Editing Stone of Scone (section)

==Westminster Abbey==
[[File:Coronation Chair with Stone of Scone, Westminster Abbey (3611549960).jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|The Stone of Scone in the [[Coronation Chair]] at [[Westminster Abbey]] (photo {{Circa|1875|1885}}). In 1914, the stone was broken in half by a [[Suffragette bombing and arson campaign|suffragette bombing.]]]]
In 1296, during the [[First Scottish War of Independence]], [[Edward I]] of England took the stone as spoils of war and removed it to [[Westminster Abbey]], where it was fitted into a wooden chair – known as the [[Coronation Chair]] or King Edward's Chair – on which most subsequent English and then British sovereigns have been crowned. Edward I sought to claim the status of the "Lord Paramount" of Scotland, with the right to oversee its King.<ref>Arundell, Brian, of Wardour Howard. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wfCHMBR7JkAC&q=Gaels&pg=PA3 ''Judah Scepter: A Historical and Religious Perspective''], iUnivers (2010) p. 3</ref>

Some doubt exists over the stone captured by Edward I. The [[Westminster Stone theory]] posits that the [[monk]]s at [[Scone Palace]] hid the real stone in the [[River Tay]], or buried it on [[Dunsinane Hill]], and that the English troops were tricked into taking a substitute. Some proponents of this theory claim that historic descriptions of the stone do not match the present stone.<ref name="pillow">{{Cite web |date=7 January 2018 |title=Salmond: 'Stone of Destiny is fake' |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/salmond-stone-of-destiny-is-fake-1-1433959 |access-date=24 February 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812052502/https://www.scotsman.com/news/salmond-stone-of-destiny-is-fake-1-1433959 |archive-date=12 August 2014}}</ref>

In the 1328 [[Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton|Treaty of Northampton]] between the [[Kingdom of Scotland]] and the [[Kingdom of England]], England agreed to return the captured stone to Scotland; rioting crowds prevented it from being removed from Westminster Abbey.<ref>Brown, Christopher "Bannockburn 1314"</ref> The stone remained in England for another six centuries. When [[James VI of Scotland]] assumed the English throne as [[James I of England]], he was [[coronation of James I and Anne|crowned at Westminster Abbey on the stone]].<ref>Horatio Brown, ''Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603–1607'', vol. 10 (London, 1900), pp. 75–76 no. 105: [[John Speed]], ''The History of Great Britaine'' (London, 1614), p. 885.</ref> For the next century, the [[House of Stuart|Stuart]] kings and queens of Scotland once again sat on the stone – but at their coronation as kings and queens of, and in, England.

===1914 suffragette bombing===
On 11 June 1914, as part of the [[suffragette bombing and arson campaign]] of 1912–1914, [[suffragette]]s of the [[Women's Social and Political Union]] planted a bomb loaded with metal bolts and nuts to act as shrapnel next to the Coronation Chair and Stone;<ref name="BL">{{Cite web |title=Suffragettes, violence and militancy |url=https://www.bl.uk/votes-for-women/articles/suffragettes-violence-and-militancy |access-date=2021-10-02 |website=The British Library |archive-date=10 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210910203912/https://www.bl.uk/votes-for-women/articles/suffragettes-violence-and-militancy |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Webb">{{Cite book |last=Webb |first=Simon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w2RtBQAAQBAJ |title=The Suffragette Bombers: Britain's Forgotten Terrorists |publisher=Pen and Sword |year=2014 |isbn=978-1783400645 |page=148 |language=en}}</ref> no serious injuries were reported in the aftermath of the subsequent explosion despite the building having been busy with 80–100 visitors,<ref name="Walker">{{Cite journal |last=Walker |first=Rebecca |year=2020 |title=Deeds, Not Words: The Suffragettes and Early Terrorism in the City of London |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/03058034.2019.1687222 |journal=The London Journal |volume=45 |issue=1 |page=59 |doi=10.1080/03058034.2019.1687222 |issn=0305-8034 |s2cid=212994082}}</ref><ref name="Jones">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IjSwDQAAQBAJ |title=London: Bombed Blitzed and Blown Up: The British Capital Under Attack Since 1867 |publisher=Frontline Books |year=2016 |isbn=978-1473879010 |page=65 |language=en}}</ref> but the deflagration blew off a corner of the Coronation Chair<ref name="BL" /><ref name="Webb" /> and broke the Stone in half – although this was not discovered until 1950, when four Scottish nationalists [[1950 removal of the Stone of Scone|broke into the church to steal the stone]] and return it to Scotland.<ref name="Webb" /> Two days after the Westminster Abbey bombing, a second suffragette bomb was discovered before it could explode in [[St Paul's Cathedral]].<ref name="BL" />

===Early 20th century===
The possibility that the Coronation Chair could be damaged or destroyed by German air raids during the [[Second World War]] resulted in it being moved to [[Gloucester Cathedral]] for the duration of the war. Concerns about the propaganda implications of the Stone falling into German hands led to it being hidden behind ancient lead coffins in a burial vault under Abbot Islip's Chapel, situated off the north [[ambulatory]] of the abbey.<ref name="Shenton">{{Cite book |last=Shenton |first=Caroline |title=National Treasures: Saving the Nation's Art in World War II |publisher=John Murray |year=2021 |isbn=978-1529387438 |location=London |pages=203–204 |type=Hardback}}</ref> Other than the Dean, [[Paul de Labilliere]] and the [[Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey]], [[Charles Reed Peers|Charles Peers]], only a few other people knew of its hiding place. Worried that the secret could be lost if all of them were killed during the war, Peers drew up three maps showing its location. Two were sent in sealed envelopes to Canada, one to the Canadian Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King|William King]], who deposited it in the Bank of Canada's vault in Ottawa. The other went to the [[Lieutenant Governor of Ontario]], who stored his envelope in the Bank of Montreal in Toronto. Once he had received word that the envelopes had been received, Peers destroyed the third map, which he had been keeping at his bank.<ref name="Shenton" />

Peers later received a suggestion via the Office of Works that the Stone should be sent to Scotland for safekeeping:
<blockquote>I trust the Office of Works will not lend itself to this attempt by the Scotch to get hold of the Stone by a side wind. You cannot be so simple as not to know that this acquisitive nation have ever since the time of Edward I been attempting by fair means or foul, to get possession of the Stone, and during my time at Westminster we have received warnings from the Police that Scottish emissaries were loose in London, intending to steal the Stone and we had better lock up the Confessor's Chapel, where it is normally kept.<ref name="Shenton" /></blockquote>