Coronation Chair

The chair was commissioned in 1296 by King Edward I of England to house the Stone of Scone, the symbol of royal authority in Scotland.

The chair was named after Edward the Confessor, and is currently kept in St George's Chapel at Westminster Abbey, London,[2] and was last used by King Charles III at his coronation in 2023.

[3] 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.

[10] 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.

[11] Nails have often been driven into the wood to attach fabric for coronations,[12] and in preparation for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, the chair was covered with a coating of brown paint.

[13] Sir Gilbert Scott, the Gothic revival architect and antiquary, described the chair as "a magnificent piece of decoration, but sadly mutilated".

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.

[17] In early 2023, a further programme of restoration and conservation was undertaken in preparation for the coronation of Charles III and Camilla;[18][19] 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.

Later, for the enthronement (and the homage which follows it), the monarch is seated not in the Coronation Chair, but in a separate Throne on a dais positioned in the middle of the crossing.

On occasions when the wife of a king—a queen consort—is crowned, a similar throne is provided for her so that she can be seated next to the king but at a lower level.

[24] A pair of Chairs of Estate (made for the 1902 coronation), which are usually kept in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace, have in recent years been employed when the monarch has addressed both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall.