III, Canmore, and Margaret of England, succeeded his brother Edgar in 1107,
and governed with great ability till his death in 1124. He was a great
benefactor of the Church, and a firm vindicator of the national
independence.--ALEXANDER II was born in 1198, and succeeded his father,
William the Lion, in 1214. He was a wise and energetic prince, and Scotland
prospered greatly under him, though disturbed by the Norsemen, by the
restlessness of some of the Celtic chiefs, and by the attempts of Henry III
of England to make Alexander do homage to him. He helped Robert FitzWilliam
to capture London and compel King John to sign Magna Charta. Alexander
married Henry's sister, Joan, in 1221, who lived till 1238. In 1244 war
with England almost broke out, but was fortunately averted. Alexander died
in 1248 at Kerrera, an island opposite Oban, when on an expedition in which
he hoped to wrest the Hebrides from Norway. He was succeeded by his son,
ALEXANDER III, a boy of eight, who in 1251 married Margaret, eldest
daughter of Henry III of England. Like his father, he was eager to bring
the Hebrides under his sway, and this he was enabled to accomplish in a few
years after the defeat of the Norse King Haco at Largs, in 1263. The
mainland and islands of Scotland were now under one sovereign, though
Orkney and Shetland still belonged to Norway. Alexander was strenuous in
asserting the independence both of the Scottish kingdom and the Scottish
Church against England. He died in 1285 by the falling of his horse while
he was riding in the dark between Burntisland and Kinghorn. He left as his
heiress Margaret, the Maid of Norway, daughter of Eric of Norway, and of
Alexander's daughter, Margaret. Under him Scotland enjoyed greater
prosperity than for generations afterwards.
ALEXANDER I, Emperor of Russia, son of Paul I and Maria, daughter of Prince
Eugene of Wuertemberg, was born in 1777, and died in 1825. On the
assassination of his father, in 1801, Alexander ascended the throne, and
one of his first acts was to conclude peace with Britain, against which his
predecessor had declared war. In 1803 he offered his services as mediator
between England and France, and two years later a convention was entered
into between Russia, England, Austria, and Sweden for the purpose of
resisting the encroachments of France on the territories of independent
States. He was present at the battle of Austerlitz (1805), when the
combined armies of Russia and Austria were defeated by Napoleon. In the
succeeding campaign the Russians were again beaten at Eylau (8th Feb.,
1807) and Friedland (14th June), the result of which was an interview
between Alexander and Napoleon, and the treaty at Tilsit. The Russian
emperor now for a time identified himself with the Napoleonic schemes, and
soon obtained possession of Finland and an extended territory on the
Danube. The French alliance, however, he found to be too oppressive, and
his having separated himself from Napoleon led to the disastrous French
invasion of 1812. In 1813 he published a manifesto which served as the
basis of the coalition of the other European powers against France, which
was followed by the capture of Paris (in 1814), the abdication of Napoleon
and the restoration of the Bourbons, and the utter overthrow of Napoleon
the following year. After Waterloo, Alexander, accompanied by the Emperor
of Austria and the King of Prussia, made his second entrance into Paris,
where they concluded the treaty known as the Holy Alliance. The remaining
part of his reign was chiefly taken up with measures of internal reform,
including the gradual abolition of serfdom, and the promotion of education,
agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, as well as literature and the fine
arts.
ALEXANDER II, Emperor of Russia, was born 29th April, 1818, and succeeded
his father Nicholas in 1855, before the end of the Crimean war. After peace
was concluded, the new emperor set about effecting reforms in the empire,
the greatest of all being the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, a measure
which gave freedom, on certain conditions, to 50,000,000 of human beings
who were previously in a state little removed from that of slavery. Under
him, too, representative assemblies in the provinces were introduced, and
he also did much to improve education, and to reorganize the judicial
system. During his reign the Russian dominions in Central Asia were
extended, a piece of territory south of the Caucasus, formerly belonging to
Turkey, was acquired, and a part of Bessarabia restored to Russia. The
latter additions resulted from the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8. He was
killed by an explosive missile flung at him by a Nihilist in a street in
St. Petersburg (now Petrograd), 13th March, 1881. He was succeeded by his
son, Alexander III. His only daughter was married to the Duke of Edinburgh.
