Alexander III of Scotland (4 September 1241-19 March 1286) was the King of Scotland from 1249 to 1286, succeeding Alexander II of Scotland and preceding Margaret, Maid of Norway.
Biography[]
Alexander in 1257
The son of Alexander II of Scotland, Alexander MacAlexandair was of Scottish, English, French, and Italian descent, as he was a descendant of Henry II of England and William V on Montferrat. He became King of Scotland upon his father's death when he was only eight years old, and by the time he was mature, he was a poor commander with no chivalry, yet was a good manager of his lands.
In 1258, he married Margaret of England, the daughter of Henry III of England, making him the son-in-law of King Henry and thus a member of England's ruling dynasty. He formed an alliance with England, securing his southern border, and he began to unify Scotland in 1261, capturing Inverlochly from the Scots rebels. When the Norwegians invaded in 1268 and war began in 1271, Alexander occupied all of the Kingdom of the Isles' islands and ended Norway's rule in Britannia.
King Alexander III was responsible for the destruction of the Kingdom of the Isles, which fragmented into many isolated rebel islands in the aftermath of the death of Magnus VI of Norway in 1281, and Alexander had one less threat to deal with. He could look to the Kingdom of Ireland across the sea as a new target; a pre-emptive invasion would deal with the threat that a nearly-united Ireland could pose. However, his formidable ally of England was facing issues with the Baron's Alliance, as well as with the Principality of Wales. His wife died in 1275, leaving Alexander as a widower who would have brief sexual relationships with several women, sometimes disguising himself, and he eventually made Margaret, Maid of Norway his heir after he could bear no children. He died in 1286, leading to a succession crisis that King Edward I of England exploited by invading Scotland.