The Regalia of England are the symbols of a monarchical authority that
has been transmitted by coronation ceremonies for upwards of ten
centuries. But the incorporation of England, Scotland, and Ireland, into
one united kingdom,--an event peculiar to the coronation of George IV,
to have recognised,--has connected the history of the Imperial Regalia
with some tales of legendary lore, the truth of which, if this
circumstance does not demonstrate, be assured, gentle reader, nothing
will. Irish records are said to add at least another thousand years of
substantial history to the honours of that solid regal seat, or
coronation chair, in which our monarchs are both anointed and
crowned[1]: while some of our own "honest chroniclers" assign to it a
still more marvellous antiquity.
Holinshed gives us the history of one Gathelus, a Greek, who brought
from Egypt into Spain the identical stone on which the patriarch Jacob
slept and "poured oil" at Luz. He was "the sonne of Cecrops, who builded
the citie of Athens;" but having married Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh,
he resided for some time in Egypt, from whence he was induced to remove
into the West by the judgments pronounced on that country by Moses. In
Spain, "having peace with his neighbors, he builded a citie called
Brigantia (Compostella)," where he "sat vpon his marble stone, gave
lawes, and ministred justice vnto his people, thereby to maintaine them
in wealth and quietnesse," And "Hereof it came to passe, that first in
Spaine, after in Ireland, and then in Scotland, the kings which ruled
over the Scotishmen received the crowne sittinge vpon that stone, vntill
the time of Robert the First, king of Scotland." In another part of his
"Historie of Scotland," Holinshed mentions king Simon Brech as having
transmitted this stone to Ireland, about 700 years before the birth of
Christ, and that "the first Fergus" brought it "out of Ireland into
Albion," B.C. 330. One important property of this stone should not be
unnoticed. It is said, by the writers from whom the foregoing
particulars are derived, to furnish a test of legitimate royal descent;
yielding an oracular sound when a prince of the true blood is placed
upon it, and remaining silent under a mere pretender to the throne. We
heard various joyful acclamations on the recent "royal day;" but
(perhaps from that very circumstance) could not distinguish the sound in
question.
Apart from these legends, the real history of the [Saxon: hag-fail], or
Fatal Stone[2], is curious; and has induced the learned Toland to call
it "the antientest respected monument in the world[3]." It is to be
traced, on the best authorities, into Ireland; whence it had been
brought into Scotland, and had become of great notoriety in Argyleshire,
some time before the reign of Kennith, or A.D. 834. This monarch found
it at Dunstaffnage, a royal castle, enclosed it in a wooden chair, and
removed it to the abbey of Scone, where for 450 years "all kingis of
Scotland war crownit" upon it; or "quhil y^e tyme of Robert Bruse. In
quhais tyme, besyde mony othir crueltis done be kyng EDWARD Lang
Schankis, the said chiar of merbyll wes taikin be Inglismen, and brocht
out of Scone to London, and put into Westmonistar, quhaer it remains to
our dayis[4]."
An ancient Irish prophecy, quoted by Mr. Taylor in his learned "Glory of
Regality[5]," assures us, that the possession of this stone is essential
to the preservation of regal power. It runs literally, "The race of
Scots of the true blood, if this prophecy be not false, unless they
possess the Stone of Fate, shall fail to obtain regal power." King
Kennith caused the leonine verses following to be engraved on the
chair:--
Ni fallat fatum
Scoti quocunque locatum
Invenient lapidem
Regnare tenentur ibidem.
Thus given by Camden,
Or Fate is blind,
Or Scots shall find,
Where'er this stone
A royal throne.
A prophecy which is said to have reconciled many a true Scot to the
Union in Queen Anne's time; and which, since the extinction of the
Stuart family, is remarkably fulfilled in the claims of the House of
Brunswick,--George IV. being now the legitimate heir of both lines.
At or near a consecrated stone, it was an ancient Eastern custom to
appoint kings or chieftains to their office. Thus we read in Scripture
of Abimelech being "made king by the plain of the pillar that was in
Shechem[6]," (the earliest royal appointment, perhaps, of which we have
any traces in history;) and of Joash having the "crown put upon him"
while he "stood by a pillar, as the manner was[7]." Subsequently, and
among the northern nations, the practice "was to form a circle of large
stones, commonly twelve in number, in the middle of which one was set
up, much larger than the rest: this was the royal seat; and the nobles
occupied those surrounding it, which served also as a barrier to keep
off the people who stood without. Here the leading men of the kingdom
delivered their suffrages, and placed the elected king on his seat of
dignity[8]." From such places, afterwards, justice was frequently
dispensed.
"The old mun early rose, walk'd forth, and sate
On polished stone, before his palace gate;
With unguent smooth the lucid marble shone,
Where ancient Neleus sate, a rustic throne."
HOMER'S _Odyss._ POPE'S _Tr._ [Greek: G]. 496--10.
Thus arises the name of our Court of King's Bench.
At the coronation of our kings, the royal chair is now disguised in
cloth of gold; but the wood-work, which forms its principal parts, is
supposed to be the same in which Edward I. recased it, on bringing it to
England.