King Alexander SCOTLAND, III

   Another name for Alexander was SCOTLAND King.

   Ancestral File Number: 8XJ7-CP.

   General Notes:

King of SCOTLAND Reigned 1249-1285/1286.

BOOKS
Robert the Bruce King of Scots, Ronald McNair Scott, Carroll & Graf Publishers Inc, New York, 1982.
p3: "On 14 October 1285 Alexander III, King of Scotland, married as his second wife Yolande of Dreux, descended from Count Robert I of Dreux, a son of Louis VI of France. It was a marriage welcomed by his subjects. His first wife Margaret, daughter of Henry III of England, had died in 1275 having bourne for her husband a daughter and two sons, Margaret, Alexander, and David. But within the space of three years all were dead: the younger son in 1281 unmarried, the elder in 1284 without issue and in 1283 the daughter, who was married to Erik II, King of Norway, died in childbirth leaving as heir to the Scottish and Norwegian thrones a sickly infant Margaret, the Maid of Norway. The succession stood in jeaopardy...
"...For over two hundred years, since Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane and the forces of Malcolm III had defeated and slain Macbeth, the House of Canmore had been the rulers of Scotland. During the reigns of eight succeeding kings of that blood, by conquest or by treaty, the realm had been enlarged so that when Alexander wed Yolande she became the queen of a kingdom which differed little in extent from the Scotland of the present day..."

Kings and Queens of Europe, Genealogical Chart, Anne Taute and Romilly Squire, Taute 1989: "Alexander III, Son of Alexander II and Marie Couci, King of Scotland 1249-1286, Mar =1 Margaret Daughter of Henry III King of England, Killed 1286."

Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Genealogical Chart, Anne Taute and Romilly Squire, Taute, 1990: "Alexander III King of Scotland 1249-1286, Mar =1 Margaret Daughter of Henry III King of England, =2 Yolande Daughter of Robert IV Count of Dreux, Killed 1286, Thrown from his horse over cliffs at Kinghorne."

A History of the Plantagenets, Vol III, The Three Edwards, Thomas B Costain, 1958, Doubleday & Co, p59
"The Maid of Norway was the granddaughter of the very pretty Princess Margaret of England, oldest daughter of Henry III, who had been married when eleven years of age to Alexander III of Scotland. This vivacious and dark-eyed child had been taken to Edinburgh by her strait-laced Scottish guardians and confined most strictly in the castle, to prevent her from seeing her husband, who was only ten years old. Whe was given nothing to eat but oaten bannocks and `paritch' and for recreation she could look out into the foggy skies and listen to a piper in thecourtyard below. She was not released from this dismal life until an English army appeared at the border to demand her liberty. Later she was very happy with her husband, to whom she presented three children, two sons and one daughter, named Margaret also. The daughter in course of time married Eric II of Norway and died after giving birth to a third Margaret, who was called thereafter the Maid of Norway...
p60: "In the meantime the first Margaret had died and within two years both of her fine sons, Alexander and David, had passed away, leaving the succession to the infant princess in Norway. King Alexander, most reluctantly, for he had been very much in love with his English wife, married than a daughter of the French Count de Dreux, whose name was Joleta, in the hope of having more sons...
"The hand of fate then intervened to give the situation a final ironic twist. Alexander of Scotland, still without children by his second marriage, came one nightto Burntisland on his way to Kinghorn, where his wife was staying. It was dark and stormy and he was urged to delay his departure until morning. But the king was not one to be balked by inclement weather and, like Tam o' Chanter, he started out into the wild night. His horse missed its footing on the edge of a steep cliff and Alexander was killed in the fall...
"The people had every reason to mourn, for now all hope of a peaceful accession was centered in the small child in Norway..."

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, Antonia Fraser, 1975, Alfred Knopf, p71: "Margaret Mar Alexander III King of Scots."

