Coronation Chair

The Coronation Chair

The Coronation Chair is a seven hundred year-old chair built to house the Stone of Destiny.

History

King Edward I commissioned the chair in 1296 after he seized the Stone from the Scots. ("Rock of Ages")

When he visited Westminster Abbey in May 1996, King Arthur Pendragon would sit upon the Coronation Chair when trying to figure out the first clue in the Excalibur Poem. [1] That November, Arthur would later hide behind the chair before knocking out the Abbey's security guards in order to talk to the Spirit of Destiny. ("Pendragon", "Rock of Ages")

Real World Background

Built by Walter of Durham, the Coronation Chair is the oldest piece of English furniture made by a known artist. It originally was gilded and had colored glass, but much of these ornamentations have been lost over the centuries, including a painting on the chair's back of either Edward the Confessor or Edward I with the monarch's feet resting on a lion. The Stone of Scone itself was originally enclosed in the front by wooden decoration. [2]

Henry IV was the first English monarch known to be crowned on the Coronation Chair in 1399. Monarchs would sit atop the Stone as ancient Scottish Kings did until a wooden seat was added for James II in 1685. [3]

The Coronation resides in Westminster Abbey, except when it was moved to the Palace of Westminster for Oliver Cromwell's installation as Lord Protector in 1653 and in World War II, where the chair was moved to Gloucester Cathedral to protect it. [4][5]

A total of thirty-nine coronations have used the chair, most recently with Charles III's coronation in 2023.

See Also

• Coronation Chair at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia