![]() ![]() ![]() Whatever the truth, we know that the stone was taken to Scone Abbey in Perthshire after Kenneth I – who united the Scots and Pictish kingdoms and is known as the first King of Scotland – moved his capital from Western Scotland to Scone in around 840 CE. The main evidence for it is in the Scottish Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 CE, signed by the Scottish nobles in an appeal to the Pope to recognise Scottish independence, which mentions an "honour" passing through the Mediterranean Sea and coming from Israel. However, it's uncertain just how much of the story is true. "In 496 CE, a stone was in the possession of King Fergus Mór mac Eirc who ruled Dalriada, a kingdom that spanned the Irish Sea and incorporated parts of Western Scotland."Īccording to Hume, the story goes that Fergus took the Lia Fail stone from Ireland to Scotland when he moved his royal seat to Dunnadd in Argyll in 498 CE. "There are a number of Lia Fail in ancient Irish history," said Dr David Hume, an Ulster Scots historian, journalist and broadcaster. There it was placed on the sacred Hill of Tara near Skryne in County Meath and named the Lia Fail, or "speaking stone", because it was said to groan aloud if the claimant was of royal blood but remained silent if he was a pretender. From here, one of Jacob's sons is said to have taken it to Egypt, from where it travelled to Spain and later to Ireland when the Spanish king's son, Simon Brech, invaded the island in 700 BCE. It's probably the oldest piece of furniture still in use in England."Īccording to legend, it was the same stone used by the biblical figure Jacob (the father of the Israelites) as a pillow in Bethel when he dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven. ![]() "What you see is an old brown wooden chair, but there are accounts of how it was painted with images of kings, foliage and birds, gilded and fitted with precious stones. "You can find it behind glass in St George's Chapel, just near the Great West Doors of the Abbey beside a portrait of Richard II seated there," said Sue King, a Blue Badge tourist guide for London and the Abbey. Anyone who watched the late Queen Elizabeth II's funeral will have seen its elegant gothic exterior and magnificent vaulted ceilings, while visitors will have walked by the graves and memorials of illustrious artists and writers, including Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Shakespeare and the Bronte sisters.Īnd this year, in the run up to the Coronation of Britain's latest king, Charles III, visitors are paying particular attention to the Coronation Chair, the seat on which English monarchs have been crowned since 1308. Built by Edward the Confessor in 1040, it has been the site of royal coronations since 1066. Westminster Abbey is one of the most famous religious buildings in the world and one of London's key tourist sites. ![]()
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