ALEXANDER III, Emperor of Russia, son of Alexander II, born in 1845, became
heir to the throne on the death of his eldest brother, Nicholas (1865). In
1863 he married Princess Dagmar of Denmark; he succeeded to the throne in
1881, on the assassination of his father, being crowned in Moscow in 1883.
He gave up the reforms begun by his father, and ruled in the old autocratic
fashion, restricting the liberties of Finland and the Baltic Provinces, and
encouraging persecution of the Jews. He spent much time in the
closely-guarded castle of Gatchina, to be safe from Nihilistic attempts,
several of which he narrowly escaped. He endeavoured to put down corruption
and underhand dealing among the bureaucracy, and in his own habits gave an
example of simplicity and economy. While showing himself suspicious of
Germany and Austria-Hungary, he entered on friendly relations with France.
He began to suffer from disease of the kidneys in 1893, and died at Livadia
on 1st Nov., 1894. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Nicholas II.
ALEXANDER I, King of Serbia, born in 1876. He was the son of King Milan,
and on the abdication of his father in 1889 was proclaimed king under a
regency. He married Madame Draga Mashin, a widow, who was much older than
himself. Both were assassinated on 11th June, 1903.
ALEXANDER OF HALES. See _Hales, Alexander de._
ALEXANDER, Boyd, British explorer and naturalist, born in 1873. He led many
expeditions for research and exploration to the Cape Verde Islands, the
Zambesi River, and various parts of the world. He also discovered many new
birds when he ascended the Mount St. Isabel. In 1908 he received the gold
medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He was murdered by natives in May,
1910, while exploring the French Congo. He wrote _From the Niger to the
Nile_ (1907), &c. _Boyd Alexander's Last Journey_ was published in 1912.
ALEXANDER NEVSKOI, a Russian hero and saint, son of the Grand-Duke
Jaroslav, born in 1219, died in 1263. He fought valiantly against assaults
of the Mongols, the Danes, Swedes, and Knights of the Teutonic Order. He
gained the name of _Nevskoi_ in 1240, for a splendid victory, on the Neva,
over the Swedes. The gratitude of his countrymen commemorated the hero in
popular songs, and raised him to the dignity of a saint. Peter the Great
built a splendid monastery at St. Petersburg (Petrograd) in his honour, and
in memory of him established the Order of Alexander Nevskoi.
ALEXANDER SEVE'RUS, a Roman emperor, born in 208, died A.D. 235. He was
raised to the imperial dignity in A.D. 222 by the praetorian guards, after
they had put his cousin the Emperor Heliogabalus to death. He governed ably
both in peace and war; and also occupied himself in poetry, philosophy, and
literature. He was very tolerant in religious matters, and although not
professing Christianity intended to erect a temple to Christ, but was
prevented by the pagan priests from carrying out this plan. In 232 he
defeated the Persians under Artaxerxes, who wished to drive the Romans from
Asia. When on an expedition into Gaul, to repress an incursion of the
Germans, he was murdered with his mother in an insurrection of his troops,
headed by the brutal Maximin, who succeeded him as emperor.
ALEXANDERS (_Smyrnium Olus[=a]trum_), an umbelliferous biennial plant, a
native of the Mediterranean region, but found in Great Britain and Ireland.
It was formerly cultivated for its leaf-stalks, which, having a pleasant
aromatic flavour, were blanched and used instead of celery--a vegetable
that has taken its place.
ALEXANDRA, the queen mother, widow of Edward VII, daughter of Christian IX,
King of Denmark, was born at Copenhagen on 1st Dec., 1844, and was married
on 10th March, 1863, being Princess of Wales up to the death of Queen
Victoria and the accession of King Edward in Jan., 1901. She was highly
popular from the first in the country of her husband, as she constantly
showed an interest in all benevolent causes. She has been the mother of six
children, one of whom died in infancy, while the eldest, Edward, Duke of
Clarence and Avondale, died in 1892 at the age of twenty-eight. Cf. S. A.
Tooley, _Queen Alexandra_.
