1249,
he proceeds thus :' Alexander, the
son
of
the
aforesaid
to
King
Alexander, a
boy of eight years

earls, barons,
old,
came
Scone with a number of the

"
and knights,
There were
on the following Tuesday, the 13th of July.

'
111
cimiterio ex parte orientali ec-
clesia;."
Fordun a Hearne, vol. iii. 758. " Super montem ex parte boreali monejusdem extra cymyterium. "
i.
which no female was admitted. They also mention the villa de Scmm and its tabernce and bothce; and anioiif? the feu
rights granted after the Eeformation
is
asterii
Jet
Pari. Scot.
216.
one to " Peter Jak and Alisoun Scharpe,

his spous, of that
In the chartulary of Scone are two visitations of the monastery hy the Bishop
of St.
139),
tenement of land upon

232).
is
the south-eist part of the chantourcjait,
Andrews
whicli
in 1365
and 1369
(pp. 137-
13 April 1586,"
(p.
mention the
ccclesia,
the
refec-
In Slezer's Theatrum Scotiw
a view
daustrimi,
the dormiiorium,
the
of Scone from the south, looking north,
torium, the capitulum, the infirmitormm,
which shows the position

in 1693.
of the buildings
nnd
the
dausura
vionastcrii,
within

present the venerable fathers David de Bernham, Bishop
of St. Andrews, and Galfridus, Bishop of Dunkeld, a gracious in
man
many
all,
things both
to clerg}^
and
laity, careful in
things temporal
and spmtual, one who showed himself
amiable to
factors.
both nobles and poor, but terrible to male-
There was present also the Abbot of the same

and, behold, as soon as they were
monastery of Scone;
assembled, there arose a great dissension
Some
and
of
them wished not

was
said,
to
among the nobles. make him king on that day,

it
but only a knight, saying that

this
was an unlucky day

time Justiciary of
not on account of the unlucky day, but

at
because Alan Durward,

Scotland, wished to gird
that
all
him on that day with the knightly

in council,
sword.
To whom submitting, the Lord Walter Com^Ti,
Earl of Menteath, a
replied, saying that
man eminent and prudent
he had himself seen a king consecrated
who was yet not a knight, and had often heard of kings who were not knights being consecrated, and added, saying,
that a countiy without a king ship
in
was without doubt
like a
the
midst of the billows without a rower or
steersman.
He had
and
also this
always loved the late king, of

king on account of his
elevate
it
pious memory,
father.
He
proposed, therefore, to
this
boy
as speedily to
as possible
to the throne, as
was always hurtful
arrangements already made to defer them.
On
his advice,
the bishops and the abbot, as well as the nobles and the
whole clergy and people, gave their consent and assent with
one voice to his beino;
made
kins;.
'
And
it
was
cloue that the

this,
same Earl Walter Comyii,

clergy, the
when he heard
and the whole
Earls
Malcolm Earl of
and other nobles
led the future
in the
Fife,
and Malise Earl of Stratherne,

with them, they immediately
to the cross,
uniting
King Alexander
him
which stands
decked
St,
cimiterium or churchyard at the east end of the church

in the regal chair,
and, having there placed
with
silk cloths
embroidered with gold, the Bishop of
Andrews, the others assisting him, consecrated him king, the

king himself
that
is,
sitting, as
was proper, upon the

earls
regal chaii'
the stone
and the
feet,
is
and other nobles placing

bent knees, before the
GCo^
vestments under his

stone.
with
This stone
reverently preserved in that monas;
tery for the consecration of kings of Scotland
nor were
any of the kings
in
wont
in
to reign
anywhere
in Scotland,
fii-st
unless they had, on receiving the
name
of king,
sat
upon
that
this
royal
stone
Scone, which
was constituted
or principal seat,
being-
by ancient kings the "sedes superior"

is
to say, of Albania.
And, behold, every thing

saluted
completed, a certain Scotch mountaineer, suddenly kneeling

V)efore
the throne
with bent head,
the king
in
his
mother-tongue in these Scottish words
Benacli
de Re
Alban Alexander, Mac Alexander, Mac William, Mac Henri,
Mac
David, and thus, repeating the genealogy of the Scot-
tish kings, rehearsed

^
them
iii.
to the end.'^
757.
Fordun a Hearne,
vol.
p.
description.
He makes the meeting

of St.
solve
Bower, in his continuation of Fordun, in
the difficulty as to the knighting of the

king,
which the materials
left
by Fordun are
hy the Bisliop
Andrews both
largely interpolated, has greatly altered this
knigliting and crowning him.
He
is
then
/!?(up>w
M
1
,
/~L A'U^
^^<JA^
"'^^-' '^^*isi\^

Fordun's description
the scene.
is
9
picture
so graphic,
we can almost
Scottish July
it
;
day
the cross in the cimite-
rium
before
the fatal stone, covered with
gold-em-
broidered cloths
upon
it
the boy-king
;
at his side the
two
Bishops and the Abbot of Scone
before
him the
great
barons of Scotland, kneeling before the ancient symbol of

Scottish sovereignty
;
the eager Highland Sennachy press;
ing forward to utter his barbarous Celtic gutturals
in the
ci^k
fj
i
background the Mount of

blue range
Belief,
covered with a crowd of

;
(^
people gazing on the solemn scene

of the
and
in the distance the
Grampians, broken only by the pass
through which the Tay emerges to pass before them on the

west,
abbot,
and where the Abbey of Dunkeld

the founder
or
lies nestled,
whose
Stammvater
of his race, had,

last
by
his marriage
race,
with the daughter of the
king of Scottish
placed his descendants in the " Marble Chau\"

fatal stone
The next coronation on the
was attended
Baliol
with more humiliating circumstances.
John
was
crowned at Scone, and immediately

crowned and anointed, and has the coronato him, "prius
Latine
postea
is
after his coronation did
tion oath administered
in 1251,
Gallice ;"
and
after the
knighted by Henrj', king of England, and no Scotch king was actually crowned and anointed prior to David II.,
fact
coronation he
led to the "cimiteriiim,"
and placed on the stone merely to receive the address of the Highland Sennachy.
In short, he assimilates the coronation to
that of the
' '
first to receive the more solemn inauguration in consequence of an application by Robert I. to the Pope. The two descriptions are placed in parallel
who was the
Norman
kings of England in
columns
in the appendix, in order to
show
fal-
the church, and reduces [the scene in the
the extent to which these old writers

sified history
cimiterium" to an unmeaning ceremony,

follow
when
it
suited their purpose.
Those of our historians who have noticed

the coronation at
description
;
We
the
can only say that in matters toucliing

controversy with Scotland, English
all
Bower
in his
but Alexander was in real
writers were equally unscrupulous.
10

to the
homage
1327
King
of
Enghind
it
as his over-lord.
William
Eishanger thus describes

:
in his Chronicle, written about

feast of
St.
'
John de BalioU, on the following
Andrew's, placed upon the regal stone, which Jacob placed
under his head when he went from Bersabee to Haran, was

solemnly crowned in the church of the canons regular at
Scone
'/^
and there
is
preserved a warrant by
Edward
late
I.,
by
which, as over-lord of the kingdom of Scotland, on the

narrative that
'
Duncan, son and heir of the
Duncan,
Earl of Fife, was under age, and could not perform a certain
function in the
of placing
new
creation of the
King
of Scotland
that
him
in his royal seat at Scone,
incumbent upon
him
accordinoof Scotland o to the usacre o of the kincfdom O
he
assigned to John de St. John to place, in the

said heir,
name
of the
John de
Balliol,
King
of Scotland, to
whom he had
also
judicially restored that
kingdom
after
in his royal seat at Scone,
according to the aforesaid usage.'"

records that
William Eishanger
Edward
I.,
he had overrun Scotland in
1296, on his return from the north, 'passed by the

^
Abbey
Nos
teta-
Johannes de
regalem,
Balliolo, in festo Sancti
incumbant,
lit
accepimus, facienda.
Andrese sequenti, collocatus super lapi-
nolentes praefato Duncano, sic infra
dem
quern Jacob supposuerat

Regula(Will,
tera et in custodia nostra existenti, prajju-
capiti suo, duni iret de Bersabee et pergeret
dicium in hac parte aliqualiter generari,

ratione minoris retatis ejusdem
hseredis
Aran, in ecclesia Canonicorum

Rislianger's Chroniai
"
rium de Scone solemniter coronatur.

et
assignavinius dilectum et fidelem nostrum
Annales,
p. 135.)
Johannem de Sancto Jolianne
ad ponen-
Sciatis quod,
heredi
cum Duncano filio et dum, nomine ipsius haredis, dilectum et Duncani, quondam comitis de Fif fidelem nostrum Johannem de BallioUo
regemScotife (cuiregnumilludjudicialitcr
infra setatem et in custodia nostra exis-
nova creatione regis Scotise, de ponendo ipsum in rogiam sedem suam, apud Scone secundum consuetudinem dicti rogni Scntiir,
tenti,
quiedam
certa
olUcia,
in
reddidimus) in regiam sedem suam apud
Scone
dictam.
die
secundum
consuetudinem
pra'-
Teste rege apud

Fa'/f.
Norham
i.
xxi.
Novcmbris (Ryni.
785.)

of Scone,
1 1
where having taken away the stone which the

at the time of their coronation
Kinss of Scotland were wont

to use for a throne, carried
it
to Westminster, directing
it
to
be
made
the chair of the priest celebrant.'^

says,
'
Hemingford
At
the Monastery
of Scone
was
placed a large stone in the church of God, near the great
hollowed out like a round chair, in which future kings were placed, according to custom, as the place of their
altar,
coronation.'
And
again,
'
in returning
by Scone
[the king]
ordered that stone, in which, as has been said, the kings of

the Scots were wont to be placed at their coronation, to be
taken and carried to London, as a sign that the kingdom
had been conquered and

"
resigned.'^
Harding, in his Metrical Chronicle, says

And
The
as lie
came home by Skoon away.
regal there of Scotland than he brought,
And
'
sent
it
forthe to
Westmynstre
for ay,
lu
redeundo autem, transivit

;
per
bant poni loco coronationis
suse et
hoc in
Abbathiam de Scone ubi sublato lapide quo Eeges Scotorum, tempore coronationis,
signnm regni conquesti

Cron. T.
i.
et resignati
(Hem.
pp. 37-100).
solebant
uti
jjro
tlirono,
usque
To complete the evidence, among the

king's jewels which were in the castle of
Westmonasterium
inde
fieri
transtidit ilium, jubens
celebrantium cathedi-am sacerKish. Chron., p. 163).
Edinburgh
in
1296,
was
" una petra

468)
dotum (WUl.
^
magna super quam Eeges
Scotise solebant
i.
coronari" (Chalmers' Ceded, vol.
p.
Apud Monasterium
de Scone positus
erat lapis pergrandis in ecclesia Dei, juxta
and in the wardrobe accounts of Edward I. for a.d. 1300, is a pajTnent " Magisti-o
Waltero Pictori,
per
x^ro
magnum altare, modum rotundse
concavus
cathedrae
quidem
confectus,
ad
in
custiibus et expensis
quo futuri reges loco quasi coronationis ponebantur ex more.

