Page:Surrey Archaeological Collections Volume 1.djvu/101

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THE KINGSTON MORASTEEN.

35

rated, are all that now remain on the spot; the large Morasteen not having been able to be found since the time of the first Gustaf, about 1620. The later authority I have cited with Geijer varies in so far as he states that the royal names were carved on the Morastone itself:—"Mos fuit antiquitùs, ut, peracta regum Sueciæ designatione, annus et dies inaugurationis nomenque regis lapide qui Morasteen vulgò dictus, extra civitatem Ubsalensem ad unum milliare, in plano campo situs, incideretur, ad perennem rei memoriam. In quo et super quem reges Sueciæ de novo electi statim post eorum electionem etiam consueverint ab antiquissimis temporibus sublunari et inthronesari; ut loquitur notarii publici instrumentum, quod produxit Joh.Messenius Suecus in paraphrasi theatri nobilitatis Suecanæ." Whether the cherished stone suffered the fate of the corresponding Scottish one at Scone,^[1] the palladium of the kingdom, which Edward brought to England, and which is now embedded in the coronation-chair of his successors, at Westminster, we can at present only imagine. The Calmar Union, under Margaret, the Semiramis of the North, formed a fusion of all three Scandinavian kingdoms; and as the seat of empire was fixed at Copenhagen, we may conjecture that the outward symbols of the three monarchies would have all been united at the place chosen for her residence: transferred thither, with no ancient prestige to guard or perpetuate its recollections, it may easily have been overlooked, and lost, or removed, without attaining to the dignity of its Pictish brother. In the above method of election, we have many points in common with the proceedings on the choice, or supposed choice, of a prince in almost the most southern parts of Germany, with some additional particulars which bring new features into the picture. In Kärnthen (Carinthia), as long as it had its

↑ Scottish stone at Scone.—The legends connected with this famous stone are too numerous and contradictory to be either related or reconciled. It is certainly known to have been the stone on which the Scottish kings were inaugurated at Scone, near Perth, like the Palladium of Rome, of which Ovid (Fasti, lib. vi. 382) writes,—

"Imperium secum transferret ilia loci;"

and it was therefore but a measure of policy which induced Edward I. to transfer "it to his own capital, when he fancied he had reduced Scotland to a province of his English kingdom. Richard III. used it at his coronation, as it is no doubt meant in the extract which Mr. J. G. Nichols gives in his Life of Edward V. (Gent. Mag., March, 1855, p. 256). "Nor was Richard unsupported by others of the principal nobility. His brother-in-law, the Duke of Suffolk, supported his claim; and when he assumed the throne, by taking his seat upon the marble chair in Westminster,—a remarkable incident, recorded by the continuator of the Chronicle of Croyland,—he was supported by the Duke of Suffolk, as well as by the new Duke of Norfolk,—one on either hand." Here the being seated on this stone seems a necessary, possibly the most important, portion of the ceremony, as in Jack Cade's proceeding, noted in the text, and equivalent to what was generally considered in mediæval ages to attach to the possession of the regalia of each kingdom, or to the crown and mantle of St. Stephen in Hungary. Less fortuitous contingencies than this, on the accession of a Scottish prince to the English throne, have frequently had considerable effect on the temper of a people; and James I. may have owed much of his undisturbed succession after Elizabeth to this common belief. But whether the following verses existed in Scotland previously to his accession, or whether but a subsequent adaptation to the event, I have not been able to discover: they are—

"Ni fallat Fatum, Scoti hunc quocunque locatum,
Inveuient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem."

If Fates go right, where'er this stone is found,
The Scots shall monarchs of that realm be crown'd.

As her present most gracious Majesty can never divest herself, or her posterity, of her Scottish lineage through female descent, there can be therefore no doubt that the prophecy will never fail being accomplished.

[1] Scottish stone at Scone.—The legends connected with this famous stone are too numerous and contradictory to be either related or reconciled. It is certainly known to have been the stone on which the Scottish kings were inaugurated at Scone, near Perth, like the Palladium of Rome, of which Ovid (Fasti, lib. vi. 382) writes,—

"Imperium secum transferret ilia loci;"

and it was therefore but a measure of policy which induced Edward I. to transfer "it to his own capital, when he fancied he had reduced Scotland to a province of his English kingdom. Richard III. used it at his coronation, as it is no doubt meant in the extract which Mr. J. G. Nichols gives in his Life of Edward V. (Gent. Mag., March, 1855, p. 256). "Nor was Richard unsupported by others of the principal nobility. His brother-in-law, the Duke of Suffolk, supported his claim; and when he assumed the throne, by taking his seat upon the marble chair in Westminster,—a remarkable incident, recorded by the continuator of the Chronicle of Croyland,—he was supported by the Duke of Suffolk, as well as by the new Duke of Norfolk,—one on either hand." Here the being seated on this stone seems a necessary, possibly the most important, portion of the ceremony, as in Jack Cade's proceeding, noted in the text, and equivalent to what was generally considered in mediæval ages to attach to the possession of the regalia of each kingdom, or to the crown and mantle of St. Stephen in Hungary. Less fortuitous contingencies than this, on the accession of a Scottish prince to the English throne, have frequently had considerable effect on the temper of a people; and James I. may have owed much of his undisturbed succession after Elizabeth to this common belief. But whether the following verses existed in Scotland previously to his accession, or whether but a subsequent adaptation to the event, I have not been able to discover: they are—

"Ni fallat Fatum, Scoti hunc quocunque locatum,
Inveuient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem."

If Fates go right, where'er this stone is found,
The Scots shall monarchs of that realm be crown'd.

As her present most gracious Majesty can never divest herself, or her posterity, of her Scottish lineage through female descent, there can be therefore no doubt that the prophecy will never fail being accomplished.

[1]