ALEXANDER III. (1241-1285), king of Scotland, son of
Alexander II. by his second wife Mary de Coucy, was born in
1241. At the age of eight years the death of his father
called him to the throne. The years of his minority were
marked by 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, the justiciar. The
former was in the ascendant during the early years of the
reign. At the marriage of Alexander to Margaret of England in
1251, Henry III. seized the opportunity to demand from his
son-in-law homage for the Scottish kingdom, but the claim was
refused. In 1255 an interview between the English and Scottish
kings at Kelso resulted in the deposition of Menteith and his
party in favour of their opponents. 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. On attaining his majority in 1262, Alexander declared
his intention of resuming the projects on the Western Isles which
had been cut short by the death of his father thirteen years
before. A formal claim was laid before the Norwegian king
Haakon. Not only was this unsuccessful, but next year Haakon
replied by a formidable invasion. Sailing round the west
coast of Scotland he halted off Arran, where negotiations were
opened. These were artfully prolonged by Alexander until
the autumn storms should begin. At length Haakon, weary of
delay, attacked, only to encounter a terrific storm which
greatly damaged his ships. The battle of Largs, fought next
day, was indecisive. But even so Haakon's position was
hopeless. Baffled he turned homewards, but died on the
way. The Isles now lay at Alexander's feet, and in 1266
Haakon's successor concluded a treaty by which the Isle of
Man and the Western Isles were ceded to Scotland in return for
a money payment, Orkney and Shetland alone being retained.
Towards the end of Alexander's reign, the death of all his
three 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 grand-daughter
Margaret, the "Maid of Norway," and next year the desire for
a male heir led him to contract a second marriage. But all
such hopes were defeated by the sudden death of the king, who
was killed by a fall from his horse in the dark while riding
to visit the queen at Kinghorn on the 16th of March 1285.
This article is from the 1911 edition of an
encyclopedia, which is out of copyright here in the U.S. It is in the
public domain and you may copy, download, print and distribute this work
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Every effort has been made to present this text accurately and
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