In redeundo per Scone, praecepit
et
tolli
ipsum factis circa imum gradum faciendum ad pedem nove Cathedre in qua petra Scocie reponitur juxta altare ante feretrum Sancti Edwardi in Ecclesia
Abbatie Westmonaster.' (Lih. Gard., Ed-
Londoniis
cariari,
lapidem iUum, in quo,

reges Scotorum sole-
ut svipra
dictum
est,
ward
I.
p. 60.)
12
To ben

ther yiine a cliayer clenly wrought,
sitte
For masse prestes to
yn wlian hem ought,
Whiche
yit is there
stondyng beside the shiyne,
In a chaier of okle tyme made ful fyne."^
The Scotch
see
chronicles all agree in asserting the
same
fact.
So much of the legend being unquestionably
true, let us
how
far the earlier part of the tale will bear the test of
examination.
Starting with the stone at Scone in the thirteenth century,
and playing
its
traditionary part in the coronation of

its
the kings, let us trace
history back, examining the form
of the legend at each stage of our progress.
We may
fullest
it
take
:
Hector Boece as giving;

Boece's history
1
it
in its latest
in
and
form
was written
The
1527, and in 1531

which follows
is
was
MS. Bod.
Scld. B. 10.
figure of tlic chair
from Holhn-
shed'.s Chronicles,
London, 1577.

translated
13
at
by John Bellenden, Archdean of Moray, which

his fabulous history familiar to the Scottish
once
made
it
mind,
so that
was soon accepted
as the popular belief of the
country, while the polished latinity of

it
'
Buchanan commended
is
to the favour of the learned.
Boece's story
shortly this
Gathelus, a Greek, the son either of the Athenian Cecrops
or the Argive Neolus,

dus,
went
to Eg}'pt at the time of the
Exo-
where he married Scota, the daughter of Pharao, and

Egyptian army in the Red Sea,
till
after the destruction of the

fled
gall,
with her by the Mediterranean
he arrived in Portin-
where he landed, and founded a kingdom at Brigantium,

Compostella.
now
Here he reigned
in the marbile chair,
which was the "

like a chair,
lapis fatalis cathedrae instar," or fatal stone

it
and wherever
was found portended kingdom

it
to the Scots.
tion
:
In after ages
fallat
bore the follo^^^ng inscrip-
Ni
fatum, Scoti, quocimque locutum
Invenient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem.
which Bellenden thus translates

The
Scottis sail
brwke
that realme as native ground,

is
Geif weirdis
faill
nocht, quhairever this chair
found.
Simon Breck, a descendant

Ireland.
of Gathelus, brought the

it
from Spain to Ireland, and was crowned in
as
chan King of
(^
first
Fergus, son of Ferchard,was

land,
King of the Scots in Scotto Argyll,
and brought the chair from Ireland

it.
and was
crowned in
in
He built a town in Argyll called Beregonium,

it.
which he placed
From him proceeded
forty kings of
6^
Jk
?urÛf^-ar
J,
J^ô^û.
'cn.%
'-^'^
14

Tlie twelfth king,
Scotland.
Evenus, built a town near
Beregonium, called after his name Evonium, now called

DunstafFnage, to which the stone was removed, and the re-
mainder of the forty kings are
all
crowned
in DunstafFnage,
it is
reign there, and are buried there.'

called
In Boece
usually
Evonium, but Bellenden invariably substitutes Dun-
stafFnage,
and thus
it
became familiar
to the Scottish
mind
as the ancient capital of the Scottish kingdom,
and the place
where the
'
fatal stone
was kept.
The Scots
is
are expelled to Ireland under the last of the
forty kings, but return under his
nephew Fergus Mac
Ere,
who
lona,
crowned in the marble

it
chair.
He builds
a church at
and commands
to be the sepulchre of the kings in
future.
Kenneth MacAlpin, the

Picts,
last of these kings,
conquers the
and brings the

it
fatal stone
it
from Argyll to Gowry, and

his principal
places
in Scone, because
was there that
victory over the Picts had taken place.
Some say
that he
then caused the verse to be inscribed on the stone beorinnino-
"Nifallatfatum."''
The
forty kings are purely fabulous, but with Fergus
Mac Ere
1
the stream of fictitious narrative flows into that of

Scotorum Hist.,
ed.
Boetliii
1527.
instar," or as
"
in
formam Cathedrae
it
de-
Bellendeu's Croniklis of the Scots.
cisum
a
;"
but never that

as
It
Buchanan adds
to Scone, he placed
to this account, that
chair,
it afterAvards
is
was enclosed in was at Westthat while
when Kenneth macAlpin brought the stone

it
;"
minster.
remarkable
there " in cathedram
ligncum inclusum
to
but
this is contrary
the expressions of the older writers,

describe
Hemingford calls the stone which was carried off " pergrandis," and in the inventory it is called " una magna petra,"
the present stone enclosed in the corona-
who
the
stone as
" Cathedra'

history, for he
is
15
the
first
of the historic kings of Dah'iada
who founded
tury
;
the Scottish colony of Argyll in the sixth cenhistoric kings of Dalriada are
and the
now
inter-
woven with fictitious monarchs in Boece's tale. It is remarkable that when the historical element enters, DunstafFnage
disappears,
and Icolmkill or lona takes
its
place.
A
thus
:
century and a half earlier Fordun states the legend

'
Neulus, a Greek, has a son Gaythelus,
who
goes to
Egypt, marries Scota, daughter of Pharao, king of Egypt,
and leads the remnant of the people who were not drowned
in
the
Red Sea through
Africa to
S]3ain.
One
of his
descendants, a king of Spain, has several sons, and sends
one of them, Simon Brec, to Ireland,

"
to
whom
he gave
Marmorea Cathedra," the marble
chair,
diligently
and
carefully sculptured
by ancient
in
art,
on which the kings

to
sit.
of Spain, of Scottish race, were

or
wont
This stone
chair
he
places
the
most eminent place of the
kingdom, called Themor, which became the royal seat and

principal place of the
kingdom
it
of Ireland.
He
adds, that
:
of the origin of the stone there were
two accounts
other,
one,
that
Gaythelus brought
from Egypt; the
that
Simon Brec having

tion chaii- at
cast anchor
on the shore of Ireland,

five steps,
Westminster measures only
white marble on
and with no
it
is
26 inches in length by 16| inches in

breadth and 10 1 in depth.
carving or ornament, bnt

that at coronations
it
believed
The Mar-
was covered with
morne StuJd, or marble chair, in which plates of gold. The Scotch stone may Charlemagne is said to have sat, and the liaAê been similarly raised, and the seat Emperors of Germany were at one time alone taken to England, and inserted in crowned, is still preserved at Aix la the wooden chair made by Edward I. It is a plain heavy seat of Chapelle.
16
aiid

again
weighed anchor in consequence of a storm,

anchor, a
raised,
with his
stone
of
marble, cut
in the
shape of a chair.
fallat
Fordun then quotes the prophecy,

adds that Fergus,
son
of
"
Ni
fatum," and
Farquhar,
when he with him
led the Scots from Ireland to Scotland, brought
the royal chair cut out of marble stone, in which

first
he was crowned
king there by the Scots
after
whose
example the succeeding kings received the rite of coronation in

the same chair.'
Fordun does not say how
it
came
to Scone.^
The
Fordun
" lapis
" Cronicon
as
Eythmicum," which may be classed with

stating,
it
an authority, gives the same account,
however, that Gaythelus brought the stone, which

to it the epithet of "
calls
Pharaonis," or Pharao's stone from Egypt, and applies
anchora
vite,"
it
probably the origin of Forraised with the
dun's second account that
was
anchor.
In stating that Fergus brought the stone to Scotland, the
word Ergadia
is
substituted for Scotia
and
in the later
edition of this chronicle, after stating that the subsequent
kings were crowned upon

Ut Scona
it,
the line
is
added
testatur usque tunc lapis iste locatiir."
Neither Fordun nor the " Cronicon
Eythmicum
it
"
know
anything of DunstafFnage as the place where the stone was

kept in Argyll
;
and the former mentions
only as a strong-
hold of the Lords of Lorn in the reign of Robert the Bruce.
Neither do they
fvrn
know anything
to
-
of the removal of the stone

;
hJnr
by Kenneth mac Alpin

'
Scone in the ninth century

('hronicUs of the I'ids
and
Fordun a
Hc.iriu'.
ami
Scuts,
]i.
333.

Fordun,
17
detail,
who
it.
gives his
reiffii
great
makes
allusion to
It is
?o/iW^H^ l^'y^
belie f has
remarkable that the two features of the legend to
which popular
clung with greatest tenacity-
viz.
r^
r^
that the stone was kept at DunstafFnage, and that
it
was
removed from thence
to
Scone by Kenneth mac Alpin when

rest
he conquered the Picts
upon the statement of Hector

than Fordun,
Boece alone, and are totally unknown to the older authorities.
Wyntoun, though
his date is later
may be
considered as an independent authority, and follows more

closely the older chronicles.
He
begins his account with the
King
of Spain,
who
sent his son,
Symon
Brec, to Ireland.
gret Stane this KjTig thau had,

fore this
That
Kyngis Sete wes made
And
haldyne wes a gret Jowale

hale.
Wytht-in the Kynryke of Spayne
This stone he takes to Ireland, and

Thare he made a
gi-et C}i;e,
And
Be
in
it
syne that Stane gert he

for Jowale,
set,
and haldyne
And
Chartyr of that Kynryke hale.

fra
Fergus Ere son
hym
syne
Down
discendand ewjTi be lyne
In to the fyve and fyfty Gre,
As ewyne recknand men may

Brought
this
se,
Stane wytht-in Scotland,

;
Fyrst quhen he come and wane that Land
And fyrst it set in Ikkolmkil, And Skune thare-eftyr it was brought

^
tyle.'
Wyntoun's
Chroniclr, B. III.
c.
i,\.
18
The main
difference here
is
that the stone
is
brought
from Ireland to Scotland, not by the mythic Fergus, son of

Ferquhard, but by the historic Fergus, son of Ere
instead of being placed
;
and,
by the former
in Argyll,
is
placed
by
it
the latter in Icolmkill
but he too says nothing as to when
the stone was brought to Scone, and does not allude to

in his account of the reign of
Kenneth MacAlpin.
which was completed in the
of the
We
year
have a
still
older form of the legend in the Scala-
cronica, the compilation of
1355.
In this chronicle the legend begins with
Simon Brec, the youngest son

to Ireland,
'
King
of Spain going
who brought with him
a stone on which the

it
kings of Spain were wont to be crowned, and placed
in
the most sovereign beautiful place in Ireland, called to this
day the Eoyal Place, and Fergus, son of Ferchar, brought -the royal stone before received, and placed it where is
now the Abbey of Scone. By Fergus, son of Ferchar,

meant.
'^
it is
obvious, from the
list
of
his successors, that the historic Fergus, son of Ere,
is
here
Blind Harry, the minstrel, in his metrical
life
of Sir
William Wallace, obviously gives the legend in the same In talking of the coronation of John Baliol, he form.
y
The crown he took upon the
self-same stane,
;
That Gadales sent with his son from Spain
When
Iber Scot
first
into Ireland come,

it
At Canmor syne King Fergus has

1
won,
Chronicles of the Picts
and
Scots, p. 196.

