Edinburgh Castle
When you arrive at Edinburgh Castle, you can't help but look at the "Stone of Destiny", because it is related to Jacob, the ancestor of the Israelites, so it is also called "Jacob's Stone".
Stones snatched by the English and Scots.
Legend has it that Jacob used a trick to deceive Esau of the blessing that should have belonged to his brother Esau, and in order to avoid Esau's pursuit, Jacob obeyed his mother's orders and left Haran in Mesopotamia, which was the home of her parents. On the way, as the sun sets and it gets dark, Jacob finds a stone on the side of the road to sleep on. In a dream he saw a man standing on a ladder with his head held high in the sky and said to him, "I am the Lord, and I will give you and your descendants the place where you lie, and let your descendants multiply like dust and sand." I will bless all those who bless you and curse all those who curse you. The story of Jacob's stone is recorded in the Bible, but it is unknown how this stone, which was supposed to belong to the nation of Israel, moved away from Mesopotamia and became a symbol of Scottish kingship. In short, the kings of Scotland have been crowned on this stone to show the divine right of kings.
Around this sacred stone, Scotland and England waged a long struggle between appropriation and anti-appropriation, plunder and anti-plunder. In 1292, John Baliol became the last king of Scotland to set foot on the "Stone of Destiny". Four years later, Edward I of England snatched the stone after successfully occupying Scotland and placed it under the chair in Westminster Abbey where the king sat when he was coronated. The stones of their own national and national symbols were taken by their old enemies, the English, and the Scots regarded them as a great shame. On Christmas Day 1950, four young Scottish enthusiasts stole the stone from Westminster Abbey and secretly sneaked back to Scotland after three months of hiding in Kent. At that time, the English people regarded the theft of the stone as a great shame, and offered a reward of 100,000 pounds to crack this "protracted theft". Later, the Scots wrote and petitioned queen Elizabeth to return the stone. The enlightened Queen finally agreed to the Scots' request. On 30 November 1996, the doomed Stone of Destiny finally returned to Scotland. Today, the "Stone of Destiny" is stored in Edinburgh Castle. Although the stone was returned, the British government decreed that whenever the King was crowned, the stone was still transported back to the throne of the King of Westminster Abbey when he ascended the throne.
However, the stone in front of me is so ordinary, so ordinary that it seriously does not match its status. It's 26 inches long, 16 inches wide, 11 inches high, weighs no more than 336 pounds, and has spots left over from time that are no different from ordinary stones on the side of the street. But how many times over the centuries has Scotland and England fought for it?
I'm just curious, when the kings and gods are crowned, would the throne be unstable without this stone? Will the king have a short life? I am more curious about the mood of the Israelites when they saw the Scots and the English people beating the stones of their ancestor Jacob, and did everything they could.
Traveling the World in the UK (3) Edinburgh (1)