¶When the chair was originally commissioned by King Edward I in the early 1300s, its primary purpose was to house the monarch’s newly acquired Stone of Scone (pronounced “skoon”). The 300-pound rock had previously been in Scotland’s possession, whose monarchy had used it as a throne for hundreds of years — though some legends date it as far back as Biblical times.

¶Of course there’s a centuries-old special chair. And a stone. And of course they pronounce “Stone of Scone” as “Stone of Skoon.”