Britain’s 700-year-old Coronation Chair

St Edward’s Chair, the oldest dated piece of English furniture made by a known artist, has been used for the coronation of every monarch since the 14th century

 
HISTORY

1296: King Edward I invades Scotland and seizes Stone of Scone – sandstone seat used for centuries in coronations of Scottish monarchs at Scone Abbey

Edward commissions Walter of Durham to build chair incorporating stone as its seat

1301: Oak chair, covered in decorative gold leaf and glass mosaics, placed in shrine of St Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey

1308: Chair believed first used in coronation of Edward II (above)

1324: Stone secured to abbey floor by iron rings

1500s-1800s: Abbey visitors carve graffiti and prise away souvenirs

1727: Plinth added for coronation of George II

1887: Chair painted brown for Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Gold leaf badly damaged when paint is removed

1914: One pinnacle blown off, and stone cracked, in Suffragette bomb attack

1939-45: Chair stored in Gloucester Cathedral for duration of World War II

1950: Scottish Nationalists remove stone, damaging it and chair

1951: Stone recovered. It returns to Westminster Abbey for 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

1996: British government returns Stone of Scone to Scotland. It resides at Edinburgh Castle, and will return to London only for coronations

2010-12: Extensive conservation of chair

2022-23: Further conservation ahead of coronation of King Charles III


CHANGES OVER TIME

Some intricate gold leaf decoration survives

Ancient graffiti

Stone of Scone, also known as Stone of Destiny

Seat-board: Added 1600s

Damaged pinnacle

Front quatrefoil: Replaced in 2012

Stone of Scone: Signs of damage caused over centuries

Plinth: Features four gilt lions
 
Replica at Scone Abbey shows how stone may have looked before 1296


Sources: Westminster Abbey, Edinburgh Castle, The Past, BBC 
Pictures: Dean and Chapter of Westminster, Getty Images, Newscom 
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