Alexander I (Scotland)

Alexander I 1078?-1124, king of Scotland (1107-24), son of Malcolm III and St. Margaret of Scotland. He succeeded his brother Edgar, who had divided the kingdom so that Alexander ruled only N of the Forth and Clyde rivers, while his brother David ruled in the south. Early in his reign he decisively quelled an uprising in N Scotland. Like his mother, Alexander encouraged ecclesiastical conformity with English ways and established several monasteries, including the abbeys at Inchcolm and Scone. David succeeded him as David I.

Alexander I (c.1078–1124) King of Scotland (1107–24). He succeeded his brother Edgar although the regions of Strathclyde, Lothian, and Cumbria were ruled with Anglo-Norman support by his younger brother (later DAVID I). Educated in England, Alexander encouraged the feudalization of his country while still retaining its independence of England. After crushing a Celtic revolt (c.1115) he was styled “the Fierce” although he was a pious man, founding Augustinian houses at Scone (1115) and Inchcolm. He refused the Bishop of St Andrews (1120, 1124) leave to acknowledge the ecclesiastical authority of York or Canterbury.