Alexander I succeeds as King of Scots

The first of the three Scottish kings named Alexander was one of the many sons of Malcolm Canmore, Macbeth’s killer, and his second wife, the saintly Queen Margaret. A pious Anglo-Saxon princess, who arrived in Scotland with a great deal of money and a piece of the True Cross, she decided to bring the benefits of Roman Catholic Christianity and English civilization to Scotland as well.

Though Malcolm Canmore was from the old Celtic royal line, he was sufficiently smitten to let his wife give their children English names. The eldest boy was named Edward, after her father, and another was called Edgar after her brother. The fifth son, Alexander, was apparently named after either Pope Alexander II or Alexander the Great and the youngest, David, after either the Welsh saint or the Old Testament King David.