Brought
it
19
it
to Scone,
and stable made

eiglit
there,
Where kings were crowned

Before the time that
hundred years and mair,

it
King Edward
fand,
This jewel he gart
tiirse into
England.^
tlie
By Canmor, Harry means Teamor,

Forduu, the
Tliemor of
Eoyal Place of the Scalacronica in Ireland,

;
now
called Tara
and
if it
had been more than 800 years

it
at
Scone when Edward took

placed there in
the
fifth
in 1296,
it
implies that
it
was
century, the time
when
these
chronicles brino- Fergus
Icolmkill
therefore
Mac Ere from Ireland to now drops out of the

is
Scotland.
legend as
weU
as Argyll, and the stone
brought direct from Tara

himself.
to Scone,
and placed there by Fergus

"
We
also
hear no more of the prophecy,

let
Ni
fallat
fatum," for which
us be thankful.
The only other mention

have been able to
find, is
of the legend,
and the
oldest I
by Baldred Bisset, in his document
called " Processus Baldredi contra figmenta regis Anglie,"
compiled in 1301, and he makes very short work of

indeed.
'
it
The daughter
of Pharao, king of Eg}^t, with an

fleet,
armed band and a large
goes to Ireland, and there

she sails to Scotland, tak-
being joined by a body of
Irish,
ing with her the royal seat which he, the King of England,
A\dth other
insimia of the kino-dom of Scotland, carried with
him by
violence to England.
She conquered and destroyed

;
the Picts and took their
kingdom
and from
tota.'"
this Scota the
Scots and Scotia are named, according to the line-
A
'
muliere Scota vocitatur Scocia

iv.
''
Wallace, B.
I.
e.
Filia namquf^ Pharaonis regis Egipti,
"
20
It is

remarkable that prior to Baldred not a trace of the
to be
legend
is
found in any of the older chronicles.

first
He
is
absolutely the
who mentions
it.
Another
fact is
even more remarkable.

to
Baldred Bisset
to plead the
was one of the commissioners sent
Rome
cause of the independence of Scotland before the Pope.
paper was prepared by the Scottish Government, called
" Instructiones," containing an elaborate statement of the
grounds on which the claim for independence was based,
and what Baldred did was

into a kind of memorial,
to convert these " Instructiones"
which he termed " Processus."
Now, was based,

'
in the " Instructiones," on which the " Processus
there
is
not the slightest allusion to the coro-
nation-stone or
its
legend.
The
parallel passage is this
The ancient people of the
Scots, thus called after Scota,
daughter of Pliarao, king of Egypt, went from Egypt, and

first
occupied Ireland; they occupied, secondly, Argyll in
Scotland, and having driven the Britons out of Scotland, the
part of Britain thus occupied
was
called
by them by the
new name
of Scotia, from that
first
Scota,
Queen
of the
Scots, according to the line
muliere Scota vocitatur Scotia
tota.'i
What
Ilium,
Baldred did, then, was to make Scota herself lead

et
cum armata manu

applicuit
maxima
Hibernia.
classe na-
tauit.
Ipsa deuicit et dejecit Pictos, et

obtinuit
;
in
Postea,
regnum ipsum
ac ab ipsa Scota,
assuraptis
ciam
quibusdam Hibernicis, in Sconauigauit, deferens secum sedile

iste
ScotietScocianuncupantur. Unde versus;

" A muliere Scota vocitatur Scocia tota." Chronicles of the Picts
^
regium, quod
rex Anglie, inter cetera
and
Scots, p. 280.
regni Scocie insignia, secum per violen-
ciam de regno Scocie in Angliam aspor-
(JhromrhsoJ'thePictsandScots,\\2\2.
THE COROXATION STONE.
21
the Scots to Scotland to leave out the expulsion of the
Britons
and to
interpolate
two passages
;
first,
that she
brought the
fatal stone
with her
secondly, that she herself
conquered the Picts, who, in a previous passage he says,
had driven out the Britons, and taken

Baldred's object
their
kingdom.
for the
was
to present the
argument
and
of
independence of Scotland as forcibly as possible.

derivation of the
gress from
The
kingdom from the
Scots,
their pro-
Egypt through Spain and Ireland

opposed to that of the
of
to Scotland,
was the
tale
King
England,
by whom the kingdom

the
Britons, while
Scotland was
derived
from
of
Albanactus, the youngest son of Brutus, the

that of
Eponymus
England was derived from

Both
tales
if
it
Locrinus, the eldest son.
were seriously put
forward and seriously argued, as

bearing upon the controversy, and
to Baldred that
they possessed a vital
seems to have occurred

if
he would strengthen his argument
he
made
it
the
Eponyma
of the Scots, Scota herself, bring the

I.
coronation-stone,
to England,
which Edward
himself,
by removing
had recognised
as symbolical of the Scottish
monarchy, with her in his wanderings.

necessary to
By
finding
it
make her conquer

is
the Picts and take their
kingdom,
it
plain that he only
knew
of Scone as the
;
place where the stone had been for time immemorial
and
venture to suggest that
we owe
the origin of the legend
entirely to the patriotic ingenuity of Baldred Bisset.
Once suggested,
it
was eagerly caught up and applied

development.
'A
to the Scottish fable in its different stages of
c*^
22

first
Scota
brings
it
direct to Scone.
It is
then identified with
the Lia Fail or Irish stone at Tara, and brought from thence
to Scone
by the
historic Fergus,
when
the petty kings of
the
first
colony of Dah'iada were magnified into the true
kings of Scotland.
Then
it
rests at Icolmkill
by the way.
Then, when Fordun pushed back the arrival of the Scots

for
many
centuries, it is
brought to Argyll by the mythic

''
Fergus, son of Ferchard, and the prophecy

&c.
it
ni fallat fatum,"
added to
it.
Then, when the forty kings were elaborated,
is
placed in Dunstafihage, and said to have been trans-
ferred from thence to Scone
conquered the Picts in the ninth century

latest
by Kenneth MacAlpin, when he and this is the

;
form of the
fable.
The
in
Irish legend of the origin of the

is
Lia
Fail, or Irish
coronation-stone at Tara,
very difierent.
It is contained
an old
Irish
tract
termed the Leahhar Gahhala, or

is
Book
of Conquests,
and
to
this efi"ect
Ireland
was
occupied by
possession
of
diff*erent
it.
colonies before the
Milesians took
The
monarchy was founded by the
colony of the Firholg,

provinces,
seat.
who
divided Ireland into the five
or Tara as the chief and The colony which followed them, and immediately preceded the Milesians, was that of the Tuatha Be Danaan
established
Teamar
who came from

four
cities,
the land of Lochlan, where they inhabited

Gorias,
Finias,
called Falias,
Murias.
From
thence they went to Scotland, bringing with them from the

four
cities,
four precious articles.
From
Falias they brought
the Lia Fail, which had the property of sounding under

each king at his election
if
23
he was the rightful king and

;
not a usurper.
Finias, a spear
;
From
Gorias, they brought a sworcl
from
re-
and from Murias, a cauldron.
They
mained
in Scotland seven years, inhabiting a district called to Ireland, where,
Dohhar and lardohhar and then went

after nine reigns,
It is
they were conquered by the Milesians.^
somewhat remarkable that while the Scotch legend
brings the stone at Scone from Ireland, the Irish legend

brings the stone at Tara from Scotland.
all events, are
The two
legends, at
is
quite antagonistic to each other,
and there
one historic fact certain as to each.

Irish stone, did not leave Tara,
First,
the Lia Fail, or

there in the
but was
still
eleventh century
and, secondly, the Scotch stone
was not
in Argyll during the existence of the Irish colony of Dalriada,
nor was used in the inauguration of their kings.

appears from
this,
The
a
first
that the Irish translation of Nennius,
made
in the eleventh century, has
appended
to
it
list
of
the Mirahilia or wonders of Erin,
amongwhich
are the three

is
wonders of Teamar or Tara
and the third
" the
Lia
it
Fail, or stone which sounded under every king
whom
recognised in the sovereignty of

says " there
'
Teamar"
viz.
Another version
is
a stone at Temhar,
the Lia Fail, which

by the O'Clerys in the be-
THietreict culled the LcabJiarGahhala,

is
modern
edition
a book of conquests, of the ancient
presei-ved in several
ginning of the seventeenth centnry. There
MSS. There is a is, it is believed, a prospect of this tract fragment in the Leahhar na huidhri of being published, collated with the older circa 1100 an edition in the Book of editions, but the substance of it will be Leinster of circa 1160 one in the Book found fairly enough represented in KeatIrish
; ;
of Ballymote of 1380
and two
There
in the
ing's History of Ireland.
Book
of Lcacain of 1418.
is a
more
24
used to sound under the feet of every one that assumed the
kingdom
remained
of Erin/
Petrie, in his Antiquities
of Tara Hill,
still
quotes other old documents to show that the stone

there.'^
The second
fact is
shown by the account
given by the biographers of

tion of
St. Columba of the inauguraKing of the Scots of Argyll. The account is given by two of the successors of St. Columba Cumine the AVhite, who was abbot from 657 to 669, and Adomnan, who was abbot from 679 to 704. St. Columba had obtained at the Council of Dumceat the independence of Scotch Dalriada and if ever there was an occasion on
Aidan
as
which the Stone of Destiny might be expected

prominent
part,
it
to play a
St.
was
in the
solemn
rite
by which
Columba constituted Aidan
king, in obedience to a divine
command
his
declared in a vision, and accompanied by a prohis successors.
phecy regarding
He
ordains
him by placing
hands upon his head, blessing him, using what Adomnan

