Alexander (of Scotland) II

King of Scots, born in Haddington, East Lothian, E Scotland, UK, who succeeded his father, William I, in 1214. He allied with the disaffected English barons and made an incursion as far S as Dover. The accession of Henry III of England allowed a rapprochement, cemented by his marriage in 1221 to Henry's sister, Joan, and the frontier question was settled by the Treaty of York (1237). Her death without children in 1238, and Alexander's marriage to the daughter of a Picardy nobleman, Marie de Coucy, then strained relations with England. His reign is notable for the vigorous assertion of royal authority in the W Highlands and the SW during the years of peace with England.

Alexander II (August 24, 1198 – July 6, 1249), King of Scots, was the son of William the Lion and Ermengarde of Beaumont. In the same year Alexander joined the English barons in their struggle against John I of England, and led an army into the Kingdom of England in support of their cause; Diplomacy further strengthened the reconciliation by the marriage of Alexander to Henry's sister Joan of England on June 18 or June 25, 1221. Soon afterwards a claim for homage from Henry of England drew forth from Alexander a counter-claim to the northern English counties.

Joan died in March, 1238 in Essex, and in the following year, 1239, Alexander remarried. The marriage took place on May 15, 1239, and produced one son, the future Alexander III, born in 1241. Alexander next attempted to dissuade Ewen, the son of Duncan, Lord of Argyll, to sever his allegiance to Haakon IV of Norway. His son Alexander III succeeded him as King of Scots. Marie de Coucy, who became mother of Alexander III of Scotland