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 coloured 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 artefacts, 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.

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

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword by The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Historiography of the Chair and the Stone
  • Prologue
  • Antiquarian interest, c'. 1560-1850
  • Scholarly study, 1850-2012
• 2 St Edward's Chair and the Stone of Scone in medieval history
  • Early accounts and images of the Chair
  • The status of the Chair
  • The Stone: a mountain of myths
• 3 From Scone to Westminster: starting with a stone
  • Geological and archaeological evidence
  • The Stone at Scone: its form and appearance
  • Relocation: from Scone Abbey to Westminster Abbey
  • The Stone reshaped
• 4 King Edward I commissions a chair, 1297
  • The bronze chair, its manufacture and rejection
  • The replacement timber chair
  • Where did St Edward's Chair stand?
  • The weight of the Chair
• 5 Design and construction of St Edward's Chair: A detailed study
  • The structural frame
  • The back and side panels
  • The front of the stone compartment
  • The seat: a conundrum
  • Additional embellishments
  • Sequence of assembly
  • The missing plinth: a suggested reconstruction
  • Summary and interpretation
• 6 The polychromy of the Coronation Chair: a detailed study by Marie Louise Sauerberg
  • Introduction
  • Preparatory layers
  • The gilded decoration
  • Glass-covered decoration
  • The Stone compartment
  • Multiple thrones and polychromies
• 7 The Stone seat
  • Housing the Stone: the evidence from the Coronation Chair
  • Housing the Stone: its own intrinsic evidence
  • Interventions with the Stone: establishing their sequence, purpose and date
  • The iron attachments
  • Logistics: moving the Chair around the Abbey
  • Authenticity of the Stone of Scone
• 8 The Coronation Chair from the later Middle Ages to the seventeenth century
  • Pre-Reformation crosses on the Chair
  • Undated modifcations to the Chair and Stone: early sixteenth century?
  • The Dissolution and its implications for the Chair
  • The impact of antiquarianism and tourism in the later sixteenth century
  • Installation of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, 1657
  • Coronations of Kings Charles II, 1661, and James II, 1685
• 9 A companion Chair for Queen Mary II, 1689
  • Documentation and previous study
  • Historic images of the Chair
  • Details of construction
  • Graffti and other mutilations
  • The chair: an assessment
• 10 Vicissitudes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
  • Refurbishment for King George II's coronation, 1727
  • Coronation of King George III, 1761
  • Coronation of King George IV, 1821
  • Coronation of King William IV, 1831
  • Coronation of Queen Victoria, 1838
  • An Irish plot to steal the Stone, 1884
  • The Chair overpainted, 1887
  • Graffiti and the abuse of the Chairs
  • Damage inflicted on the Stone
• 11 Ceremonies and incidents of the twentieth century involving the Coronation Chair
  • Coronation of King Edward VII, 1902
  • The Suffragettes' bomb, 1914
  • Parliament debates the future of the Stone, 1924
  • A plot to switch stones, 1929
  • Wartime protection, 1939-45
  • Attacking the Chair and stealing the Stone, 1950
  • The Stone recovered, 1951
  • The Government's dilemma over the future of the Stone
  • Preparations for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, 1953
  • After the coronation
  • Further attempts to steal the Stone, 1967 and 1974
  • The recent past
• 12 History ignored: The events of 1996
  • Historical status of the Stone: a summary
  • The 1951 watershed
  • Chair and Stone: the intrinsic nature of the artefact
  • Separation
  • The Stone displayed in Edinburgh Castle
• 13 Popular infuence of the Chair in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
  • Full-size replicas at home and abroad
  • Special-purpose models of the Chair
  • Small-scale models in timber
  • Tourist memorabilia inspired by the Chair
• 14 Conservation and the Chair: A physical history by Marie Louise Sauerberg
  • Introduction
  • Documented physical history
  • Surface coatings
  • Textiles and temporary decoration
  • Custodians and conservators: changing fashions and trends
  • Twenty-first-century treatment, 2010-12
  • Final words
• 15 One of the glories of Westminster Abbey: The Coronation Chair redisplayed, 2013 by Ptolemy Dean
• 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