"verba ordinationis;" but, throughout the whole de-
calls
scription, there is not a single allusion to the Fatal Stone.^
The
theory,
late Dr.
Joseph Robertson suggested an ingenious

to
by which he endeavoured
reconcile the non-
appearance of the stone in the inauguration of the Scottish
Kings of Dalriada with the legend which makes Kenneth
mac Alpin
1
bring the stone from Argyllshire to Scone in the

^
Irish
tonum
'^
Version of the Historia BriAr. Society, Ir. of Nennius.
Cumiue's
Vit.
Columhcc,
cap.
v.
1848, p. 201.
Petrie on the History
apud Pinkerton's Fit. Antiq. SS. Scotice, Adomnan's Vit. S. Columhce, B. p. 30

;
ties
of
and AntiquiTara //iVZ. Trans. Royal Irish

pp.
2,
iii. c.
v. pp.
197-201, Reeves' edit. , Diiblin,
1857.
Acad.,
V. xviii.
160.
25
ninth century, and his suggestion has been adopted by
Dean Stanley
nan records of
in his
posed that the stone

St.
may have
Memorials of Westminster. He supbeen the same which Adomfor a pillow, while

it
Columba that he used

and that
first
a stone slab formed his bed,
was brought by
Kenneth
stone
;
to Scone,
I
and there
is
used as a coronation-
but
think this
one of the rare occasions in which
his acuteness and sagacity were at fault.
His argument
at lona
may
be shortly stated thus
Both Cumine and Adomnan speak of a stone

which had been used by
St.
Columba
as a pillow,
and on
first
is
which he rested
his
head in his dying hours, and the
shape in which the legend of the stone of Scone meets us

as the pillow of Jacob.
pillow, he
When
Jacob slept on his stone
Columba had a
had a vision of angels ascending and descending. The vision of angels before his death.
Pictish Chronicle records that
Kenneth mac Alpin,

built,
in the
seventh year of his reign, transported the relics of St.
Columba
to a church
which he
and
it
was on the
It is
banks of the Tay, as we learn from another source. immediately after Kenneth's reign that we find Scone
tinguished as a royal city, the place where
dis-
a National
Council
pillow
or
Assembly met in 906.
Therefore the stone
may have been among
the relics which Kenneth
transported to a church on the banks of the
Tay
Scone
may have
1
been that church, and
it
may have
been subse-
quently used as the coronation stone.

Dean
Stanley's Historical
Manorioh
of Westminster Ahheij, p. 496, Appendix.
26

This tlieoiy
is
put together with
much
ingenuity, but
it
will not bear examination.
At
the very outset there
is
a fatal objection to
Professor
it.
The
coronation stone,
when examined by
Eamsay
Set 'UÛ.
provedjto be_a_small block of red^sandstone, and he reports,
on the authority of Mr. Geikie, that the rocks^f lona^consist "
of a flaggy micaceous_grit or^neiss^
There
is
no red
sandstone on_it."^
This drives us to the necessity of supof the stones on
posing that
St.
Columba did not use one

it is
the island for his pillow, but brought one of red sandstone
from a distance. Further,

that the stone at Scone
no part of the Scotch legend

pillow.
It is not stated
was Jacob's
by any Scotch document, but

niclers,
solely
by the English
chro-
and we learn from Adomnan that the stone pillow

St.
used by
grave,
Columba was placed
as a
monument on
It
his
and remained
so at the time
he wrote.
after St.
seems
unlikely that
death, have
it
Kenneth should, 200 years

Further,
Columba's
removed the monument on

it
his grave,
is
and made
his
coronation stone.
hardly correct to
say that
we
is
learn from another source, that the church
Kenneth
built
was on the banks of the Tay.
The source
referred to
a Saxon document compiled not earlier than
1058, giving the localities in England in which the relics of
eminent saints were placed.
It
makes no
St.
reference to
Kenhis
neth whatever, but simply says that

relics) reposes at
1
ColumcyUe
{i. e.
Duncachan, on the river Tay.^

translated
Duncachan
Duncachan juxta
Dean
Stanley,
Meviorials of West-
by him
" Sanctus ColumcyUe
yninster Abbey, p. 450.

-
lequi^scat in loco dicto
Hickcs,
ii.
17.
The
iiassMj^^r is
thus
fiumon Tau."

is
27
supposed to be miswritten for Dimkaklan or Dunkeld,

it is
and
as
certain that
relics of St.
;^
Dunkekl was dedicated
to St.
Columba,
as late
and that
1500
Columba were preserved there but there is no trace of any dedication
to St.
Columba
at Scone, or of its ever
having borne a name ap-
proaching in sound to Duncachan.

Lastly, I think
as
it
can be shown that Scone was
known
royal city before the reign of Kenneth.
Forduu,
in his account of the coronation of Alexander III., states
that
Scone had been constituted by ancient kings the
"sedes superior" or principal seat of Scotland; and in accordance with this statement
we
find
Malcolm
IV., in his
charter to the monastery of Scone confirming the grants of
previous kings, states that

sede regni nostri.""
it
was founded
" in principali
We
find
that the
kings of Scotland were not only

there.
crowned at Scone, but held parliaments

liaments met on the
These parII.
Moot
Hill of Scone,
Thus Eobert
was crowned
earls,
1
at
Scone on the 26th day of March 1371, by

presence of the
prelates,
the Bishop of St. Andrews, in
barons, and other nobles of Scotland, and of a great

paste laborantes,
ticis
Alexander Jlybie, who was a canon
in teriis suis ecclesiaî-
of Dunkeld,
and died in 1549, nan-ates

(pp.
de Capeth, \nsitavit [episcopus], et

ecclesiastica
eis
the following in his Lives of the Bishops

of
Dunkeld
40-43)
"In
sacramenta
fecit;
ministrari
fecit
anno
altera vero die
aquam
bene-
domini millesimo quingentesimo, ssevissima regnavit pestis, per totum regnum

Scotise,
dictam, in qua lavavit os Beati Columhce

et
et
ut fama fertur, civitas

illasa,
Dun-
misit,
cum cancellario eis ad bibendum quam multi recipientes sani facti
keldensis
meritis
divi
pati-oiii
sunt."
Columbse a contagione pestifera semper

permansit
qnosdamque
CItartulari/ of Scone, p.
5.
"
28

;
multitude of the people

the prelates,
earls,
is,
and on
tlie
following day convened

'
barons,
and nobles before him,
the king
sitting, as use
in the royal seat,
upon the Mount of Scone ;'^
and on the 18th of March 1390, Robert III. held a parliament at Scone, upon the Mount of Scone, on the north side of the monastery beyond the cemetery.'^ The parliaments held at Scone consisted of what were called the two Estates of Scotland viz. the barons and the
*
higher clergy.
the expression
Thus, in a parliament held at Scone in 1303,

is "
;
congregatis et comparentibus prelatis et
proceribus regni
"
and of another held
at Scone in 1285,
Wynton
says
Alexander the thryd oure king

Gert
mak
at
Scone a gret gadryng,
Tlie sextene
day eftyr Pasce,

statis
Quhair thare the

^
gadryd was. 3
;
Rege
sedeute in Sede Regia super

est
montem de Scone ut
moris. Act Pari. Scot., p. 181. This " Sedes Regia" must not be confounded with the stone seat which was used at the coronation only, and was kept in the Abbey Church, to which the name of " Cathedra" is always
applied.
now at Westminster (2) a stone which it would seem the Stone of Fate was placed when kings were to be inaugurated," but there seems no ground
of Fate,
chair in
for this supposition.

is
The "Sedes Regalis"

was removed,
is
mentioned
after the stone
It
never bears the name proper to the
The
royal seat here referred to
latter of
"Cathedra."
There
nothing
was placed on the Moot Hill, and used when the king presided at a parliament or
court of justice.
It
to to
shew that it was of stone, and it seems have been the throne on which the king
was on
this seat
the
Moot
Hill that Robert
on Bruce was
usually sat
when
presiding over his nobles,

is
while the fatal stone

of the
*
by
its
legends in-
crowned in 1306, " in sede positus regali,

after the seat called the
delibly connected with the inauguration
"Cathedra," or
new king
only,
stone had been removed to England."
Apud
super
Sconani Sancti
Andree
dio-
Fordun a Hearne,
vol. iv. p. 997.
cesis
terii
montem ex
extra
parte boreali monas-
Dr. Joseph Robertson adds, "that there
ejusdcm
cymyterium.
B. VII.
Act
appears some reason to suppose that there
Pari. Scot., p. 216.

^
were two stones
at
Scone (1) The Stone
Wyntoun's
C/(?-o.
c.
x.

In 1209
29
King William
'
the Lion held an assembly of
the prelates, earls, barons, and freeholders at Scone, in which

it
was ordained that the holy Scottish Church, the holy

and
entire
clergy, should be maintained,
reall
ligion,
with
their rights, liberties,
and
privileges, in
^
quiet peace, and
always under royal protection.'

in the Pictish Chronicle in
It
Now the assembly recorded

near the Royal City of
906 was obviously of this nature.

Belief,
was held on the Mount of
Scone, and there Constantine the King, and Cellach, Bishop

of St. Andrews, issued an ordinance for the preservation
of the laws, faith, discipline,
and rights of the Church.^
We
can here recognise a national assembly held upon the

Hill of Scone exactly similar to that held
Moot
by King
William the Lion.
This Dr. Joseph Robertson seems to

earliest
have regarded as the
mention of Scone as the

it is
" sedes principalis regni;" but
not
so,
for
Flann of
than the
Bute, in his Synchronisms of the Kings, written in the reign

of
Malcolm
II.,
and therefore very
little
later
Pictish Chronicle, states of
Kenneth macAlpin that he was

acquired the kingdom of Scone."^
of the Picts
is
the
first
of the Scots "
who
By
1
this expression the

Statuit
kingdom
meant, and
Rex Willelmus apud Sconam

consilio et deliberacione pre-
C'ellachus episcopus, leges disciplinasque

fidei
de
communi
atque jura ecclesiarum evangeliorpariter
latorum comitum et baronum ac libere
unique,
cum
Scottis,
in
colle
tenentium quod ecclesia sancta Scoticana

et
credulitatis
prope
regali
civitati
Scoan
sancta religio et universus clerus in
devoverunt custodiri.
Scots, p. 9.
Chrmi. Picts and
suis juribus libertatibus ac privilegiis
om-
nibus mauuteneatur
in
quiete
pace et
^
semper sub protectione

Scot.,
"
-p.
regia.
Act. Pari.
Cinaet macAilpin
ise cet rig
hro gab
Chron.
60.
Riglie
Pirfs
Sgoinde
do
Gaidelaib.
Ac
in
VI. anno Constantinus Eex et
and
Scots, p. 21.
30
the
name
of the capital
is
used for that of the kingdom, just
as the Irish annalists use the expression of the
Kingdom
of
Tara for the Kingdom of Ireland.
This passage shows, that
when Kenneth conquered

of the Pictish kingdom.
the Picts, Scone was the capital
But, further, Tighernac,

records in 728
'
who wrote
in the
same century,
an unfortunate battle between the Picardach
or Picts, at Gaislen Credi,
and the victory was against Alpin
(King of the
taken,
Picts),
and
his territories
Derili,
and
all his
men were
event,
and Nectan, son of
obtained the kingdom of
the Picts.' ^
The Annals of Ulster, in recording the same

the Irish for " Castellum," and Credi
is
uses the expression "juxta Castellum Credi.""
The word
the Irish
Gaislen
is
form of " credulitas" or belief.

