

ALEXANDER JAKOSLAWITZ NEVSKOJ. 



Uu. ntmrian. be derived the epiUM or surname by which he i* known 

 ia SeoMish kMtory. The oU esuoicl.r, Wyuton. says 



*> Fra that 4ar fceta hi. nets* ill 

 r4 hun Alnaader the Plere* to call." 



Alsisaitst (how*! equal spirit In resisting foreign encroachment* 

 pea the ladepeadsna* of hi* kingdom. During hii niga the arch- 

 bhbmn of Osaterbury and York claimed episcopal jurisdiction in 

 BealUid ; but Ih. determination of the Scottish king at length coin- 

 pelted the Kafluh prelaUe to give up the contest. St Andrew's, and 

 amral of Uw otbr innlisllilicil foundation! of Sootland, were Urgely 

 ladiH.J to the booaty of Alexander. He founded a church, in 1128. 

 n the Me of iDcboolm, in tb* Krith of Korth, in the neighbourhood 

 f whicb. bo bad aearly perished in a tempest. He died at Stirling, 

 without tearing ; legitimate iwue, on the S7th of April, 1124, and 

 wm* meeeeded by hi* brother David I. Alexander had married 

 Sibilto, taw natural daughter of Heury I. of England. She died sud- 

 denly, at Loohtev, on the IStb of June, 1182. 



ALtXANDKK II.. king of Scotland, wa* born at Haddington on 

 the Sllh of August (St Bartholomew'* Day), 1198. He succeeded 

 hi* father, William UM Lion, on the 4th of December, 1214, and was 

 orowiKd at Soooe on the following day. He began hi* reign by enter- 

 ing into a leaiue with th* English baron* who were confederated 

 agauwt King John engaging to aid them in their insurrection, on 



m of befog put in possession of the northern counties of 

 bis led to several devastating i 



aafstao. TBSJ led to several devastating incursion* into each other's 

 dnnininsM by the two kings. Tho death of John, in October, 1216, 

 pat an sad to their hostilities ; and the following year Alexander con- 

 cluded a treaty of peace with Henry III., one of the conditions being 

 that Alexander should espouse Henry'* eldest sister, the Princes* 

 Joan. Tbi* marriage accordingly took place on the 25th of June, 1221. 

 In the course of the following thirteen yean Scotland was disturbed 

 by asumctions which broke out successively in Argyle, in Caithness, 

 in Murray, and in Galloway; ail of which, however, Alexander put 

 down. Hi* connexion with the royal family of England preserved 

 peso* between the two countries, and led to considerable intercourse 

 between the SoottUh king and his brother-in-law, whom he repeatedly 

 visited at London. The death of Queen Joan without issue, on the 

 4th of March, 1288, and the marriage of Alexander, on the 15th of 

 May in the following year, with Mary, daughter of a French nobleman, 

 Ingelram de Conei, broke this bond of amity ; and after some years of 

 mutual dissatisfaction and complaint, the two kings -prepared to decide 

 their differences by arms in 1244. By the intervention however of 

 some of the English nobility, bloodshed was prevented, after Alex- 

 ander had approached the border with an army, it is eaid, of 100,000 

 men ; and a peace was concluded at Newcastle in August of that year. 

 In 1-J47 another insurrection broke out in Galloway, which Alexander 

 BOOB suppressed. In the summer of 1249 he had set out at the head 

 of an army to repress a rebellion raised by Angus, Lord of Argyle, 

 when he wa* tak.n ill at Kerarry, a small island off the coast of 

 ArjryU, sad died there on the 8th of July. By hi* second marriage 

 he Uft an only son, bis successor, Alexander IIL Alexander II. bears 

 a high character in the page* of the ancient historians and chroniclers 

 of Scotland j and be appear, to have been a prince endowed with many 

 great qualities. Besides the ability with which he preserved both the 

 independence and the internal order of his kingdom, he is particularly 

 oslsbratid for bis regard to justice, and the wisdom and impartiality 

 wbiob be secured In the administration of the laws among all classes 

 of bis subject*. Thi* virtue in a king or governor never fails to attract 

 I>opularatUcbmeot and respect j accordingly, we are told by a con- 



" B1 l l J***J_niisn writer, Matthew Paris, that Alexander was descrv- 

 loMd, not only by his own subjects, but by the people of 

 Eafland likewise. He b usually characterised as altogether one of 

 the ablest and beat of the Scottish kings. 



ALKXANDKR III., king of Scotland, the son and successor of 

 Alsmaader II., was born at Roxburgh on the 4th of September, 1241. 



