The Kingdom of the Scots

Twelfth- and thirteenth-century Scotland differed from Wales and Ireland in one crucial way: it had a monarchy, deeply rooted in its past history. This monarchy transcended the claims of lesser lords, whether they called themselves ‘kings’, as in Ireland, or ‘princes’ as in Wales. The greatest symbol of this was the inauguration of each new ruler at Scone on the opposite side of the River Tay from Perth, at a place called Moot Hill, on which, since the mid-ninth century, had been situated the Stone of Destiny or Stone of Scone, possibly brought there from Iona, and upon which each new king was enthroned. The site had both Pictish and pagan associations, but was more powerfully linked to Gaelic and Christian custom, which determined the nature of the succession, based on the direct descendants of the previous king, whose ancestry, real or imagined, was given great emphasis during the ceremony ( Barrow 2015 :29–30; Macquarrie 2004 :9). On 8 July 1249, Alexander II, king since 1214, died of a fever. According to the chronicle of the Cistercian abbey of Melrose in central Lothian, he bequeathed his kingdom to Alexander, his son, a boy of about eight years. He was appointed king by the magnates after the ancestral custom, on the third day before the Ides of July [the 13th]; he was placed upon his father’s throne, and honoured by all as the lawful heir. ( Anderson 1922 :2:558–9)