A highlight of the church is the wooden coronation chair. This is now over 700 years old and thus one of the oldest thrones of all. Almost every monarch in England and later Great Britain was crowned on this wooden chair—most recently Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
But where did the chair come from? In 1297, the carpenter Master Walter made the chair on behalf of King Edward I, who was in office at the time. Among other things, the four lions that form the legs of the oak-made throne are characteristic.
In 1296, Edward I did something monstrous. He stole the so-called Stone of Scone from Scotland. This stone is one of the most important symbols of the Scottish nation. The Scottish kings have been crowned on this stone since the Middle Ages. Edward I stole it from the Scots and brought the Stone of the Kings to London as spoils of war. There he had the stone built into his own coronation throne. Edward I demonstrated to the Scots that he also ruled over the whole of Scotland.
However, there were some attempts by Scotland to recapture the stone, for example in 1950: Scottish students stole the stone from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day and smuggled it into Scotland. But police quickly found it and brought it back to Westminster. It was not until 1996 that the stone returned to Scotland in a solemn ceremony after 700 years.
Today the wooden chair is on a high pedestal. So, you can’t touch it, just marvel at it.