Jthoogh only eight yean old st his father's death, he was crowned at 

 *?**.V. ^ "' Mrn> h n. biahop of St Andrew's, on the 18th of 

 t. having previous to that ceremony been knighted by the 

 He bad already, when only a year old, been betrothed 

 Manarrt, the eldest daughter of the English king, Henry III. ; and 

 itaf the youth of both parties, the celebration of the mar- 

 ork on the 2Mb of December, 1251. The con- 

 -ther with the minority of his son in-law, gave 

 I for interfering, as he was anxious to do, in 



_.,,! as. _ 1 1 _ . i 



. - > reduce the Soottiab kings to the condition 

 of ~U. Tb. .Btetat talents however which Alexander begw to 



t^^L^^^'f^^^^'^'^ Wio 

 JoBrfaioos, .effectually thwarted the 8 further 



ftl^Stn " l !T^K b * ke|li " i 1 **"" wlth 



Wbsria-iaw. fa 12*0 be vWted London with hi* queen. In 



February, 1261, the queen WM delivered at Windsor of a daughter, 

 who wan named Margaret 



On the 1st of October, 1264, Haoo, king of Norway, after having 

 ravaged the Western Islands, approached the coast of Ayrshire at the 

 head of a numerous fleet Every preparation had been made by the 

 Scottish king to meet this formidable armament ; but when only a 

 small portion of the Norwegian troop* had landed, a tempest of unu- 

 sual fury suddenly arose, aud drove nearly all the ships on ihore or 

 otherwise destroyed them. The attack of the Scottish soldiers and 

 peasantry completed the destruction of the invading force ; and Haco 

 with difficulty mada his escape, only to die of a broken heart a few 

 month* afterwards. Next year, Magnus, Haco'a successor, agreed to 

 relinquish to the king of Scotland the Hebrides and the Isle of Man 

 for the sum of 4000 mark*, and a small yearly quit-rent. In U 

 peaoe between the two kingdoms was further consolidated by tho 

 marriage of Alexander's daughter, Margaret, to the Norwegian" king 

 Krir, then a youth of fourteen. Margaret died in 1288, but left a 

 daughter of the same name, commonly designated the ' Maiden of 

 Norway,' who eventually became the successor of hor grandfather on 

 the Scottish throne. 



The successful resistance which, seconded by his clergy, ho offered 

 to an attempt of the Pope to levy certain new imposts in his dominion", 

 is almost the only other act in Alexander's reign which history has 

 commemorated. Under hi* sway, Scotland appears to have enjoyed 

 a tranquillity to which she had long been a stranger, and which she 

 did not regain for many year* after his decease. The death of hi* 

 daughter Margaret however was the first of a succession of calamities. 

 Soon after her nuptials, Alexander, the prince of Scotland, the king's 

 only *on, who was born in 1203. had isponsed Margaret, daughter of 

 Guy, earl of Flanders ; but he also died without issue on the 28th of 

 January, 1284. On the 16th of April, 1285, tho king, having sonic 

 time before lost his fiwt wife, married Joletta, daughter of the Count 

 de Dreux, in the hope of leaving a male heir. But on the 1 

 March, 1286, as he was riding in a dark night between Burnt 

 and Kinghorn, on the banks of the Krith of Forth in Fifeshire, he was 

 thrown with his horse over a precipice, at a turn of the road about a 

 mile west from Kiughorn, and killed on the spot Tho place, which is 

 called the King's \Vud End, is still pointed out A cross was erected 

 upon tho spot, but it has long since disappeared. The death of Alex- 

 ander, followed as it wa* in a few years by that of the Maiden of 

 Norway, left Scotland to contend at once with the internal distractions 

 arising from a disputed succession, and with all the art and force 

 employed by a powerful neighbour to effect its subjugation. Alex- 

 ander was also lamented by his subjects on account of his own wisdom 

 and virtues. The country had never before enjoyed such prosperity, 

 and Scotland may be said, during this reign, to have passed from semi- 

 barbarism to civilisation. It was then that its intercourse with England 

 first became considerable, and that it began to acquire an acquaintance 

 with the arts and manners of what we may call European life. Alex- 

 ander also improved and completed the system for the dispensation of 

 justice which had been introduced by hia father; he divided the 

 country into four districts for that purpose, and made an annual pro- 

 gress through it in person for hearing appeals from the decisions of 

 the ordinary judges. He was long affectionately remembered in Scot- 

 land ; and the old chronicler Wynton has preserved tho following 

 verse* respecting him, which are extremely interesting, as being tho 

 most ancient specimen of the Scottish dialect now extant : 



" Quhrn Alexander ouro King was dcde, 

 Dat Scotland led in luwc (lore) and Ic (law), 

 Away WM soni of ale and brcdo, 

 Of wyne and wax, of gamrn (gamboling) and gle. 

 Core gold was changed into lede. 

 ChiUt, born into rlrgvnj-te, 

 Succour Scotland, and rrroede, 

 Dat itad (placed) i In perplezytu." 



ALEXANDER JAROSLAtt'ITZ NEVSKOJ enjoyed a high renown 

 among his countrymen for bravery, prudence, and religious zeal : ho 

 has been celebrated in many a Russian ballad, and is still venerated 

 by tho present generation. He was the second son of the Grand Duke 

 Jaroslaw II. Wscladowitz, and was born at Vladimir in 1219. At the 

 period when his father ruled over Novogorod (in 123"), the Tartarc, 

 with a very largo army, under the command of the Khan of Kaptshak, 

 a grandson of Gengis Khan, invaded Russia, desolated the country in 

 the most cruel manner, overran it oven to the Upper Volga, and 

 exacted the most degrading submission from the Russian prince*. 

 Jaroslaw, though not immediately attacked by the Tartars in his own 

 Principality of Novogorod, found it advisable to repair to tho great 

 Tartar horde stationed at that time in the region of the modern city 

 of Kasau, to pay homage to Batu-Khan. From this khan he r 

 the grand duchy of Vla.litnir, to be held as a fief, made Pvrjaslawl his 

 reddencc, and as his elder *on Feodor had died in 1232, he entrusted 

 Alexander the younger with the government of Novogorod. Returning 

 a second time to the great horde, and there remonstrating against 

 certain unreasonable Tartarian commands, he nut with ill tre:n 

 and ili. d on hi* homeward journey, in the month of September, 1245. 



Alexander succeeded hi* father in tho fief uf Vladimir, the pos- 

 session of which was confirmed to him by Batii-Klmn. Alex 

 while his father wa still alive, had distinguished himself I 



