Alexander III of Scotland

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Alexander III
King of Scotland
Reign6 July 1249 – 19 March 1286
Coronation13 July 1249
PredecessorAlexander II
SuccessorMargaret
Born4 September 1241
Roxburgh Castle, Roxburghshire, Scotland
Died19 March 1286(1286-03-19) (aged 44)
Kinghorn Ness, Fife, Scotland
Burial29 March 1286
Spouses
(m. 1251; died 1275)
Yolande de Dreux
(m. 1285)
Issue
More
HouseDunkeld
FatherAlexander II
MotherMarie de Coucy

Alexander III (Medieval

Western Isles and the Isle of Man. His heir, Margaret, Maid of Norway
, died before she could be crowned.

Life

Alexander was born at

Scone on 13 July 1249.[2]

The years of his minority featured an embittered struggle for the control of affairs between two rival parties, the one led by

Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith, the other by Alan Durward, Justiciar of Scotia. The former dominated the early years of Alexander's reign. At the marriage of Alexander to Margaret of England in 1251, Henry III of England seized the opportunity to demand homage from his son-in-law for the Scottish kingdom, but Alexander did not comply. In 1255, an interview between the English and Scottish kings at Kelso led to Menteith and his party losing to Durward's party. But though disgraced, they still retained great influence, and two years later, seizing the person of the king, they compelled their rivals to consent to the erection of a regency representative of both parties.[3]

On attaining his majority at the age of 21 in 1262, Alexander declared his intention of resuming the projects on the

Western Isles to Scotland in return for a monetary payment. Norway retained Orkney and Shetland until 1469 when they became a dowry for James III's bride, Margaret of Denmark
.

Death of Alexander III

Monument to Alexander III, west of Kinghorn, by Hippolyte Blanc

Alexander had married Margaret, daughter of King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence, on 26 December 1251, when he was ten years old and she was eleven.[4] She died in 1275, after they had had three children.[5]

  1. Margaret (28 February 1261 – 9 April 1283), who married King Eric II of Norway[3]
  2. Alexander, Prince of Scotland (21 January 1264 Jedburgh – 28 January 1284 Lindores Abbey); buried in Dunfermline Abbey
  3. David (20 March 1272 – June 1281 Stirling Castle); buried in Dunfermline Abbey

According to the Lanercost Chronicle, Alexander did not spend his decade as a widower alone: "he used never to forbear on account of season nor storm, nor for perils of flood or rocky cliffs, but would visit none too creditably nuns or matrons, virgins or widows as the fancy seized him, sometimes in disguise."[6]

Towards the end of Alexander's reign, the death of all three of his children within a few years made the question of the succession one of pressing importance. In 1284 he induced the

Yolande de Dreux[7] on 1 November 1285.[8]

Alexander died in a fall from his horse while riding in the dark to visit the queen at Kinghorn in Fife on 19 March 1286 because it was her birthday the next day.[9] He had spent the evening at Edinburgh Castle celebrating his second marriage and overseeing a meeting with royal advisors. He was cautioned against making the journey to Fife because of weather conditions, but crossed the Forth from Dalmeny to Inverkeithing anyway.[10] On arriving in Inverkeithing, he insisted on not stopping for the night, despite the pleas of the nobles accompanying him and one of the burgesses of the town, Alexander Le Saucier. Le Saucier (who was either linked to the King's kitchen or the master of the local saltpans) must have been known to the King, since his rather blunt warning to the King lacks the usual deference: "My lord, what are you doing out in such weather and darkness? How many times have I tried to persuade you that midnight travelling will do you no good?"[11]

However, Alexander ignored the repeated warnings about travelling in a storm, and set off with his retinue and two local guides.[10] The king became separated from his party near Kinghorn, and was found dead with a broken neck near the shore the following morning. It is assumed that his horse lost its footing in the dark. While some texts say that he fell off a cliff,[12] there is none at the site where his body was found; however, there is a very steep rocky embankment, which "would have been fatal in the dark."[13] After Alexander's death, his realm was plunged into a period of darkness that would eventually lead to war with England. He was buried in Dunfermline Abbey.

As Alexander left no surviving children, the heir to the throne was his unborn child by Queen Yolande. When Yolande's pregnancy ended, probably with a miscarriage, Alexander's three-year-old granddaughter

Guardians of Scotland
governing the land.

The death of Alexander and the subsequent period of instability in Scotland was lamented in an early Scots poem recorded by Andrew of Wyntoun in his Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland.

Quhen Alexander our kynge was dede,
That Scotlande lede in lauche and le,
Away was sons of alle and brede,
Off wyne and wax, of gamyn and gle.
Our golde was changit into lede.
Crist, borne in virgynyte,
Succoure Scotlande, and ramede,

That is stade in perplexite.[14]

In 1886, a monument to Alexander III was erected at the approximate location of his death in Kinghorn.[15]

Fictional portrayals

St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh

Alexander III has been depicted in historical novels. They include:[16]

Ancestry

Notes

  1. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 9 June 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. .
  3. ^ a b c "Alexander III, King of Scots 1249–1286". Scotland's History, BBC.
  4. ^ Margaret MacArthur (12 July 2017). History of Scotland. Merkaba Press via PublishDrive. pp. 25–. PKEY:6610000020409.[permanent dead link]
  5. .
  6. ^ Maxwell, Herbert, ed. (1909). "Chronicle of Lanercost". The Scottish Historical Review. 6: 184. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  7. ^ ""Death of Alexander III", Foghlam Alba". Archived from the original on 14 July 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  8. ^ Duncan 2016, p. 347.
  9. ^ Marshall, Rosalind K. (2003). Scottish Queens, 1034–1714. Tuckwell Press. p. 27.
  10. ^
    ISSN 1320-4246
    .
  11. .
  12. ^ Wood, James, ed. (1920). The Nuttall Encyclopaedia. London: Warne. p. 13. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  13. . Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  14. ISBN 978-0230000377. Retrieved 8 August 2016.[permanent dead link
    ]
  15. ^ ""Alexander III Monument, Kinghorn", British Listed Buildings".
  16. ^ a b Nield (1968), p. 37
  17. ^ ""Historical Novel:Medieval Celts"".
  18. ^ ""Alexander the Glorious", review". Amazon.
  19. ^ Browne, Kreiser (2000), p. 78, 80–81
  20. ^ "Insurrection". historicalnovelsociety.org.

Sources

Further reading

Alexander III of Scotland
Born: 4 September 1241 Died: 19 March 1286
Regnal titles
Preceded by
King of Scots

1249–1286
Succeeded by