King Edward I of England seized the Stone of Scone, the traditional coronation seat of the Scottish kings, from
Scone Abbey in
Perthshire in 1296. Edward took the Stone to England and commissioned the Coronation Chair to hold it. The high-backed,
Gothic-style armchair was carved from oak at some point between the summer of 1297 and March 1300 by the carpenter
Walter of Durham. At first, the king ordered the chair to be made of bronze, but he changed his mind and decided it should be made of timber. Although it was not originally intended to be a coronation chair, it began to be associated with coronations of English monarchs at some point in the 14th century, and the first coronation where it was definitely used was that of
Henry IV in 1399. Monarchs used to sit on the Stone of Scone itself until a wooden platform was added to the chair in the 17th century. A lost image of a king, maybe Edward the Confessor or Edward I, with his feet resting on a lion was also painted on the back. Today, its appearance is of aged and brittle wood. , 1859 In the 18th century, tourists could sit on the chair for a small payment to one of the vergers. Tourists, choirboys and boys of
Westminster School carved their initials, names and other graffiti into the chair, and the corner posts have been acutely damaged by souvenir hunters. Nails have often been driven into the wood to attach fabric for coronations, and in preparation for
Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, the chair was covered with a coating of brown paint.
Sir Gilbert Scott, the Gothic revival architect and antiquary, described the chair as "a magnificent piece of decoration, but sadly mutilated". Over the eight centuries of its existence, the chair has only been removed from Westminster Abbey twice. The first time was for the ceremony in
Westminster Hall when
Oliver Cromwell was inducted as
Lord Protector of the
Commonwealth of England. The second was during the
Second World War when, concerned about the risk of it being damaged or destroyed by German air raids, it was moved out of London. On 24 August 1939, the
Stone of Scone was moved out of the way and the chair was loaded on a truck and, with two detectives accompanying the driver, it was driven to
Gloucester Cathedral where the Dean and the Cathedral Architect signed for its receipt. The next day, five carpenters arrived to shore up the roof of a vaulted recess in the cathedral's crypt with timber supports. Once they had finished their work, the chair was moved into the recess. As it also provided the best protected location, the cathedral's 13th-century bog-oak effigy of
Robert Curthose was placed on the chair. It was recovered in time for
Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. In 1996, the stone was
returned to Scotland (first at
Edinburgh Castle, and since 2024 at
Perth Museum) on the proviso that it be returned to England for use at coronations, as happened for the
coronation of King Charles III in 2023. In 1997, the year after the removal of the stone, the chair was removed from its traditional home in the Chapel of St Edward the Confessor and placed by the tomb of King Henry V. In 2010 the chair was moved to a chapel at the back of the Nave for cleaning, where it has since remained (when not in use). on a plinth in St George's Chapel in the nave—only when it is carried into the theatre of coronation near the High Altar of the abbey. Between 2010 and 2012, the chair was cleaned and restored by a team of experts in full view of the public at the abbey. In early 2023, a further programme of restoration and conservation was undertaken in preparation for the
coronation of Charles III and Camilla; on 6 May 2023, the stone having been reunited with the chair for the occasion, the King was seated on it for his anointing, investiture and crowning. ==Other chairs used at the coronation==