The Riddle of the Image by Spike Bucklow

Author:Spike Bucklow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Published: 2017-06-25T16:00:00+00:00

The Stone of Destiny

Edward I – Henry III’s son and Richard II’s great-great-grandfather – bought the Stone of Destiny from Scotland in 1297, 80 years before Richard’s coronation, and had it installed in the Abbey as a symbol of Scotland’s subjugation (illus. 30). The Stone travelled south as a trophy of war and political hostage. (In 1997, after 700 years in the south, the hostage returned to Scotland and is expected to revisit the Abbey for future coronations.) However, according to myth, it had earlier travelled north – from Egypt – with a very different status.

Around the time of Richard’s coronation, John of Fordun compiled chronicles that drew upon Scottish myths from around the time of Henry III. According to these myths, Gaythelos – or Goídel Glas, the son of a Greek king – married Scota, the daughter of a pharaoh. Their marriage is said to have taken place around the time of Moses. Gaythelos and Scota took no part in the Jews’ expulsion from Egypt, and when Pharaoh drowned in the Red Sea, they were exiled. The couple travelled through Spain and Ireland, eventually settling in Scotland and bringing the Stone with them.

By the thirteenth century, the Stone was installed in the east, at Scone.66 There, it was the ‘anchor’ of national existence on top of Moot Hill, which for Malcolm II (r. 1005–34) represented the whole of Scotland.67 Moot Hill – said to have been made from single handfuls of earth bought by generations of chieftains, each demonstrating the allegiance of their home territories – was the ceremonial centre of the Pictish middle kingdom of Gowrie, surrounded by Atholl, Angus, Fife and Strathearn.68

The mythic Stone may embody aspects of Scottish history, and the connection with Ireland may reflect the kingdom’s foundation by Irish migrants in the fifth century. Yet if the myth records the roots (or routes) of a people, then the Stone represents what they brought with them – the spiritual authority upon which Scottish kingship rested. Gaythelos and Scota were contemporaries of Moses, suggesting biblical connections, and their Greek and Egyptian royal bloodlines might suggest that Scots saw themselves as inheritors of the Hellenistic-Alexandrian tradition.69

The Stone came to Westminster because it held a rich mythology. Had it not been so important, it would not have been worth stealing. Possession of the Stone meant possession of Scotland. Once stolen, the English quickly elaborated upon its mythology, so William de Rishanger identified it with the stone that Jacob found on the road to Haran, presumably accounting for Gaythelos and Scota’s desire to take it with them into exile.70 The Stone of Destiny therefore became the stone upon which Jacob rested his head as he slept, dreaming of a ladder to heaven.71

Edward I presented the Stone to St Edward’s shrine and it belonged to the Abbey, not the king. However, within a few generations it became part of English king-making furniture and Richard’s usurping cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, was the first to be crowned on it. In assuming its new

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