Lavish robes. Gilded scepters. Diamond-festooned crowns. With all that ornamentation at the coronation of King Charles III, you might expect the monarch to be taking in the ceremony from a plush throne fit for a king. The 700-year-old Coronation Chair, however, is an austere, oaken seat that looks so uncomfortable that it’s likely to induce a royal pain in the—well, not neck.

What’s most shocking to me about the Coronation Chair is that, like a decades-old school desk, it’s riddled with graffiti. Find out how it got there in this month’s edition of The Throwback.