Credulitatis," or
This was therefore the " CoUis
Mount
of Belief, at Scone,
and here
also the
taking of Scone implied that the conquerors obtained the
kingdom
that
of the Picts, showing that Scone
" sedes principalis" of the

is,
a century earlier,
was still the kingdom of the Picts in 728, and that the Moot Hill then bore
the assembly in 906,
this
the
name of " the Mount of Belief." The Pictish Chronicle, in recording

expression,
viz.,
'
has the remarkable
from
day the
hill
merited
1
its
name
itir
the
Mount
of Belief.'^
gestum
est
This does
juxta Castellum
Chron. Fids
Cath truadh
Credhi
Picardachaibh ac
ro
(Pictores)
Caislen
ocu.s
mebaigh
ar in
Credi ubi Elpinius effugit.

aiid Scots, p. 355.
Alpin cetna ocus ro bearadh a cricha ocus a duine de uile, ocus ro gab Nechtain
mac
-
Derili Righi
na Picardach. CAro?;.
id
intei'
'^
Ab
hoc die
collis
collis
hoc mertiit nomen,
Picts
and
Scots, p. 75.
est,
credulitatis. CTrow.
Fids
Bclluiii
lacriniMbilf
eosdcni
njid Scats, p. 9.

not imply that the
31
hill,
name was then
first
applied to the
to
but that
it
was peculiarly appropriate

and
a hill on which
an assembly was held regulating the

rights of the church
;
faith, discipline,
and
it is
remarkable that a similar
assembly affecting the church appears to have been held by

the same Nectan, son of Derili, not long before the
Hill
first
Moot
appears under the
name
of the Castle of Belief.
Bede
tells
us that in 710 this Nectan, king of the Picts,

till
renounced the error in which he and his nation had
then been held in relation to observances of Easter, and

sent messengers to Ceolfrid,
Abbot of Jarrow, requesting

arguments by which
him
him
to write
him a
letter containing
he might convince those opposed to him, as well as to send

architects to build a church after the
it
Roman manner, proletters

it
mising to dedicate
to St. Peter.
The abbot sends the

us that 'when
and the
architects^;
and Bede
tells
was read
in presence of
Nectan and many of his most learned men,

to him, he rose
and interpreted
sat about him,
from among
his nobles
who
and declared that he would always observe the
true Easter with his nation.
A decree was
all
accordingly sent
by public command through The expressions

that
1
the province of the Picts.'
in this passage leave little
room
to
doubt
we have
here an assembly precisely similar to those in

c.
Bedie ff is. Ec. An., B. V.
21.
de
medio
optimatum suonim consessu
Haec epistola
cum
prsesente
rege
genua flecteret in terram, Deo gi'atiasagens, quod tale munusculum de terra Anglorum
mereretur accipere.
.
.
Naitono, multisque viris doctioribus esset

lecta, ac diligenter
Statimnam-
ab his qui
de
ejus
;
iiitelligere
poterant, in linguam ejus propriam interpretata,
que jussu publico mittebantur ad transcribendum, discenduni, observandum, per

imiversas Pictorum provincias circuli Paschre decennovenales.
multum
exhortationc
ga-visus esse perhibetur
ita ut
exsurgens
32
906 and in 1209
the king
is
in the
midst of his nobles, with
his clergy, issuing a decree regulating the faith
and
rites of
the church and there

;
every probability that it likewise took
place on the
name
to
it
of the
Moot Hill of Scone, and that it then received the Mount of Belief, a name which we find applied
within but a few years after the date of this transaction.

also to
Nectan appears
have founded the church at Scone.^
In 717, in consequence of his adoption of the

usages,
Eoman
Nectan expels the Columbian clergy beyond Drum-
alban, the
mountain range which
at that time separated the
provinces of the Picts from

cates the throne
Dalriada,'"^
and
in 724 he abdi-
and becomes himself an
ecclesiastic,^ retiring
probably to the church he had founded at Scone.

sessor in the Pictish is Drust,
His sucis
and by him Nectan

is
seized
and bound in 726.

Alpin,*
'
In the same year Drust

after
is
expelled by
and two years

who
is
in turn driven out

Ceolfrid,
by Nectan
to dediII.
This appears from the Legend of St.

said to have been a mis-
which Nectan promised

;
Boniface,
cate to St. Peter
but when Alexander
sionary to the Picts,
and
to
have con-
verted them and their king Nectanius to

Christianity.
conveys the Church of Scone to the Canons of St. Augustine, it is described as " ec-
This is obviously the same clesiam in honorem Sancta; Trinitatis and by the conversion of the dedicatam qufe est in Scona. " This, thereand their king, the rejection of fore, appears to have been the place conthe Columban usages and the adoption of veyedtoSt. Boniface, "in nomine Sancte
transaction,
Picts
the
Roman
are really meant.
Trinitatis."
717. Eximlsio familie le trans
Nectan meets the missionaries at Restinoth, and is converted and it is added
" Kex vero ipsorum virorum timencmm

;
,,
-r,
Britannie, a Nectano rege. Tigh.
Ueum locum
T
baptistern in nomine Sancte

^
...
rn n- * Chron. Picts a7id Scots,

"^^^^
jo.
V).
%< 7 i.
dorsum apud
Trinitatis Beato Bonifacio tradidit ct deli-
<-'lericatum [N]echtain regis Pic-
berauit" (Chron. Picts
and
Scots, p. 423.)
^"^*
Druxst post eumregnat. (/5ic^.)

Nechtain mac Derili constrin-
Restinoth, however, was dedicated to St.

Peter,
is
726.
and not
little rea.son to
church built
and there was the by the architects sent by

to the Trinity
;
doubt that
it
apud Druist regem. Druist de regno Pictorum ejectns ot Elphin pro eo

gitur
rpgnat (Ibid.)
"
THE CORONATION STONE,
33
who, in the battle near the Moot Hill of Scone, recovers

his
kingdom and
territories,
and
his death
is
recorded in
732.'
The events of Nectan's

centre
reign, therefore, appear all to

his reign at least, if not
it
upon Scone, and from

earlier
from
much
"
period in the Pictish monarchy,^
was
the
sedes principalis regni," where the assemblies of the
nation
^
were held,
and the possession of which placed

Tiiortuns
ster,
732.
Nechtan mac Derile
Teamar
or Tara
;
in that from Con-
{Ibid).
-
This was the belief in ForJuu's time.
In narrating the foundation of the monastery of Scone
by Alexander
I.,
he says,
quo resedem regni primam constituerunt " (Fordun a Heame, vol. ii. p. 441) and again, " Fundata enim est, sedificata et dedicata, ut dictum est, apud Seonam, ubi antiqui reges, Cruthino primo Pictorum rege, sedem regni Albaniae constituerant
ffidificavit loco,
"
Quam fundatam
and iu that from Ulster, Tailteann. Tara was the sedes principalis, or chief seat, where the Ardrigh, or supreme monarch, was inaugurated. Now, of the seven provinces of which
naught, Uisneach the Pictish kingdom was composed, the
four southern
ges antiquitus tam Scoti
quam
;
Picti
'S'iz.
(1) (2)
Fortren, extending
from Forth to Tay

(3)
Atfodia or Atholl
;
and (4) Fife and meet in GowTie and in a charter by Malcolm IV. to the
Forthref,
Angus and Mearns
may be
said to
canons of Scone, " in principali sede regni

nostri fundata," he conveys to
tithe
(vol.
iii.
p. 680).
is
There
probably more resemblance

sight
them the " de quatuor maneriis meis de Goude Scon et de Cubert et de

Straderdel."
first
than at
dition,
first
appears between the
erin
scilicet
circumstances by which, according to tra-
Forgi-und et de
Scone
is
Tara became the chief seat of
Ire-
separated from the
province by the
land,
and those which gave Scone the same

is
Tay.
Cubert, or Cupar- Angus, adjoins
character in Scotland.
Angus.
Forgrund, now Longforgan,
is
Tara
in the province of Meath,
and
separated by the Taj' from a parish in Fife
according to old tradition this provance
bearing the same

ary of Athol.
I
name
and Straderdel
or
was formed by taking a portion from each

of the four provinces of Munster, Leinster,
Strathardel stretches along the east bound-
Connaught, and Ulster, as mensal lands

the support of the Irish monarchy.
for
venture, therefore, to suggest that

likewise
foi-med
as
In
Gowry was
mensal
each of the four poi-tions forming the

province of Meath was a place where
semblies were held.
as-
lands for the support of the Crown from

four provinces, of which these four
manors
In that taken from

;
respectively formed a part, and that Scone
Munster was Tlachtga
in that from Lein-
was the "sedes principalis."
34
its

occupant at the head of the Pictish peoph^
n.s
their
monarch.
It
was
in this sense that
Fhxnn of Bute, in recording

throne
the
possession
of the
Pictish
by Kenneth mac
'
Alpin, a king of Scottish race, says that he
obtained the
kingdom
to
of Scone. '^
He
;
is
said
by Giraldus Cambrensis
Irish chronicle,
have assembled the Pictish nobles to a banquet and cut

off
them
by stratagem
and the metrical

St.
termed the Prophecy of

place at Scone.
Berchan, implies that this took
By him
are deceived in the East the fierce ones,
He
On
shall dig in the earth, powerful the art.

pillage,
Dangerous goad-blades, death,
the middle of Scone of higli shields.o
Fordun
but there
states that
Donald, the brother and successor
of Kenneth, died at Scone, the " sedes regia," or royal seat f

is
a remarkable variety in the old chronicles as
to the place of his death.
The
Pictish Chronicle, the oldest
of them, says that he died in his palace of CimihelacJwir.

