King Edward’s Spoliations in Scotland in A.D. 1296—the Coronation Stone-Original and Unpublished Evidence

THE first northern campaign of King Edward, in which he reduced John Balliol.King of Scotland, to submission, is marked by two circumstances, both of which, though but of the underwood of history, are of singular interest to both nations.,These are, first, the seizure of the royal treasures in the castle of Edinburgh ; and secondly, the removal to Westminster, from the Abbey of Scone, near Perth, of the chair in which the Kings of Scotland had been accustomed to sit when crowned, and the " fatal" or sacred stone which was inclosed within it.The historical evidence which we now possess on this campaign is not of that minute and particular kind which the antiquarian mind requires : and concerning the two incidents above named, little is authentically told.Not but that in the main the historians have reported the facts truly, as far as they go.What I propose is a little to extend the information they have given us : and I rely upon the Institute not forgetting that as antiquaries or archaeologists we are solicitous about mere facts and dates, content to leave the nobler province to the historian and philosopher.When the King of England had formed the resolution to reduce by force of arms the realm of Scotland to the submission to which he had already brought the Welsh princes, his policy being that the whole population of the isle of Britain should be under one sovereignty, he moved rapidly in the winter through Yorkshire and Northumberland to the town of Berwick.It is unnecessary that I should trouble the Institute with the dates of these movements.About the 28th of March, he was before Berwick.This was in 1296, the twenty-fourth year of his reign.Berwick soon

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Coronation · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Medieval Literature and History · Scottish History and National Identity