Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/77

 steady perseverance, and ultimate success, notwithstanding that the Pope countenanced the claims of the English prelates. It is to be presumed that this spirit would have incited the Scottish monarch to maintain the independency of his kingdom, had it ever been called in question during his reign. Alexander died April 27, 1124, after a reign of seventeen years and three months. As he left no issue, he was succeeded by his next and last-surviving brother David, so memorable for his bounty to the church. Alexander was also a pious monarch. Aldred, in his genealogy of the English kings, says of him, that "he was humble and courteous to the clergy, but, to the rest of his subjects, terrible beyond measure; high-spirited, always endeavouring to compass things beyond his power; not ignorant of letters; zealous in establishing churches, collecting relics, and providing vestments and hooks for the clergy; liberal even to profusion, and taking delight in the offices of charity to the poor." His donations to the church were very considerable. He made a large grant of lands to the church of St Andrews, increased the revenue of the monastery of Dunfermline, which his parents had founded, established a colony of canons regular at home, and built a monastery on Inch-colm in the Firth of Forth, in gratitude for having been preserved from a tempest on that island.  ALEXANDER II., the only legitimate son of king William, surnamed the Lion, was born in 1198. He succeeded his father, December 4, 1214, in his seventeenth year, and was crowned next day at Scone. Alexander II. is characterised by Fordun as a pious, just, and brave king—as the shield of the church, the safe-guard of the people, and the friend of the miserable. He espoused the cause of the English barons against king John, which led to mutual depredations between the two sovereigns; but on the accession of Henry III. to the crown of England, peace was restored; and in 1221, the friendly intercourse of the two nations was established by the marriage of the king of Scot land to Joan, eldest sister of the king of England. This princess died in 1238, without issue; and in the following year Alexander married Mary de Couci, the scion of a French house, which, in its motto, disclaimed royalty, and rested for distinction on its own merits:

During the life of Joan, the British monarchs came to no open rupture, their friendly intimacy being only occasionally interrupted by Henry discovering a disposition to revive the claim of homage from the king of Scotland, which had been given up by Richard I., and by Alexander insisting on his claim to the three northern counties of England; but shortly after the death of Joan, national jealousies broke out, and in 1244, both princes raised armies and prepared for war. By the mediation, however, of several English barons, hostilities were prevented, and a peace concluded. Much of Alexander's reign was occupied in suppressing insurrections of the Celtic inhabitants of Scotland. He died A.D. 1249, in one of the islands of the Hebrides, while engaged in subjecting Angus, the Lord of Argyle, who refused his homage to the Scottish sovereign. He left by his second wife one son, who is the subject of the.  ALEXANDER III., born at Roxburgh, September 4, 1241, succeeded his father in the eighth year of his age. He was knighted and crowned only five days after his father's death a precipitation adopted to prevent the interference of the king of England. When only a year old, Alexander had been betrothed to Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry III., a princess of his own age; and in 1251, their nuptials were celebrated at York with great pomp. On the ground