St.
Berchan, the next oldest authority, says
1 Convocatosque tanquam ad convi- rum sociis quicquam tale timeutes, statini Citron. Picls vium magnates Pictorum cunctos, captata trucidaverunt universos. tam cibi ([uam potus crapula et ingurgita- and Scots, p. 165.
cioneforsannimia
et,
opportunitate notata,
clavorum extractione qui tabulata te.iebant, in bancorum concavitatem quibus ^

'
, ^^^^^_ ^.^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ g^_ ^^^^^ ^^^.^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^
,-,
^^^^
sedebant, mira decipula popnte tenus, ita

'
,.
the Picts
_,.
t,-
"Cestifust
ri
.
^^
x-
j.
le
j daram roy dez

i
Picys,
SI
fust tue a
quod
se nullatenus
engere possent, com''
c< Scone par treisoun.
..
mimiter undique lapsos, de subitos, quidem et improvisos, nee ab affinibus et confederatis
Apud Sconara
vero sedem regiam.

i.
suoque beneficio coufpodatis
et bollo-
Foi'flun a Iloanip, vol.
p. 306.

Three years
to the
35
king
;
And three months who .shall iniml>er them On Loch Adhbha shall be his grave. He dies of disease suddenly,
i
century
after,
one of the later chronicles says he died
at Rathinveramon,
which
^
is
repeated in subsequent lists;-
and the Chronicon Elegiacum confirms Fordun's account

that he died at Scone.
These names, however, can

in the
all
be referred to
localities
immediate neighbourhood of
military
ways constructed by the

of the
Scone. One of the great Romans leads from the
Roman
the
station at Strageath, in Stratherne, to the Tay, at
mouth
Amond, where
There
there are the remains of

is
it
another
Roman
station.
here a ford on the
Tay
called Derder's Ford,
and above
is
the remains of an old
bridge.
side
The Roman road
continued on the opposite
of the river, through a

;
Roman camp
river,
called
it
Grassy
Walls
and on the bank of the
between
and the
the
road, are the remains of a small fort, laid
down on
crosses
Ordnance map under the name of Gold
Castle,
but generally
the
it
known
as Silver Castle.
This military
of Scone;
way
river about half-a-mile north
and between
and Scone there appears to have been formerly a small lake, the situation of which is indicated by a farm termed
Lochtown.
Now
the
word Belach
is
an old
Irish
word
and
originally applied to
1
'^
any leading road

''
or highway,
Chron. Picts and
Scots, p. 85.
Qui Scone fertur subditus

Picts
esse neei.
IJhrun. Picts
Mortmis e.st in Eathinueramon. and Scots, pp. 151 and 174.
Chron.
and
Srota, p. 178.
M
ill

the
modern form
of
Bealach
to
mountain-pass
therefore,
at
it.^
and oir means gold.
The name of BelacJioir seems,
to be connected with this military way,
and the palace
Cinnhelachoir to have been at no great distance from
Rathinveramon means the Rath or
fort at the
mouth
of the
there.
Amond, and clearly refers to the Eoman station Adhhha means a palace, and Loch Adhbha the loch
palace;
of the
is
and
in its
corrupted form of Locheye
it
laid
down
road.
in the
Ordnance map between Scone and the Roman

all
These places probably
belonged to the defences
and possessions of that

generally
Grig,
central seat of the
monarchy known
Kenneth,
by the name of Scone.

the fourth
king in succession from

Ciricius,
termed by the Pictish Chronicle,
and elaborated
to
by Fordun
into
Gregorius,
is
;"
said
by him
have been
from
solemnly crowned at Scone
and, immediately after, to
have regulated the
state of the
it
church by freeing
it
the servitude to which

Picts.^
had been subjected under the

is
The
lût
precise
is
import of what he did
not very
clear
Fordun
corroborated by older authority, and

first
'
The name
other
of Belachoir only occurs
in
one
Cadroe
of
tical
the Life of document where it is mentioned as the last

to be a series of ecclesias-
mentioned likewise under the name
of Ciiidrighmonaigh.
"
Ibid.
i).
76.
what appears
Idem vero Gregorius, cum regni regimen, pluribus majorum annuentibus,

optinuisset,Sconasolemnitercoronatusest.
foundations by the Scots, the imme-
diately preceding foundation being Rig-
mont
in
St.
Andrews.
" Rigmonath
se procul positas,
Fordun a Hearne, vol. ' Hie primus dedit

illud
ii.
p. 310.
libertatera Ecclesie
quoque Bellethor urbes, a

petentes,
Picts
Scoticane que sub servitute erat usque ad
possessuri
Scots,
vicerunt. "
St.
CJiron.
is
and
108.
Andrews
tempus ex consuetudine et more Pictorum. C7(ro. Picts and Scots, pp.

151, 174.

it
37
seems to point to an assembly held at Scone similar to

to.
those already referred
In the reign
of
Coustantine,
not
many
years
after
took place, in 906, the meeting between the King and the
Bishop of
St.
Andrews, when the rights and laws of the

Belief,
church were again regulated on the Mount of

the royal city of Scone. ^
near
Constantiue
mac
Culen,
who
is
seized the throne towards said
the end of the same century,
by Fordun
and
to
to
have
invaded the " sedes regia

the crown
of Scone
"
or royal seat,
;
have placed
upon
his
head there
'
and that he took possession
is
corroborated by
St.
Berchan,
who
says
Woe Men
to
Albau
tliiuugli his alioit time.
will be feeble
around him
shield^;.^
In the land of Scone of sounding
By
mouth
Scone.
^
the chronicles of the twelfth century he
is
said to
at
have been slain at Rathinveramon, or the

of the
fort
the
Amond, which
is
thus again connected with
On
the legend narrated by Fordun, that
Malcolm the
Second bestowed the whole of the territory of Scotland,
which had hitherto
''ritu
priscorum" remained in the proper
possession of the crown, in grants to the barons

1
and knights,
capiti
See antea,
p.
29.
tilius
proceruni
Culeuii,
anuitentibus,
proprio
Constantinus Calvus,
i^Sî coronam imposuit.-Ford. a Hearne,

^^'
de quo superius
fit raencio, duceus secum quos habuit fautores, publica constituciono
^*^'
'
'Jhron.
Pids and
Scots, p, 97.
de.specta,
sedem invasit regiam
et
paucis
Ibid. pp. 151, 174, etc.
"
38
retaining only
tlic
Moot
;
Hill of
it
Scone/ probably
little
de-
pendence can be placed

fiction
has more the aspect of a legal
than of a tradition.
Fordun, however, after narrating that Malcolm Cannior had, with the assistance of
Edward, Earl of Northum-
berland, defeated Macbeth, driven
him
across the
Mounth,
and
slain
him
at
Lmnfanan, adds that the adherents of

Liilach to Scone,
Macbeth took
placed
his relation
and having
king.^
him
in the royal seat, declared
him
After
four months,
however, he too was

all his
slain,
and Malcohn
Canmor, having prostrated
enemies, was himself, in
presence of the magnates of the kingdom, placed in the

royal throne at Scone, and solemnly crowned.'*
'
Nichil
iiide
possideiiduiu
sibi
re-
regni
Barones, aliique subditi
ibi
foin-
tiuuit,
prater regiic sedis Scoiue

Ford, a Hearne,
ii.
iiionti-
pareutes, vel coronandi regis causa, vel ad
culum.
2
365.
comitia publica, vel ad causas agendas et

dicendas,
The spurious laws
of
Malcolm Mac-
cumulum
kenneth begin with the following : 1 Dominus rex Malcolmus dedit, et distribuit totam terram regni Scotise,
liominibus
2.
coram rege, in et monticulum ^^^ Maq. 1597 p. 1.

^
unum
quasi
coiiferebant.
Subito nanKjue post mortem
j\Iacli-
suis.
abei,
convenerunt quidam ex ejus parensceleris
Et
nihil sibi retinuit in proprietate,
tela
hujusmodi
fautores,
suum
nisi
regiam dignitatem et
de Scona
Sir
:
montem
consobrinum nomine Lulach, cognomine

fatuum, ad Sconam ducentes, et impositum
sede regali regem constitimnt.
placiti in villa
To which
following note
'
Jolm Skene adds the
Ford, a
Hearne,
ii.
398.
'
Montem placiti.
et
Montem seu locum

regia?,
intelligit,
ubi placita, vel curise

querelis
de
vel
Prostratis
ubique cunctis hostibus,

saepe-
placitis
subditonim
solent
et
ad suam deductis pacem, idem
teneri.
Ubi
[the
Barones
compareant
of
;
dictus Malcolmus,
apud Sconam,
prcesen-
homagium
offerant.
ac alia servitia Eegi
debita,
tibus
regni majoribus, in throno regali
mute
hill
Scone].
Et
tcrrtr
positus est, et in
omnium Scotorum gloriam

-
vulgo, omnis term vocatur
quia ex
;
ethonorem, eodem Aprili mense, die sancti

Maici eoroiiatus.
7'';VA
mole
ct
congerie
exfedificatur
quam
p. 399.

St.
39
Berclian implies in his obscure language, purposely
veiled to preserve the fiction of
a prophecy, that ^lac:
beth had been attacked and defeated at Scone

"
Twenty years and ten years

Over Alban
tlie
sovereign reigned
it
On
the middle of Scone,
will vomit blood,
The evening
of a night in
much
contention."
Although JMalcolm Canmor was crowned at Scone,

txppears
it
in his
reign to have ceased to be the ordinary
residence of the kings.
The towns which had been
rising
in importance in other parts of Scotland gradually
became
both the occasional residence of the monarch, and the place
where
held
;
his courts and the assemblies of the nation were and the numerous monasteries founded by Malcolm his race
and the kings of

places
were frequently selected as the
where
their
court
was from time

and here he
to
time held.
Dunfermline, where Malcolm

frequently his residence
cessors
;
founded a monastery, was

himself,
and
his suc-
on the throne, were buried.

or
The
his
"
Castrum puelas
larum,"
Edinburgh
his
reign.
Castle,
also
appears
royal
residence
in
Edgar,
I.
successor,
died at
Dundee
and though Alexander
founded a monastery at
is
Scone in 1115, and his charter, which
granted with the

earls,
consent of his queen, two bishops, and six

a council
implies that
had probably been held
at Scone, of the three

is
other charters he granted to the monastery, one

Stirling,
dated at
another at Perth, and the third only at Scone.

