+Source.+--_John of Fordun's Chronicle of the Scottish Nation_, pp.
288-290. (_Historians of Scotland_, vol. iv.)
That renowned King of Scots, Alexander II., while he was on his way to
restore peace to the land of Argyll, was overtaken by grievous sickness,
and carried across to an island which is called Kerrera; and there, in
the year 1249, after he had partaken of the sacraments of eternal
salvation, his blissful soul was snatched away from this life, and
joined, as we believe, all the saints in the heavens.... While he lived,
he was a most gentle Prince towards his people, a father to the monks,
the comforter of the needy, the helper of the fatherless, the pitiful
hearer and most righteous judge of the widow and all who had a
grievance, and towards the Church of Christ a second Peter....
Alexander, son of the aforesaid King Alexander, a boy of eight years of
age, came to Scone on the following Tuesday, the 13th of July, with a
number of Earls, Barons, and knights. There were likewise present the
venerable fathers, David of Bernham, Bishop of Saint Andrews, and
Galfrid, Bishop of Dunkeld, a man in great favour with both clergy and
people, zealous in temporal and spiritual things, who endeared himself
to both great and poor, but was a terror to evildoers. The Abbot of the
monastery of Scone itself was also there. But lo! as soon as they were
gathered together, there arose a dispute among the nobles. For some of
them would have made not a King, but a knight, on that day, saying that
it was an Egyptian day.[16] Now this was said not because of the
Egyptian day, but because the lord Alan Dorward, then Justiciary of the
whole of Scotland, wished to gird Alexander with the sword of knighthood
on that day. While they were arguing, the lord Walter Comyn, Earl of
Menteith, a man of foresight and shrewdness in counsel, answered and
said, that he had seen a King consecrated who was not yet a knight, and
had many a time heard of Kings being consecrated who were not knights;
and he went on to say that a country without a King was, beyond a doubt,
like a ship amid the waves of the sea without rower or steersman. For he
had always loved King Alexander, of pious memory, now deceased, and this
boy also for his father's sake. So he moved that this boy be raised to
the throne as quickly as possible, for it is always hurtful to put off
what may be done at once; and by his advice, the said Bishops and Abbot,
as well as the nobles, and the whole clergy and people, with one voice,
gave their consent and assent to his being set up as King.
And it came to pass that when this same Earl, Walter Comyn, and all the
clergy heard this, they joined unto them some Earls,--namely, the lord
Malcolm, Earl of Fife, and the lord Malise, Earl of Strathearn--and a
great many other nobles, and led Alexander, soon to be their King, up to
the cross which stands in the graveyard, at the east end of the church.
There they set him on the royal throne, which was decked with silk
cloths inwoven with gold; and the Bishop of Saint Andrews, assisted by
the rest, consecrated him King, as was meet. So the King sat down upon
the royal throne--that is, the stone--while the Earls and other nobles,
on bended knee, strewed their garments under his feet before the stone.
Now, this stone is reverently kept in that same monastery for the
consecration of the Kings of Albania;[17] and no King was ever wont to
reign in Scotland, unless he had first, on receiving the name of King,
sat upon this stone at Scone, which, by the Kings of old, had been
appointed the capital of Albania.
[16] An unlucky day. Ill-luck was attributed to certain days of the year
by Egyptian astrologers.
[17] Scotland north of the Forth, nominally united under Kenneth
MacAlpin about 844 A.D.