The boy who became Scotland's greatest medieval king
On 13 July 1249, Alexander III was crowned King of Scots at Scone Abbey at the age of seven. The ceremony followed the ancient tradition of Scottish kingship — the young king was seated upon the Stone of Destiny, the sacred coronation stone that had been used for centuries. A Highland bard recited Alexander's genealogy in Gaelic, tracing his lineage back through the mists of Scottish legend. It was the last time a king would be crowned upon the Stone before Edward I stole it in 1296.
Alexander's minority was turbulent, as factions of the Scottish nobility competed to control the young king and the government. Henry III of England attempted to dominate Scottish affairs through Alexander's marriage to his daughter Margaret, but Alexander proved far more independent than anyone expected. By the time he reached adulthood, he had asserted royal authority with a firmness that would define his reign.
Alexander III presided over what many historians consider the golden age of medieval Scotland. His reign of thirty-seven years brought unprecedented peace and prosperity. The western seaboard was secured by the Treaty of Perth in 1266, which brought the Hebrides under Scottish control after centuries of Norse rule. Trade flourished. The burghs grew wealthy. Scotland was a stable, prosperous, and respected European kingdom — a remarkable achievement in an age of constant warfare.
The catastrophe came on the stormy night of 19 March 1286. Alexander, desperate for an heir after the deaths of all his children from his first marriage, rode through a tempest from Edinburgh to reach his young second wife Yolande at Kinghorn in Fife. His horse stumbled on the cliffs above the Forth, and the king was killed. His death plunged Scotland into the succession crisis that Edward I of England ruthlessly exploited, leading directly to the Wars of Independence. A memorial on the cliffs at Kinghorn marks the spot where Alexander fell — and where Scotland's golden age came to a violent end.