Royal Profile: Alexander III of Scotland

Statue of Alexander III above the West Door of St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh

     Alexander was born in Roxburgh on September 4, 1241 as the only son of Alexander II and his second wife, Marie de Coucy. His grandfather was William I (the Lion), one of Scotland's longest-reigning and most illustrious monarchs.

     At the age of seven, Alexander's father died and he succeeded to the Scottish throne as Alexander III on July 6, 1249, and his coronation was held one week later at Scone on Moot Hill.

     His early reign as King of Scots was dominated by a power struggle between the two regents who governed in his name: Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith, and Alan Durward, Justiciar of Scotia, who eventually patched their difference and agreed to the establishment of a regency that was representative of both men and their factions. On Christmas Day 1051, Alexander was knighted at York by Henry III of England and was married to his daughter, Margaret. The new father-in-law attempted to extract homage from Alexander, so as to recognize Henry as his overlord, but to no avail.

     In 1262, King Alexander reached his majority at the age of 21, and took personal possession of his kingdom. He pledged to continue the program launched by his father to lay claim to the Western Isles (off of Scotland's western coast) from Norway. Hakkon IV of Norway rejected this claim and mounted an invasion force off the coast of the Isle of Arran in 1263. Alexander outwardly sued for peace by calling for negotiations over the future of the Isles, but shrewdly waited until the autumn (with usually bad weather) could begin. Hakkon attacked, and as Alexander expected, a storm came through which damaged the Norwegian fleet and undermined Hakkon's position. Nevertheless, the Norwegians went forward and engaged with the Scots at the Battle of Largs in Ayrshire.

The thistle became Scotland's floral emblem during Alexander's reign

     Prior to the battle taking place, it is believed that the Norwegian soldiers attempted to sneak up on a Scottish encampment by taking their shoes off to reduce noise. One of the soldiers stepped on a prickly thistle and yelled out in pain, resulting in the Scottish soldiers being alerted to the advancing Norsemen. Regardless of the veracity of this account, what is true is that this battle lead to the defeat of the Norwegians and Hakkon was forced to give up the Western Isles and the Isle of Mann to Scotland under the Treaty of Perth of 1266. It is also possible that King Alexander adopted the thistle as Scotland’s floral emblem following the conflict.

     The rest of Alexander's reign was marked by relative peace and prosperity in Scotland. He established good relations with his brother-in-law, Edward I of England, and with his wife (and Edward's sister) Margaret, he attended Edward's coronation at Westminster Abbey on August 19, 1274 . Alexander may have also attended a sitting of the English Parliament as a guest of Edward.

King Alexander seen here as a guest of King Edward at the Parliament of England.

     Alexander III and Queen Margaret had three children: Margaret (who married Eric II of Norway), Alexander, and David, and all three preceded the death of their father. The Queen also died in 1275, and following the death of Prince Alexander in 1284, the Parliament of Scotland voted to make the King's granddaughter, Margaret, the Maid of Norway, his heiress presumptive. 

     At the age of 44, Alexander remarried to Yolande de Dreux - daughter of the Count of Dreux - in the hope of fathering another direct male heir, but he himself perished in a riding accident when his horse stumbled and he fell from a cliff near Kinghorn, Fife on March 19, 1286.

     Upon his death, Margaret, Maid of Norway became Queen of Scots - and the first queen regnant of the British Isles - at the age of three, but died in transit to Scotland four years later. This triggered a succession and constitutional crisis, which resulted in John Balliol ascending to the throne after the adjudication of his and other nobleman's claims by Edward I of England and the Guardians of Scotland.

     Alexander III was buried at Dunfermline Abbey along with his first wife and two sons. His successful and relatively peaceful reign was replaced by more than four decades of political instability, which included the failed reign of John Balliol, English occupation, and the Scottish Wars of Independence. His loss was lamented in the following poem by Andrew of Wyntoun:

Quhen Alysandyr oure kyng was dede,

That Scotland led in luve and le,

Away was sons of ale and brede,

Of wyne and wax of gamyn and gle.

Oure gold was changed into lede,

Cryst, born into vyrgynyte,

Succoure Scotland and remede,

That stat is in perplexyte.

Photo Credit: Kim Traynor via Wikimedia Commons cc, Sodacan via Wikimedia Commons cc

Royal History Today: March 7

Death of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox

     Margaret Douglas was born on October 8, 1515 to Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus and Margaret Tudor, who was the Queen Dowager of Scots as her first husband was the deceased James IV of Scotland.

     The younger Margaret was therefore a granddaughter of Henry VII of England and a niece of Henry VIII, with whom she had a mostly favorable relationship. She grew up in the English court, mostly in association with her cousin and close friend, Mary Tudor (the future Mary I of England).

