SCOTLAND, King Alexander III

1241 - 1286  (44 years)  Submit Photo / Document

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• Name	SCOTLAND, Alexander
  Prefix	King
  Suffix	III
  Birth	4 Sep 1241	Roxburgh, Roxburghshire, Scotland
  Gender	Male
  _TAG	Reviewed on FS
  Death	19 Mar 1286	Fife, Fife, Scotland
  Burial	29 Mar 1286	Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I43386	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Father	SCOTLAND, King Alexander ,   b. 24 Aug 1198, Haddington, Lothian, Scotland Haddington, Lothian, Scotlandd. 8 Jul 1249, Kerrera, Argyleshire, Scotland (Age 50 years)
  Mother	COUCY, Queen Marie de ,   b. Abt 1218, Boves, Somme, Picardie, France Boves, Somme, Picardie, Franced. 1251, Roxburgh, Roxburghshire, Scotland (Age 33 years)
  Marriage	15 May 1239	Boves, Somme, Picardie, France
  Family ID	F16568	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	ENGLAND, Princess Margaret ,   b. 5 Oct 1240, Windsor, Berkshire, England Windsor, Berkshire, Englandd. 27 Feb 1275, Cupar, Fife, Scotland (Age 34 years)
  Marriage	York, Yorkshire, England
  Family ID	F23164	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

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• Notes

  The reign of Alexander III was notable for three major things. Firstly he was to succeed where his father, Alexander II, had failed in ridding the Western Isles of Scotland of Norse influence. Secondly, he was to make one Scottish family so powerful that they would be a rival to the future kings of Scotland in influence. Thirdly, his death was to plunge Scotland into a succession crisis that would ultimately lead to war with England. At the death of his father in 1249 Alexander was only eight years old. During his turbulent minority years Scotland was governed by rival factions that vied for influence. So bitter was the rivalry between the factions led respectively by the Earl of Mentieth and Alan Durward that at one point the infant king was kidnapped in an attempt to force a power-sharing arrangement. In 1251 Alexander was married to Margaret, the daughter of King Henry III of England. Henry attempted to force his young son-in-law to recognise him as overlord of Scotland. Despite his youth, the young king refused. In 1262 Alexander took direct control of his kingdom and set to work where his father had left off. Alexander made a formal claim that the Western Isles belonged to him alone. To back up his claim in 1262 Alexander sent a royal force to attack the Isle of Skye. This direct challenge to the Norwegian King did not go unnoticed." BBC Alexander had married Margaret (his 4th cousin by Henry I of England), daughter of King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence, on 25 December 1251.[3] She died in 1275, after they had had three children. Margaret (28 February 1261 – 9 April 1283), who married King Eric II of Norway[2] Alexander, Prince of Scotland (21 January 1264 Jedburgh – 28 January 1284 Lindores Abbey); buried in Dunfermline Abbey 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 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 Estates to recognize as his heir-presumptive his granddaughter Margaret, the "Maid of Norway". The need for a male heir led him to contract a second marriage to Yolande de Dreux[6] on 1 November 1285. Alexander died in a fall from his horse while riding in the dark to visit the queen at Kinghorn in Fife on 18 March 1286 because it was her birthday the next day.[7] He had spent the evening at Edinburgh Castle celebrating his second marriage and overseeing a meeting with royal advisors. He was advised by them not to make the journey to Fife because of weather conditions, but he travelled anyway. Alexander became separated from his guides and it is assumed that in the dark his horse lost its footing. The 44-year-old king was found dead on the shore the following morning with a broken neck. Some texts have said that he fell off a cliff.[8] Although there is no cliff at the site where his body was found, there is a very steep rocky embankment, which "would have been fatal in the dark."[9] After Alexander's death, his strong 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 seven-year-old granddaughter Margaret, Maid of Norway, became the heir. Margaret died, still uncrowned, on her way to Scotland in 1290. The inauguration of John Balliol as king on 30 November 1292 ended the six years of the Guardians of Scotland governing the land. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stewart_of_Bonkyll https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stewart_of_Bonkyll