'
Chtoii.
rids and
Scots, p. 102.
40

1.
Duriug the reign of David

Scone.
we
find,
little
mention of
Under
his auspices feudalism
was rapidly acquiring

and
instituideas,
predominance in Scotland, and

tions were
its social state
becoming assimilated
to feudal forms
and
while the old Celtic element in her constitutional history
was gradually
retiring into the background.
The reign
of
David
I. is
the true
commencement
;
of Feudal Scotland
and
the termination of Celtic Scotland
and with
it,
to a great
extent, the old traditionary position of Scone, as the scene
of her national assemblies,
and the
seat of the royal court,
became
less
prominent,
although
the
kings were
title
still
anxious not to
endanger the
traditionary
of
the
monarchy by dispensing altogether with the

in their inauguration,
Celtic element
and continued
to be crowned,
and
occasionally to hold parliaments, there.
Fordun narrates that on the death of David

and constituted him king
father.^
I.
the people
took his grandson Malcolm, a boy in his thirteenth year,

at Scone, in
room
of his grand-
This passage
is
taken by him from John
of
Hexham, a contemporary authority, and is therefore authenThe only assembly which is recorded to have been tic. held in the reign of Malcolm was summoned to meet at Perth,' and the charter granted by him to Scone, in which
'
Tollens quoque
oiniiis
populus Maifili-
692.
John
is
of
Hexham
adds
tlie
expression,
est,"
colmuni, puenun tredecini annorum,
" Sicut consuetude
illius
nationis
um
Henrici
comitis
Noithumbrise
et
which
omitted by Fordun.
i.
Priory of
Huntingdon i?c, iilii ipsius regis David, et apud Sconam constituerunt regem pro Pavidavosuo. Fordun a Hearne, vol. iii.
Hexham,
-
170.
Furdun a Henrnr,
iii.
p. 695.

it is
41
is
said to
be the
"
principalis sedes regui,"

deatli,
dated at
Stii'liug,
On
Malcolm's
Fordun
tells
us that the
his brother
prelates
and nobles met at Scone and declared

to be king,
William
and that he was blessed by the Bishop

in the royal chair\
of St. Andrews,
and inaugurated
The
Out of
traces of the assemblies of the estates
and the meetings of

frequent.
the " curia regis "
now became much more
twenty-four such assemblies which are recorded, only one
was held
"
at Scone, but that
was the meeting
in
1209 of the
commune
consilium regni," at which various laws were

rights
passed,
teed.^
and the
and privileges of the church guaran-
In the coronation of Alexander the Second,

distinct intimation of the
we have
the
first
seven earls of Scotland
taking a part in the ceremony, for

that on the day after the death of
we are told by Fordun Wilham the Lion, the

Andrews, took his son
Earls of Fife, Stratherne, AthoU, Angus, Menteth, Buchan,
and Lothian, with the Bishop of
St.
Alexander, a youth of sixteen and a half years old, to Scone,
and there solemnly inaugurated him as king
Alexander hold;^
702.
ing high festival at Scone on that and the succeeding day
Porro, post Malcolmi regis obitum,
regem
benedicitui-, atque regali cathedra
conveneriuit apud
Sconam
jirelati Scocise,
sublimatur.
Fordun a Hearne,
iii.
cunctique
proceres,
ejusdem
germani
-
Willelmi luandaute prsecepto, tunc regni

custodes,
erigunt.
Act. Pari. Scot. p. 59.
quem ibidem unanimes

Igitui- in vigilia natalis
in
regem
^
Domini,
In crastino quoque post regis obitum
die
viz.
xv.
post regis
mortem,
leo
idem
summo
mane,
episcopo
Glasgrvensi
Willelmus,
amicus
Dei,
justiciar,
Waltero, electo de Rossa Roberto, Regina,
princeps pacis, a Ricardo episcopo Sancti

Andrese, et
aliis officio
Willelmo de Boscho cancellario, plerisque

familiaribus
coadjuvantibus, in
cum
corpore regis defuncti re-
42

fifteen assemblies
but of
recorded to have been held in his
reign only one
met
at Scone.^
Fordmi's graphic account of the coronation of Alexander

the Third has already been given.
fifteen assemblies in his reign,
There are notices of
but only two were held at
Scone
first
both, however, of great national importance.

in
The
was the meeting of the Estates
1283
for the settle-
ment of the succession to the throne in favour of the Maiden of Norway; and the other held in 1285, when "the States
gadryd was.""
John
tion in
Baliol held an assembly at Scone after his corona-
1292,^ which
is
is
the
first
to
which the name of
Parliament
distinctly given,
and
in
1296 the coronation-
stone was removed to Westminster.
Such
to
is
a rapid sketch of the part which Scone appears

it
have played, and the position which
occupied, in the
constitutional history of Scotland, for at least six out of the
eight centuries during which, according to Blind Harry, the

fatal stone
was preserved there
prior to
its
removal to Eng-
land in 1296.
raanentibus,
Atholia,
de
Fife,
cle
Stratheriie,
de
de
contrudicente.
Kex Alexander apud Scousexta,

et
de Angusia,
de
Menteth,
am
eo die, feria scilicet

sequenti,
sab-
Buclian, de
Laudonia comites, una cum

et semis
bato
festo scilicet
et
Sancti Ni-
ei)iscopo Sancti Andreas Willelrao, filium
cholai,
necnon
imminenti Dominica,
tenuit honorifice sicut
iii.
regis
Alexandrum, XVI.
adolescentem,
assumpserunt,
annorum et secum
festivitatem
decuit.
,
suam
,
Ford, a Heanie, vol.

,
739.
usque ad Sconam adduceutes, sublinuus et gloriosius, tam honorifice quam padflee,
,,
^,
^^^.,
quam
eo u-sque quisquam, et secun-
'"
^
^<:.
P"'"'^-
^'f-
P-
^'
'
^yntoun,
dum Deum et homines in regem sublimatus

est,
^'^>'0"- vii. c. x.
''
omnibus congiatulantibu-s
et
iieniini'
Art. Par!. -Sv/. p. 89.
THE CORONATION STONE,
43
The corouation stone

a few small
is
described by Professor
Ramsay
with
" of a dull reddisli or purplish sandstone, as consisting
imbedded pebbles. One of which is of quartz and two others of a dark material, which may be Lydian stone. The rock is calcareous, and is of the kind that masons would
caU freestone."^
3^^^ 5t<J^
is
formed of old red sandAccount " For Statistical the in described It is thus stone. burn the outAnnaty the of course the along miles several crop has been laid bare by the stream, and exhibits wêll-
The country around Scone
also
^4^
l^
"h^
c^yk,
/,,j^,^^^^^^.
^
V^
>^^
'
defined sections of the
deposit.
It
is
one of the lower
7)^'
members
of the old red sandstone formation,
which abounds
variety in the
in this part of the country.
There
is
little
aspect or structure of the rock, except that here and there
a bed of lighter or darker colour, more or less abounding

in
comminuted
scales
of mica, occasions slight apparent
variations."^
The conclusion
have therefore come to
is,
that there
^ (/c^^^
/ ^s/ t^y^^
was no connection between the stone at Scone and the Lia Fail at Tara, and that the legends of their wanderings, like
those of the tribes with
7Ui>-*aj>^.M4^ i^^
.^^^y-- -^/^-^^
whom
they are associated, are no-
Û^^.-^^tc/^*^*^
f^.WW'-
'
thing but
It
myth and
fable.
t ribes
>ûJ^v^_j,
to in augurate^ their
J.
jr
was the custom ofCeltic

st'one
kings upon a sacred

archy!
^
supposed to symbolise the mon-
fTVf^
The
Irish
kin^'were inaugurated on the Lia Fail,

tinguished geologist Mr. Archibald Geikie, has, at my request, kindly examined the
stone,
C ^^ JUi4/ ^>^
^ ^^*^'^"'*^
Dean
Stanley's J/eu>yvV6Z5 of West-
.ninster Ahhey, p. 499,
AppendLx.
and
his accoimt of
it
will he
found
Stat.
Ac,
vol. X. p. 1044.
The
dis-
in the Appendix, P- 50.^^^
Gj.U2^
U^ :)U-iA^K^^ Ô/KatvejZLt'
'^^'^^^-^'^
O^VKiÂnt^^^
44

princi-
which never was anywhere but at Tara, the " sedes

palis" of Ireland
;
and the kings
in Scotland, first of the
Pictish monarchy,
and afterwards of the Scottish king-
it, were inaugurated on this stone, which never was anywhere but at Scone, the " sedes prin-
doms which succeeded
cipalis" both of the Pictish
and of the Scottish kingdoms.
APPENDIX.
2E1
,,.^ji>.-jUv
I
''-;,,
W
"IS
I.
DESCRIPTION OF THE CORONATION OF
ALEXANDER
As LEFT BY FORDUN
in Italics.
III.
IN 1447.
IN 1385.
As ALTERED BY BoWER
p-nnted in Italics.
The passages mnitted by Botner are jrn'nted
The passages interpolated by Bower are
Alexander,
dri filins,
prsDdicti
regis
Alexan-
FiLius istius regis Alexandri, Alexander nomine, eidem in regno successit. De quo potest verifcari quod scriptum est : mortuus est 2âter illius, et quasi non est mortuus; similem enim sibi In vita sua vidit, et reliquit post se.
hetatus
est
in
illo, et
in obitu sua, non
baronum norum octo,
ciim mnltitudine comitum, et militum, puer etatis anveiiit
est
contristatus, nee confusus est

:
coram
inimicis
reliquit
enim
et
defensorem
ad
Scoiiam die
domus contra
inimicos,
amicis red-
Martis proximo sequenti, scilicet iii Idns Jiilii. Interfuerant itaque venerabiles patres, David de Bernham episcopus Sancti Andres, et Galfridus
episcopiLS Dunkeldensis, vir tarn clero quam popiilo in multis graciosus, in
Hie post Hcec Hi. mortem pii patvis, cum mnltitudine prcesidum, prcelatorum Comitum, Barodentem gratiam.
num et militum, puer Alexander, setatis

annorum octo constip)atus, Sconam die Martis proximo
tertio sciz.
venit
ad
sequenti,
temporalibus et spiritualibus sollicitus, qui omnibus tarn magnatilus quam pauperihus amalilem, mahfactoribus
vero se terribilem exhibehat.
Idus
ceteros
Julii.
Interfuerunt
autem iyiter
David de Bernliame
sospes,
;
episcopus Sancti Andrese, et Galfridus episcopus Dunkeldensis adhuc

vir
Tnterfuit
etiam ibidem Abbas ejusdem monasterii Et ecce statim postquam Sconeiisis.

congregati fuerant, orta est inter magnates discensio. Quidam enim illorum
illo
tam
clero
quam populo
gratiosus
in temporalibus et spiritualibus soliciEt ecce, statim posttus satis erat. quam congregati fuerant, orta est dissentio inter magnates.
die non regem sed militem facere voluerunt, dicentes, quia dies Egipet hoc, non propter diem ciacus est Egipciacum, dictum est, sed quia Dorainus Alanus Dorwart, tocius tunc
;
Quidam enim
illorum, illo die, non regem, sed militem, facere voluerunt, dicentes, quia
dies Egyptiacus est
ter
et hoc non propdiem iEgj'ptiacum dictum est, sed Durward regni Alanus quia Dominus justiciarius, et tanquam flos militice
;
Scocise j usticiarius, ipsum eo die cingere voluit gladio militari.
48
APPENDIX.
reputatus,
regem ipso die
cuiîebat in-
sigiure gladio militari.