     Margaret became a lady-in waiting for Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, and it was during this time that she fell in love with Boleyn's uncle, Lord Thomas Howard - the younger son of the Duke of Norfolk - and the pair became secretly engaged. King Henry executed Anne in 1536, and did not want one of her relatives to marry Margaret, who was now heiress presumptive to the English throne because Henry had declared his daughters (Mary and Elizabeth) bastards. He had Margaret and Lord Howard committed to the Tower of London and the Act of Attainder was passed, which forbade marriage into the King's family without his permission. Margaret was released, but Howard eventually died in the Tower. Four years later, she had another affair, this time with Howard's half-nephew, Sir Charles Howard, who was also a half-nephew of Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard.

     This relationship was called off, and Margaret married Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox, a Scottish nobleman in 1544. Together, they had two children - one of whom, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley married Mary, Queen of Scots. This marriage united their claims to the English throne and paved the way for their son, James VI of Scotland - whose grandfather Matthew served as a regent during his minority - to ascend to the English throne as James I.

     Margaret died in 1578, and though she was mired in debt, she was given an impressive funeral at Westminster Abbey at the expense of Elizabeth I of England, and was buried in the same vault as her younger son, Charles at the Henry VII Lady Chapel in the Abbey.

Birth of Antony Armstrong-Jones, Earl of Snowdon

     Antony Armstrong-Jones was born as the only son of barrister Ronald Armstrong-Jones and his wife, Anne.

     At a young age, Antony's parents separated and he contracted polio, from which he spent six months recuperating while at Liverpool Royal Infirmary. His education consisted of two boarding schools: Sandroyd School in Wiltshire and Eton, as well as Jesus College at the University of Cambridge, where he studied architecture, but failed his final exams. In 1950, he steered the winning Cambridge boat in the 1950 Boat Race.

     Upon graduation, he took up a career in photography, and gained a reputation for taking portraits of the rich and famous. Among his early subjects were Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, whom he had photographed for their 1957 Canadian tour.

     On May 6, 1960, Armstrong-Jones married the Queen's sister, Princess Margaret at Westminster Abbey, and he was made Earl of Snowdon (in reference to his Welsh ancestry) and Viscount Linley in the following year. They had two children: David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley (1961) and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones (1964), and the family lived in apartments at Kensington Palace.

     However, the marriage got into trouble within a few years in part because of the demands of royal duties that often conflicted with Earl Snowdon's photography career, which he refused to give up. Indeed, his marriage into the Royal family burnished his standing as a society photographer. He became one Britain's most respected photographers as an artistic adviser for the Sunday Times and a portriat-maker of VIP's, life on the streets, fashion engagements, and more - with his work published in major newspapers and magazine's across the world. In 1969, he also helped to organize the investiture of his nephew Prince Charles as Prince of Wales.

     Nevertheless, marriage life became more fractured as both he and Margaret asserted separate identities independent of each other and engaged in extramarital affairs. In 1978, Margaret's relationship with Roddy Llewellyn (who was 18 years her junior) was revealed, and she and Snowdon divorced.

    Later that year, Snowdon married Lucy Mary Lindsay-Hogg, with whom he had one daughter, Lady Frances Armstrong-Jones. They divorced in 2000 after it was revealed that he had fathered a son with another woman.

     In 2001, Photographs by Snowdon: A Retrospective was opened at the National Portrait Gallery, and went on tour - displaying 180 photographs taken by Lord Snowdon throughout his career, which was described by museums as "rounded...with sharp edges."

Ten Facts You May Not Know About the Monarchy

1. The official residence of the British monarch is St. James's Palace, though no sovereign has lived there in over 200 years. It is the most senior royal palace in the United Kingdom, having been built in 1536 by Henry VIII, and therefore gives its name to the the royal court - the Court of St. James. Ambassadors and high commissioners are still accredited to the Court.

2. Buckingham Palace has been the official London residence of the monarch since 1837, and is the administrative headquarters of the monarchy.

3. The monarchy can trace its roots over a thousand years back to the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England and early Scotland.

4. Richard II of England is the only king to have been married and buried at Westminster Abbey.

5. It is illegal to call, in print, for the abolition of the monarchy and the punishment is life imprisonment. The law dates back to 1848, and also makes it a crime to "imagine" overthrowing the Crown or waging war against it, but the law has not been enforced since 1879.

6. By tradition, monarch's are forbidden to enter the House of Commons at the Palace of Westminster. Charles I did so in 1642 to unsuccessfully arrest five of its members for treason, which led the First English Civil War. George VI briefly visited the Commons in 1950 to view the reconstruction work that had taken place following the Nazi bombings during World War II.

7.  The British monarch is also reigns over the Channel Islands as the Duke of Normandy, since the islands - which are off the coast of France - are the remains of the Duchy of Normandy and are not part of the United Kingdom. Along with the Isle of Man, they are known as Crown Dependencies.

8.  Edward VIII is the only monarch to have voluntarily abdicated the throne.

9.  The monarchy is the oldest-functioning political institution in Europe.

10. In the United Kingdom, the full title and style of the reigning monarch is:

Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.