The Stone

 The latest in my Nigel Tranter project isn't really a historical novel, but it has a historical subject. The Stone refers to the Stone of Destiny, Stone of Scone or the Coronation Stone, which used to be under the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey and now resides in a museum in Perth.

The stone in Perth is an oblong block of red sandstone that was used in the coronation of Scottish monarchs until the 13th century, when it was seized by Edward I during the First War of Scottish Independence and taken to England. Thereafter, it was used in the coronation of English and later British monarchs.

Or was it? The alternative story is that the monks at Scone, knowing that Edward was coming for it, hid the real stone and substituted this lump of sandstone. They knew that if they simply hid the stone, Edward would be none too gentle in extracting it. There is some evidence that Edward knew he was being duped, as searchers returned later to hunt for the hidden version.

This is the premise of Tranter's entirely fictional story. He has a modern-day relative of the landowners, whose land the real stone was hidden on, returning to the scene when he discovers that Oxford University archaeologists are coming to dig it up. Obviously, no self-respecting Scot could allow that to happen, so he enlists the help of a group of Glasgow nationalists and the local farmer and his daughter. They work out the real site and uplift it. The story tells how they do that and the efforts of the police and others to stop them. I won't spoil the story's details, but it's an entertaining read.

Tranter wrote this book in 1953, no doubt inspired by the audacious act on Christmas Day 1950, when a group of four Scottish students (Ian Hamilton, Gavin Vernon, Kay Matheson, and Alan Stuart) removed the stone from Westminster Abbey. However, if you go back to his historical novels of the period, it is clear that he believed that this was not the real stone. 

There are various theories about the stone's history, and I recommend an episode of the Gone Medieval podcast featuring an interview with Professor Dauvit Broun on the subject. He makes the valid point that it doesn't really matter if it is the real one. After all, there are no documented sources until 1249 for the coronation of Alexander III. What matters is the idea of the stone.

Personally, I find it hard to believe that such an essential part of the coronation process would use a roughly hewn piece of sandstone. I prefer the idea that it would have been a distinctive piece of engraved stone. However, as they say, the jury is out.