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darkside

Alexander III commemoration. Sunday, 16th March 2008.

Meet at Kingswood Hotel, just west of the monument, a little nearer Burntisland. The monument is below Pettycur Bay Caravan Park, between Burntisland and Kinghorn, at the side of the road. Details still to be arranged.

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Rinty · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 12:44 pm Post subject:

What are you commemorating?

darkside · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:17 pm Post subject:

A wee bit of the background rinty

azzuri · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:02 am Post subject:

So, Alexander was going to visit the queen at Kinghorn? Anyone else find this slightly ironic/funny?...

Very Happy

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Dave Coull · Independentista Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 812

Azzuri asked "So, Alexander was going to visit the queen at Kinghorn? Anyone else find this slightly ironic/funny?..."

It's a bit ironic, isn't it, but, if I remember correctly, (and I haven't looked this up to check yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm remembering what I've read about this before right) it seems like it really might have been a case of the king died because he was feeling horny. This queen wasn't Alexander's first wife, he was a widower who had recently re-married. Although Alexander was forty four years old, his queen was a lot younger, and a very attractive lassie. It was a very wild and stormy night and the courtiers who were with Alexander thought it best to make an overnight stay, I think this was at Inverkeithing. Alexander said, no, I'm going to be with the queen. They replied "but you'll get your death a night like this". But Alexander was determined and he rode on alone. And he got his death a night like that, just like he'd been warned. And all because he was desperate to be with his queen.

azzuri · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:48 am Post subject:

Dave Coull · Independentista Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 812

Azzuri says "I heard a very similar story Dave, so this is probably true..."

It turns out that the bit Darkside quoted was from Wikipedia. But what Darkside didn't mention was that Alexander and his twenty-years-old French second cousin Yolande were married in November 1285, so his death in March 1286 was just four months into a marriage to a French lassie twenty four years younger than himself. Okay, so he was probably desperate to fulfil his duty to produce an heir, as well as feeling randy. On the other hand, the Lanercost Chronicle, which was started by monks before Alick the Third's time and continued after his time, claims that, during the ten years between him becoming a widower and getting married again, "he used never to forbear on account of season nor storm, nor for perils of flood or rocky cliffs, but would visit none too creditably nuns or matrons, virgins or widows, as the fancy seized him, sometimes in disguise". Mind you, as with all sources, you have to be aware of the probability of bias.