The history of the so-called (by some) Stone of Destiny is very curious, not to say bizarre, surreal. It is an unattractive boulder of yellowish sandstone weighing about 150 kilos, which would not have anything special if it were not for the dispute that it provokes between the Scots, its true owners, and the English, who appropriated it at a bad time.
There are so many versions about the disputed origin of the stone that none has enough credibility to be taken seriously. That if he traveled from Egypt with the daughter of a pharaoh to Spain, where he made a stopover, before arriving in Ireland and finally finding his new, although not definitive, home in Scotland, around the fifth century. Another version has it as a pillow of the Biblical Jacob, who, lying on it, saw how angels went up and down a ladder that ascended to heaven.
In reality – modern science has verified it – it is nothing more than a large piece of local stone, that is, from the village of Scone, in Scotland, and hence its other name, Scone Stone. Of course, it may have been used by the Picts in the coronation ceremonies of their kings, and hence the stories of its origin self-interestedly invented to give greater ancestry to the new dynasty.
From the Picts the stone passed to be used with the same function by the Scottish kings, until, in 1296, it was taken to London as war booty by Edward I of England. What Eduardo intended with this was to symbolize the end of Scottish identity. at first it was
guarded by the monks of Westminster Abbey. Later, it was placed under the wooden throne known as Saint Edward’s chair, that of successive British monarchs up to the present day, that is, until the recent coronation of Charles III. But it also has its former that could pose its regal buttocks on it.
On Christmas Day 1950, four Scottish university students who had hidden in Westminster Abbey managed to remove the stone from the throne, drag it on their coats to a car that was waiting for them at the door and return it to Scotland without anyone stopping them. Although it is known that it was hidden in various Scottish places, its whereabouts were not known until, after a year, the authorities were notified that it had been deposited in the ruins of Arbroath Abbey. None of the students were prosecuted for the theft.
The feat of the students on Christmas Day in 1950 awakened in many Scots a sudden patriotism that, over time, would develop into the current nationalist movement. But it goes without saying that the stone was returned to its place in Westminster Abbey, and there it was for the coronation of Elizabeth I in 1953.
Even so, Scotland remained a stronghold of the Labor party, until Margaret Thatcher gave them reason to want to secede from the United Kingdom. His successor, John Major, aware of the growing unrest among his neighbors to the north, surprised locals and strangers by announcing, in 1996, that the stone would be returned to Scotland, although, yes, it would continue to be the property of the Crown and placed again, temporarily, on the throne of Edward in future coronations of British monarchs, as was the case with that of Carlos III, to the greater ridicule of fervent Scottish patriots.
However, given the sacramental character that is given to the British monarchs, as has also been seen in the coronation of Carlos III, it would be said that the English are the ones who give more magical meaning to the stone than the Scots themselves, some of them which, after John Major’s announcement, began to cross out the stone from “auld cludgie cover”, which could be translated as an old toilet seat. Moreover, there were not a few Scotsmen convinced of the inauthenticity of the stone, since they affirmed that the stone that Edward I took to London was not, far from it, the original, nor was it the one that was returned to Westminster in 1951. .
Conclusion: a stone is a stone… and the buttocks are buttocks.
