King David, the Black Rood of Scotland and the example of the Cross of Cong

In 1123, Turlough O’Connor, the High King of Ireland, famously received a piece of the True Cross as a mark of his status as the pre-eminent ruler of Ireland. To recognise this significance of this, Turlough commissioned a new reliquary to display the holy artefact while also enhancing a ritual centre at Tuam to house and honour the relic. The reliquary was to become known as the Cross of Cong.

One year later, in 1124, David, the youngest son of Malcolm III and Margaret of Wessex, was inaugurated King of Scots at Scone. Famously, David balked at some un-Christian element of the traditional Scots ceremony and had to be persuaded by his bishops to accept it. Perhaps to compensate for whatever it was that had unsettled him, David promoted a relic of the True Cross that his mother had brought to Scotland and turned it into a symbol of his legitimacy.