The marriage of the Infanta Donna Eleanor of Castile with Prince Edward, heir to throne of England, happily terminated a war which her brother, King Alphonse, was waging with Henry III, King of England. She was daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile and Joanna, Countess of Ponthieu, who had many years before been contracted to Henry III. Joanna inherited Ponthieu from her grandmother, the Princess Alice of France, whose repudiation by Richard Coeur de Lion (for the lovely Berengaria) in the preceding century had involved Europe in war.
Alexander III "the Glorious" ,King of Scotland
Alexander III (1249-86)
Born in 1241, the only son of Alexander II and his second wife, Marie de Coucy, Alexander became king at the age of seven, on the death of his father. On Christmas Day 1251, when he was ten, he was knighted at York by Henry III, and the following day he was married to the English monarch's eldest daughter Princess Margaret. Alexander proved a strong-willed king who, despite the English influence in his youth, refused to swear homage for his kingdom. He continued his father's efforts to establish Scottish mastery of the Isles. In 1263 his army inflicted a notable defeat on Haco, King of Norway at the Battle of Largs in Ayrshire. The Norwegians were subsequently forced to concede to him the Western Isles and the Isle of Man, under the treaty of Perth in 1266.
Alexander established good relations with his brother-in-law Edward I. On 19 August 1274, Alexander and Margaret attended the coronation of her brother in Westminster Abbey. Margaret died six months later, leaving three children. Within a few years, Alexander suffered a further series of family tragedies. His younger son David died in 1281 at the age of eight, his daughter Margaret, who had married King Eric of Norway, died in childbirth in 1283, and his elder son Alexander died childless in 1284 after a long illness. A week after the prince's death, the Scottish Parliament recognised Margaret, the little daughter of Eric and Margaret, as the heir presumptive to the Scottish throne. .
© 2001, Saul M. Montes-Bradley. All Rights Reserved