Alexander III (Medieval Gaelic: Alaxandair mac Alaxandair;
Modern Gaelic: Alasdair mac Alasdair) (4 September 1241 – 19
March 1286), King of Scots, was born at Roxburgh, the only son
of Alexander II by his second wife Marie de Coucy. Alexander's
father died on 6 July 1249 and he became king at the age of
eight, inaugurated at Scone on 13 July 1249. The years of his
minority featured an embittered struggle for the control of
affairs between two rival parties, the one led by Walter Comyn,
Earl of Menteith, the other by Alan Durward, Justiciar of
Scotia. The former dominated the early years of Alexander's
reign. At the marriage of Alexander to Margaret of England in
1251, Henry III seized the opportunity to demand from his son-
in-law homage for the Scottish kingdom, but Alexander did not
comply. In 1255 an interview between the English and Scottish
kings at Kelso led to Menteith and his party losing to Durward's
party. But though disgraced, they still retained great
influence, and two years later, seizing the pe