Known as 'the Fierce'
King of Scotland (1107-24)
Born c 1077 Died 1124
Alexander was the fifth son of Malcolm III and Margaret of Scotland, named after the Pope Alexander II. He became king on the death of his brother Edgar in 1107. However in accordance with the terms of Edgar's will, he only inherited Scotland itself whilst the southern territories of Strathclyde and Lothian were bequeathed to his younger brother David.
Whilst this was similar to the arrangement that had been made between Donald III and Edmund in the years between 1094 and 1097, it was not entire clear what Edgar's motivation was for this division. In any event Alexander appears to have been dissatisfied with this arrangement and considered taking action to 'recover' the south but was dissuaded by the strength of Anglo-Norman military support that brother David, also Earl of Huntingdon, could command.
Like his brothers Duncan and Edgar he had spent much time in England and seems to have been on friendly terms with Henry I throughout his reign. On becoming king he was married to Sybilla one of the many illegitimate offspring of Henry I and later in the year 1114 commanded a force during one of Henry's many incursions into Wales.
Alexander clearly inherited his mother's views in the matter of religion, and was a keen advocate of the 'modernisation' of the Scottish church in line with new Anglo-Norman practices imported from the continent. He was a generous benefactor to the church and endowed a number of abbeys including Inchcolm and Scone. But he was also a keen believer in the independence of the Scottish Church and rejected the attempts of the Archbishop of York to exercise his jurisdiction in Scotland.
He was described by one medieval chronicler as;
a lettered and godly man, very humble and amiable towards the clerics and regulars, but terrible beyond measure to the rest of his subjects1
It was the 'rest of his subjects' that gave him his name 'the Fierce' in honour of his brutal surpression of a rebellion in Moray 2 early on in his reign, and his continued vigorous action against various other insurrections which later broke out in his kingdom.
His marriage to Sybilla failed to produce any children and she died suddenly in the year 1122 and Alexander did not remarry after her death. This left Alexander bereft of any legitimate heir.
One of the more interesting historical speculations is to conjecture what would have happened, had Alexander's marriage produced a male heir that could have succeeded him as king, as it raises the interesting possibility that the line of David would have continued as rulers of Strathclyde-Lothian and that it might have developed as an entirely separate north British kingdom.
In any event when Alexander died in Stirling on the 23rd April 1124, although his illegitimate son Malcolm made a brief attempt to claim the throne for himself, it was his younger brother David that took over and 're-united' the kingdom.
The Chronicle of Melrose recorded his reign with the following eulogy;
The reign of King Alexander made heavy the ears of corn;
After seventeen (years) and eight months,
Throughout Scotland there was a firm peace;
It was said that death overtook the king in Stirling.
NOTES
1 Quoted by www.caledonia-net.co.uk and various other sources without attributing a particular chronicler.
2 Macbeth of course was mormaer of Moray and the the district continued to be a centre of resistence to the Norman Canmore kings for many years to come. Surpressing a 'rebellion in Moray' became a regular feature of their reigns.
SOURCES
The Chronicle of Melrose together with articles on Alexander I at
www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page107.asp and
www.caledonia-net.co.uk/Documents/A/alexander1.htm