Alexander undertook a maritime expedition against Angus, lord of Argyle, who refused to pay homage to the Scottish crown, on the plea that he owed allegiance to the king of Norway, But on reaching the sound of Mull, Alexander was seized with a fever, and died in the island of Kerrara, on the 1st of July, 1249, in the fifty-first year of his age and thirty-fifth of his reign. He was buried in Melrose Abbey.
Alexander is justly characterized by Fordun as "a king pious, just, and brave, as the shield of the church, the safeguard of the people, and the friend of the miserable." He was a liberal patron of the clergy, and a strenuous supporter of the independence of the Scottish church. He procured from Pope Honorius IV. in 1225 the important boon of a bull authorizing the clergy of his kingdom, on account of their distance from the apostolic seat, to hold provincial councils at their own discretion. Alexander left by his second wife an only son, who succeeded him in the throne.—(Chron de Mailros; Matt. Paris' Historia Major; Fordun's Scotichronicon; Rymer's Fœdera; Hailes' Annals of Scotland; Pictorial History of Scotland.)—J. T.
ALEXANDER III. was born at Roxburgh, September 4, 1241, and was only eight years of age at the time of his accession to the throne. He was crowned at Scone only five days after his father's death, from a well-grounded apprehension that Henry III., king of England, would, under the pretence that the Scottish king was his liegeman, endeavour to prevent the coronation of the young prince without his permission. In his infancy Alexander had been betrothed to Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry; and as the English king had now resolved upon an expedition to the Holy Land, he was anxious to secure the peace of the northern borders during his absence, and therefore consented that the marriage between his daughter and the young king of Scotland should be solemnized at York, 20th December, 1251. On this occasion Alexander did homage to Henry for the lands which he held in England, and the English king meanly attempted to take advantage of the youth and inexperience of his guest by demanding homage also for the kingdom of Scotland. But the demand had no doubt been foreseen, and the young monarch replied, as he had probably been instructed, "that he had been invited to York to marry the princess of England, not to treat of matters of state, and that he could not take a step so important without the knowledge and approbation of his nobility."
During the minority of Alexander the country was disturbed by the various factions among the nobility, who contended for the ascendancy in the government. At his accession the powerful family of the Comyns were at the head of affairs; but the interests of the rival faction were espoused by Henry and his daughter, who complained of various grievances inflicted upon her by the Comyns. Encouraged by this support, the leaders of the opposite party surprised the castle of Edinburgh, and took possession of the persons of the king and queen, while Henry marched to the border with a numerous army, and (September, 1254) held an interview with Alexander and his queen, who were removed to Roxburgh for that purpose. The result was, that the government of Scotland was remodelled, the Comyns and their friends were excluded from office, and a regency was appointed, consisting of the leaders of the English faction, who were to carry on the administration till Alexander should reach the age of twenty-one. But in 1257 the Comyns, having obtained the assistance of the queen-dowager, availed themselves of a favourable juncture afforded by a quarrel between the regents and Pope Alexander IV., in which the former were excommunicated; and suddenly taking up arms, seized the king and queen at Kinross, carried them to Stirling, and totally dispersed the English faction. In the following year a compromise took place, by which a new regency was established, consisting of six members of the Comyn party and four of their opponents. This arrangement appears to have remained undisturbed till Alexander attained his majority, and took the reins of government into his own hands.