Jiinc
incle
Cum
ic/itur
et
magna
Jieret
altercatio,
magnatum quasi ad
Quihus supponentihus, vir providiis in
consilio et perspicuus
partes tunudttwsa
se/)a?-a<2'o,virprovidusconsLlio,strenuiis
terus
Dominus WalComyn, Comes de Menteth,
Walterus Comyn, fortis satis animo, jmrtes ad concordiam prudenter

miles
fiectere
respondit, dicens, se vidisse regein
tunc sategit, dicens se habere
debere voceni in consilio, quia ipse comes
de Menteth experientia plura prcevide-
consecratum non tamen militem, sed

et
vidisse
ssepius
audisse
reges
;
consecratos,
bat : unde libera voce protestatus est se regem consecratum, nondum tamen militem sed et ssepiiis audisse,
;
qui non fuerunt niilites
acp>-o certo cognovisse reges consecratos,
qui
dito,
nunquam
quod
et
ceremonialiter
:
ordine
militari insignirentur
eo ipso
hoc tamen ad-
quod rex coronatus

scep)-
aureis militaribus decoratur, sicut
trum
corona significare attestantur;
similitudinem faciens ad illud Decretorum, viz. " qitod et filius regis rex
appeUari
deheat,
quamvis regnum non
habeat^' a fortiori rex miles debeat cen-
Et addidit inquiens, quod regie sine

rege procul dubio quasi na^^s est in
seri.
quod
sicut navis inter fluctus
Et addidit exemplijicare, dicens marinos
mediis maris fluctibus sine remige, sen

rectore.
quatitur sine remige, sic
regnum
.
des-
Diligebat
et
regem
pice memorice
defunctum, sed
patrcm.
enim semper Alexandrum jam hunc eciam propter
tituitur sine rectore vel rege
Dilige-
bat supra
modum regem
;
defunctum
raleni
patrem jam filium etiam non solum

et
jjropter patrem, sed
propter natudilec-
ad proprium dominum
Ideo,
quamcicius potuit ipsum puerum in regem sublimare proposuit, quia differs paratis semper nocet.
Idioque
tionem.
quantocitius
potuit,
puerimi in regem sublimare proposuit,

attendens pericxdum illud poeticum ;
Et nocet et nocuit semperdififere paratis. Et Qui non est hodie, eras oninus aptus erit. Caute igitur studuit partes ad xmum reducere, ne, si non lites celerius sopirentur, ira cresceret in odium, et trabetn
traheret de festuca,
et
animas faceret
h omicidas, et proceres paricidas.
Tan -
dem ad hoc utramqve partem
fexit, nt
APPENDIX.
rex ab episcopo
officium
49
Sancti
in
Andrea;, qui
impleret,
inunctionis
regis
ipsum
etiam
militem
consig-
naret; ad
modum
Willelmi Rufi regis
Anglice, militaribus insigniti a Lanfranco Cantuariai archiepiscopo, et ah eodem coronati : pro quo ride supra,
lib. vii.
cap. xxxi. et infra cap.
iv.
Quod
Cujus comilio dicti Ejnscopi, et Abbas, necnon et magnates, omnis clerus el populus, una voce, ipsum in regem
erigere
factum est. David namque episcopo de S. Andrea iîsum coram magnatihus

et
terrce balth eo militari prwcingen te, etjura
consensicm
prcehiienint et
as-
ac vota, quce
ad regem
benigne
spectant, prius
ipjso
sensum.
Latine, postea Gallice
exponente,
concedeas et acceptans a dicto episcopo, benedictionem et
rex omnia
Et factum est, quocl cum hoc idem Comes Waltenis Coonyn audisset, et
omnis
clerus,
ordinationem libens subiit et admisit. Siciit ab antiquitate usque ad ilia tempora mos regno inolevit, post solemnitatern
regice
adjungentes
eis
Comites,
coronationis, iJi'aesides
scilicet
Domimim Malcolmum Comitem
cum
comitibus
de Fyff et Dmninmn Malisium Comitem de Stratheme et ceteros phires

nobiles,
Alexandrum regem mox futuregem ad crucem, in cemeterio ex parte orientali ecclesias stantem, adduxerunt quem ibidem in cathedi-a regaU iôsitum, pannis sericis auro textis omata, reverenter sedere fecencnt
;
ru7n ad crucem, in cimiterio ex parte

oriental! ecclesise stantem,adduxerunt,
quern ibidem in regali cathedra jjositiun, pannLs sericis auro textis omata, episcopus Sancti Andreas et ceteri coadjuvantes in regem, ut decuit, consecranmt ipso quoque rege,
;
super cathedram regalem, scilicet, lapidem, sedente, sub cujus pedibus comites ceterique nobiles sua vestistemebant.
Ipso vero rege super banc cathedram
regalem
habente
lapideam
in capite,
regia
sedente,
et
c&ronam
solenniter
sceptrum manu,
menta coram lapide curvatis genibus Qui lapis in eodem monaster io r ever enter ob regum Alhanice consecracionem servatur. Nee usjnam aliquis regum in Scocia regnare solebat, nisi super eundem lapidem regium in
accipiendum
Scona, Sede
purpuraque
induto,
prmsedente, sub cujus pedibus comites ceterique nobiles sedilia sua, pro ser-
mone audiendo,
collocantes:
nomen prius
vero
sederet
viz.
in
supenori
Al-
hanice constituta regibus ab antiquis.
Et
ecce, peractis singidis,
quidam Sco-
Et ecce subito quidam Scotus rem
50
APPENDIX.
rabilis canitiei. senex,
et
tus montanus ante tlu-ouum subito
quamvis
Silvester
genuflectens materna lingua regeni inclinato
montanus, hoiuste
indutus,
et
tanien, pro
modulo
cu-
capite salutavit
liiis
Scoticis
suo,
pallio
satis
scarletico
verbis
oj)ertus,
morose
genu
iiectens,
materna lingua regem, inclinato

salutavit
capite,
satis
liujusmodi
verbis
curialiter, dicens;
" Benacli
cle
Re Alban Alexander mac
Alexander mac Vleyhame mac Hemi mac David" et sic pronunciando regum Scotorum genealogiam usque in finem
legehat.
Benach de Ee Albane Alexander mac Alexander mac Willam mac Henri mac David :" et sic, pronimciando regum Scotorum genealogiam, usque in
"
iineni perordbat.
11.
LETTER
from Mr. Geikie.

28 Jermyn Street, London, S.W. 2Zd A2}ril 1869.
'
'^^^^
'
I have again looked at the Coronation Stone. not throw any certnin \\y)\t on its own history. So far as one can judge from the external surface, this block of sandstone may have been taken from almost any of 'the red sandstone districts of It cannot have come from lona, I think, unless western or eastern Scotland.
Dear Sir
This afternoon
As
I suspected, it really does
we
suppose that
it
supposition which
had previously been carried thither from the mainland its size and ordinary commonialace appearance seem
to
Nor does its character resemble that of the red sandstones render unlikely. of the north-west Highlands, while it is equally unlike the usual red sandThere are san ds tones like i t stones of the south and south-east of Scotland. in the west of Argyleshire and similar rocks abound in the southern half of "Terthshii-e, in Forfarshire, and southward in the great Lowland valley. I do not see any evidence in the stone itself why it may not have been taken indeed, it perfectly resembles some of the from the neighbourhood of Scon e
,
;
sandstones of that
district.
a geologist I would say that the stone is almost certainly of Scottish that it has been quarried out of one of the sandstone districts between the coast of Argyle and the mouths of the Tay and Forth, but that there is no
As
origin
clue in the stone itself to fix precisely
its
original source.
This
is all I
can send you on the subject.
Yours
veiy truly,
Arch. Geikie.
>W^
^'^^ Jv*4e~i
i^-J
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
CYMRIC SCOTLAND. THE FOUR ANCIENT BOOKS OF WALES, contaiuiug the Cyiiaic Poems,
attributed to
tlie
Bards of the Sixth Ceiiturv.
2 Vols., Price 36s.
II.
ANCIENT GAELIC POETRY.

THE DEAN OF LISMORE'S BOOK.
Dean
Selection of Axcient Gaelic

[Intro-
PoETuy, from a Manuscript collection made by Sir James M'Gregor,

of Lismore in the beginning of the SLxteenth Century.
1 A''ol.
duction AND Additional Note.s.]
8vo, Price 123.
III.
ANCIENT CHRONICLES. CHRONICLES OF THE PICTS AND SCOTS, AND OTHER EARLY MEMORIALS OF SCOTTISH HISTORY. Published by the Authority
of the Lords Commissioners of
Her Majesty's Treasury, under the

In
direc-
tion of the
Lord Clerk-Register of Scotland.
1 Vol. 8vo, Price 10s.

The Legendary Stone of Scottish Coronations

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The Legendary Stone of Scottish Coronations

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I

THE COEONATION STONE

Clje Coronation g>tone

EDMONSTON & DOUGLAS

now published with Notes and

Chair, with the stone under the seat, as

Moot Hill, with the Church The river Tay.

The Coronation Chair

from the MS. of Fordun, con-

tained in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

of the Scoticronicon, as altered, interpolated,

and continued by Bower,

Moot Hill, with the Church The River Tay.

intimately connected with the fabu-

lous history of Scotland.

in fact, closely interwoven with that spurious hisfirst

emerging in the controversy with England

regarding the independence of Scotland, was ^vrought into

a consistent narrative by Fordun, and finally elaborated by

Hector Boece into that formidable

the sceptre over the Scottish race from "the

Marble Chair" in Dunstafihage.

around the true history of Scotland by

this fictitious narrative

portraits adorn the walls of the gallery in Holyrood,

and whose speeches are given

wearisome length in the

But the legend of the Stone

or Fatal Chair, has taken such hold of the Scottish mind,

place in the received

THE CORONATION STONE.

stands, in all its

imj)robability, a solitary waif

from the sea of myth

with which modern criticism has hardly ventured

and which modern scepticism has not cared

connected with the fortunes of the Scottish race, that

generations at Dunstaffnage, and

was transferred from Argyllshire

the Scots are said to have conquered

the Pictish nation.

But the history with which

this legend is connected

having now been rejected as unquestionably spurious,

what extent any part

" In the church

Scone) was preserved

the palladium of the Scottish monarchy

the stone, which

transported into Spain, where

by Gethalus, contemporary with Moses.

continued there as the Coronation Chair

who, to secure his empire, removed

every Scottish monarch was

the year 1296,

mortification of North Britain, translated

THE CORONATION STONK.

according to ancient prophecy,

latter part of this

It is true that such a stone

was preserved at Scone

true that Scottish monarchs were crowned