A History of the Plantagents, Vol II, The Magnificent Century, Thomas B Costain, 1951, Popular Library p20: "Margaret, Born 1240, Died 1275, Married Alexander III of Scotland..."
p170: "The other children were equally loyal to their parents and to one another. Margaret, the oldest daughter, who married Alexander III of Scotland, was passionately devoted to her husband but at every stage of her brief married life longed for her childhood home; for the beautiful mother, the smiling, talkative father, the handsome brothers and sisters, for the woods about Windsor, the park at Woodstock around which many of her fondest memories clustered. She made repeated visits to England, taking Alexander with her, and by doing so lost for her husband much of the loyalty of his Scottish subjects..."
p175: "She more than fulfilled the promise of beauty which had sent Henry so eagerly to her cradle with his hands full of gold; a dark and lively child, full of the joy of life, a little impulsive, a little hasty of temper. When she was still a small girl the King of Scotland died, leaving a son named Alexander as his heir. The boy was a year younger than the English princess, but in order to assure a continuance of peace between the two countries a marriage was arranged between them. There was much sadness atWindsor when it was known that little Margaret was to be taken away. The princess herself seemed well disposed to the idea of being a queen and having a crown of her own, but she dreaded the separation it involved. The Scottish prince was Crowned Alexander III when he was eight years old, and the marriage was solemnized at York two years later. It was an imposing ceremony and, of course, involved the bride's father in unnecessary mountains of debt as well as practically ruining theArchbishop of York, who had to entertain hundreds of visitors. The departure of the darkly lovely bride for her new home was not as keenly felt when it was seen that the youthful couple had conceived a romantic liking for each other..."
p178: "...Things went much more smoothly after this, and in the course of time Alexander and Margaret were judged old enough to live together. It proved a happy marriage..."

A History of the English Speaking People Winston S Churchill Vol I TheBirth of Britain Dodd Mead & Co p301:
"The great quarrel of Edward's reign was with Scotland. For long years the two kingdoms had dwelt in amity. In the year 1286 Alexander III of Scotland, riding his horse over a cliff in the darkness, left as his heir Margaret his granddaughter, known as the Maid of Norway..."

The Political History of England 1216-1377, Vol III, T F Tout, 1905, AMS Press,
p176: "...Among the troubles which had called Edward back from Gascony was the condition of Scotland, where a long period of prosperity had ended with the death of Edward's brother-in-law, Alexander III in 1286. Alexander III attended his brother-in-law's coronation in 1274, and the irritation excited by his limiting his homage to his English lordships of Tynedale and Penreith did not cause any great amount of friction. But the homage question was only postponed, and at Michaelmas, 1278, Alexander was constrained to perform unconditionally this unwelcome act. `I, Alexander King of Scotland,' were his words, `become the liege man of the lord Edward, King of England, against all men.' "
p177: "...The closing years of Alexander's reign were overshadowed by dom- estic misfortunes and the prospects of difficulties about the succession. His wife, Margaret of England, had died in 1275, and was followed to the tomb by their two sons Alexander and David. A delicate girl, Margaret, then alone re- presented the direct line of descendants of Williamthe Lion. Margaret was mar- ried, when still young, to Eric, King of Norway and died in 1283 in giving birth to her only child, a daughter named Margaret. No children were born of Alexan- der's second marriage; and in March, 1286, the king broke his neck, when riding by night along the cliffs of the coast of Fife. Before his death, however, he persuaded the magnates of Scotland to recognise his granddaughter as his successor. The Maid of Norway, as Margaret was called, was proclaimedqueen, and the administration was put into the hands of six guardians, who from 1286 to 1289 carried on the government with fair success..."

Wall Chart of World History, 1988, Edward Hull, Studio Editions, Scotland 1249: "Alexander III, son of Alexander II, King of Scotland 1249-1285."

ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral File Ver 4.10 8XJ7-CP, and 8WKP-4G.

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   Marriage Information:

Alexander married Queen Margaret England SCOTLAND, daughter of King Henry ENGLAND, III and Queen Eleanor Provence ENGLAND, on 26 Dec 1251 in York, Yorkshire, England. (Queen Margaret England SCOTLAND was born on 5 Oct 1240 in Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England, died about 27 Feb 1274-1275 in Castle, Cupar, Fifeshire, Scotland and was buried in Dunfermline, Fifeshire, Scotland.)

   Marriage Information:

Alexander also married Yolande De DREUX, daughter of Count Jean De DREUX, I, on 14 Oct 1285. (Yolande De DREUX was born about 1263 in Dreux, , France and died on 2 Aug 1322.)