In 1263 a quarrel broke out between Alexander and Haco, king of Norway, which led the latter to attempt the invasion of Scotland. The Scottish kings had made repeated attempts to obtain possession of the western islands, whose inhabitants were of Norwegian extraction, and, from their predatory habits, had long been formidable neighbours to the western coasts of the kingdom. According to the accounts of the Norwegian chroniclers, the earl of Ross and other northern chiefs were instigated by Alexander to invade the Hebrides, with the view of compelling the inhabitants of those isles to become feudatories of Scotland, and it is alleged that the invaders burned and plundered the villages and churches, and inflicted the most horrible cruelties upon the helpless inhabitants. Haco, king of Norway, resolved to take vengeance for these barbarities; and having collected a formidable armament, set sail from Herlover, 7th July, 1263. Some weeks after, he entered the frith of Clyde, made himself master of the islands of Arran and Bute, and laid waste with fire and sword the western coast of Scotland. Haco, however, was ultimately defeated by Alexander, with great slaughter, at Largs, October 2. His fleet was dispersed by a tremendous tempest of wind, rain, and hail; many of the vessels were driven ashore, and their crews drowned or taken prisoners by the Scots; and Haco, collecting the remains of his shattered armament, proceeded homewards, leaving the object of his expedition unaccomplished. (See Haco.) The victory of Largs freed Scotland for ever from the attacks of these northern marauders, who had so long been the terror and scourge of western Europe; and three years after, a treaty was concluded with the son and successor of Haco, by which the sovereignty of the Isle of Man and of the Hebrides, and all the other islands in the southern and western seas, with the exception of Orkney and Shetland, was ceded to the Scottish Crown for the sum of four thousand marks, and an annual quit-rent of one hundred marks.
Margaret, Alexander's queen, died February 26, 1275. She had borne him two sons (of whom the younger died in infancy, and the other without issue in 1284), and a daughter, Margaret, who in 1281 was married to Erick, king of Norway, and died in 1283, leaving an infant daughter, named after her mother, and commonly called by Scottish historians "The Maiden of Norway." On the 15th of April, 1285, Alexander married at Jedburgh Joleteta, daughter of the count de Dreux; but on the 16th of March in the following year, as the king was riding in a dark night along the northern shore of the frith of Forth, between Kinghorn and Burntisland, his horse stumbled over a rocky cliff, and he was killed on the spot. This calamitous event took place in the forty-fifth year of his age, and thirty-seventh of his reign. His infant granddaughter, the princess of Norway, was thus left the only survivor of his family. Alexander was one of the ablest and best of the Scottish lungs. Under his sway the country attained a high degree of prosperity. His memory was long and affectionately cherished by his people, and his death, occurring as it did at a most critical juncture, was perhaps the greatest national calamity that has ever befallen the kingdom of Scotland.—(Chron. de Mailros.; M. Paris; Fordun's Scotichron.; Wynton's Cronykil of Scotland; Norwegian Account of Haco's Expedition, by the Rev. James Johnston, 12mo, 1782; Hailes' Annals; Tytler's History of Scotland; Pictorial History of Scotland.)—J. T.
XII.—ALEXANDERS OF SYRIA.
ALEXANDER, surnamed Zabinas or Zebinas (Syriac for "purchased slave"), was a person of mean origin, who, by the aid of Ptolemy Physcon, made himself king of Syria in 128 b.c. Cleopatra, however, widow of the prince whom he had dethroned, together with her son Grypus, maintained herself in possession of part of the realm, and the arrogance of Zabinas made his former patron turn against him. Grypus and Ptolemy Physcon soon crushed him, and being taken by pirates in an attempt to make his escape to Greece, he was delivered up to the legitimate heir, who put him to death, 122 b.c.—A. M.
ALEXANDER BALAS (Balas perhaps connected with the word baal, lord) was brought forward as the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, and raised to the throne of Syria in 150 b.c., chiefly by the efforts of Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt. The Syrians becoming discontented with his government, Demetrius, son of Demetrius Soter, the predecessor of Alexander Balas, made an attempt to vindicate his claim to his father's throne, and was successful against the usurper. Ptolemy, however, made his appearance with a fleet and army, and seemed about to turn the scale in favour of Balas, when he unexpectedly declared in favour of the rightful heir. Alexander Balas, after being defeated in a battle near Antioch, was slain by an Arab chief, to whom he had fled for protection, 146 b.c.—A. M.
XIII.—POPES, SAINTS, AND MARTYRS.
ALEXANDER I., pope and martyr. He succeeded Evaristus in the papacy in 108 or 109, which he held nearly ten years. He is honoured as a martyr in the canon of the mass, and tradition assigns to him the introduction of holy water, and the use of
