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darkside
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Alexander III commemoration. Sunday, 16th March 2008.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
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What are you commemorating?
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darkside
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A wee bit of the background rinty
| Quote: | | But the sudden death of the king dashed all such hopes. Alexander died in a fall from his horse in the dark while riding to visit the queen at Kinghorn in Fife on 19 March 1286. Alexander became separated from his guides and it is assumed that in the dark his horse lost its footing. The 44-year old king was found dead on the shore the following morning. Some texts have said that he fell off a cliff. Although there is no cliff at the site where his body was found there is a very steep rocky embankment - which would have been fatal in the dark. After Alexander's death, his strong realm was plunged into a period of darkness that would eventually lead to war with England. Had Alexander, who was a strong monarch, lived, things might have worked out differently (Ashley 2002, p. 156). He was buried in Dunfermline Abbey. |
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azzuri
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So, Alexander was going to visit the queen at Kinghorn? Anyone else find this slightly ironic/funny?...
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Dave Coull
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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.
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azzuri
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| Dave Coull wrote: | 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. |
I heard a very similar story Dave, so this is probably true...
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Dave Coull
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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.
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