Introduction
After the Union of Scotland and England in 1707, Scotland’s crown jewels were locked away in Edinburgh Castle. Almost at once, the Jacobites who so bitterly opposed the Union began spreading rumours that the ‘Honours of Scotland’ had been stolen, and in 1794 King George III sent a party up to Edinburgh to prove them wrong.
ON the 23d of December 1794, the Crown-room was opened by special warrant from his Majesty, in order to search for certain records of the kingdom of Scotland.* No such records were found in the Crown-room, which indeed contained no article whatever, excepting the chest wherein the regalia were deposited, and which the Commissioners did not think themselves authorised to open. The Crown-room was again shut and secured, and the proceedings of the Commissioners reported to his Majesty.
In October 1817 his royal highness the Prince-Regent, considering that all political reasons for withdrawing from the people of Scotland the sight of the ancient symbols of her independence had long ceased to exist, was pleased to give directions for removing the mystery which had so long hung upon the existence of the Scottish regalia. A commission was accordingly issued to the Officers of State in Scotland, and other persons in public situations, directing them to open the Crown room and chest, and to report the state in which the regalia of Scotland should be found.
When James VI of Scotland inherited the throne of England in 1603, he held the Scottish and English crowns together but separately. This remained the custom until 1707 when Queen Anne merged them into one, as the Kingdom of Great Britain. Fearing rebellion (and the Jacobites raised several, see The Jacobite Rebellions) the authorities in London took pains to ensure that Scotland’s crown jewels and other records fell into obscurity. Sir Walter Scott and others managed to combine loyalty to King George III with a continued reverence for Scotland’s heritage as an independent nation, but not everyone did. See Blushing Honours.
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