Wednesday 23 October 2013

The Scots and the English Coronations

Edward I is best known as "The Hammer of the Scots" for his numerous attacks and conquest of Scotland.  In many ways, he was the first king since the Norman conquest to instill a sense of nationalism amongst the English.  His use of nationalistic sentiments for his various conquests of Wales and Scotland created the same effect in those areas, most notably in Scotland via William Wallace, more popularly known as Braveheart.

It has been interesting for us to learn from the different perspectives of the conflict between Edward I and the Scots.

We learnt previously that the coronation chair used by English monarchs was commissioned by Edward I and has been on display in the Westminster Abbey.


Westminster Abbey has been the place for coronations of the English monarchy since William the Conqueror.


We attended a workshop at the abbey where the children found out what went wrong at the coronations of William the Conqueror and Queen Victoria.  During the workshop, the children also learnt about the symbolism and significance of various items used during the coronation process: the sceptre, the Crown Jewels, the robe, and the sword.


Our tour of the abbey was focused on kings, queens and the coronation, so we were given a guided tour of specific places inside the abbey related to our theme: the tombs of medieval kings and queens, the Tudor Lady Chapel, the burial place of a family of siblings -- Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

While Henry III extended the abbey and had it built to the scale it is today, the coronation process is highly symbolised by two items: the coronation chair and the Stone of Scone which Edward I had snatched from the Scots during his campaigns.

We had a close look at the restored coronation chair as part of our guided tour of the abbey.  The Stone of Scone has been returned to Scotland for safekeeping, but it will be borrowed from the Scots for future coronations.  Photo taking is not allowed inside the abbey but you can get a very good idea of it from the documentary here:




This post is linked up to:
  1. Look What We Did 
  2. Hip Homeschool Hop - 10/22/13
  3. History and Geography Meme #96
  4. Collage Friday - A Productive Week
  5. Entertaining and Educational - Learning with Music
  6. Weekly Wrap-up: The One with the Battle Against Illness
  7. The Homeschool Mother's Journal {October 26, 2013}

12 comments:

  1. What a great field trip. My friend thought you couldn't homeschool in England, glad to see he was misinformed.

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  2. Thank you for stopping by, Mrs D! Homeschooling is legal in England and is very much on the rise. :-)

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  3. Hwee,

    I was glad to find your link on Lucinda's blog. I wanted to thank you for visiting my blog.

    I've been enjoying your posts. We love history too. We're also interested in the kings and queens of England. I never thought to look for history videos on Youtube. Looks like there's some great ones available. Thank you for sharing. I can't wait to do some searching and see what else we could watch!

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  4. I'm so glad to have you stop by, Sue! I've been visiting your blog and am learning so much from your experience. :-)

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  5. I am continually amazed at the awesome field trips you take.

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  6. Thanks, Phyllis. I guess we're just lucky to live in an area that has good access to many sites that hold historical significance. :-)

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  7. I agree with Phyllis. One day....
    Thanks so much for sharing all your resources!

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  8. You're very welcome, Claire. I'm sure it won't be too long before you go on some marvellous field trips! :-)

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  9. Awesome post! Thanks for all the videos and research. We will be getting to the monarchs near the end of the year (I think), so I'm pinning this.

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  10. You're welcome, Julie. Have fun learning about the monarchs! :-)

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  11. I agree - I really appreciate all the work you put into not only finding these resources but sharing them here. The Westminster Abbey workshop sounds brilliant. I wish we had more time in our schedule to do that kind of thing!

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  12. You're welcome, Lucinda. We're all homeschooling to do what's best for our children, and sharing resources is one way to keep the vibrancy of the community going. :-)

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