ALEXANDRET'TA, or ISKANDEROON (ancient ALEXANDRIA AD ISSUM), a small
seaport in Asia Minor, on the Gulf of Iskanderoon, the port of Aleppo and
Northern Syria. Named after Alexander the Great, and founded in memory of
the battle of Issus. In 1832 Mehemet Ali won a victory over the Turks near
Alexandretta. There is a large export and import trade. It was occupied by
British and French troops in Nov., 1918. Pop. 10,000.
ALEXAN'DRIA, an ancient city and seaport in Egypt, at the north-west angle
of the Nile delta, on a ridge of land between the sea and Lake Mareotis.
Ancient Alexandria was founded by, and named in honour of, Alexander the
Great, in 332 B.C., and was long a great and splendid city, the centre of
commerce between the east and west, as well as of Greek learning and
civilization, with a population at one time of perhaps 1,000,000. It was
especially celebrated for its great library, and also for its famous
lighthouse, one of the wonders of the world, standing upon the little
island of Pharos, which was connected with the city by a mole. Under Roman
rule it was the second city of the empire, and when Constantinople became
the capital of the East it still remained the chief centre of trade; but it
received a blow from which it never recovered when captured by Amru,
general of Caliph Omar, in 641, after a siege of fourteen months. Its ruin
was finally completed by the building of Cairo (969) and the discovery of
the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope (1498) which opened up a new
route for the Asiatic trade. See _Alexandrian Library_, _Alexandrian
School_.--Modern Alexandria stands partly on what was formerly the island
of Pharos, partly on the peninsula which now connects it with the mainland
and which was formed by the accumulation of soil, and partly on the
mainland. The streets in the Turkish quarter are narrow, dirty, and
irregular; in the foreign quarter they are regular and wide, and it is here
that the finest houses are situated. Here also are the principal shops and
hotels, banks, offices of companies, &c.; this part of the city being
supplied with gas, and with water brought by the Mahmudieh Canal from the
western branch of the Nile. Alexandria is connected by railway with Cairo,
Rosetta, and Suez. A little to the south of the city are the catacombs,
which now serve as a quarry. Another relic of antiquity is Pompey's Pillar,
98 feet 9 inches high. Alexandria has two ports, on the east and west
respectively of the isthmus of the Pharos peninsula, the latter having a
breakwater over 3000 yards in length, with fine quays and suitable railway
and other accommodation. The trade of Alexandria is large and varied, the
exports being cotton, beans, pease, rice, wheat, &c.; the imports chiefly
manufactured goods, machinery, timber, and coal. The origin of its more
recent career of prosperity it owes to Mohammed Ali. In 1882 the
insurrection of Arabi Pasha and the massacre of Europeans led to the
intervention of the British, and the bombardment of the forts by the
British fleet in July. The administrative district has an area of 19 sq.
miles; pop. 444,617 (or 23,401 per square mile).
ALEXANDRIA, a town and port of the United States, in Virginia, on the right
bank of the Potomac (which is of sufficient depth for large vessels), 7
miles south of Washington, carries on a considerable trade, chiefly in
flour. Pop. (1920), 18,060.
ALEXANDRIA, a town of Scotland, in Dumbartonshire, on the Leven, 4 miles
north of Dumbarton, with extensive cotton-printing and bleaching works.
Pop. 9850.
ALEXANDRIA, a town of the Ukraine, in the former Russian government of
Kherson, on a tributary of the Dnieper. Pop. 10,521.
ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY, the largest and most famous of all the ancient
collections of books, founded by Ptolemy Soter (died 283 B.C.), King of
Egypt, and greatly enlarged by succeeding Ptolemies. The first librarian
was Zenodotus (234 B.C.). At its most flourishing period it is said to have
numbered 700,000 volumes, accommodated in two different buildings, one of
them being the Serapeion, or temple of Jupiter Serapis. The other
collection was burned during Julius Caesar's siege of the city, but the
Serapeion library existed to the time of the Emperor Theodosius the Great,
when, at the general destruction of the heathen temples, the splendid
temple of Jupiter Serapis was gutted (A.D. 391) by a fanatical crowd of
Christians, and its literary treasures destroyed or scattered. A library
was again accumulated, but was burned by the Arabs when they captured the
city under the caliph Omar in 641. Amru, the captain of the caliph's army,
would have been willing to spare the library, but Omar is said to have
disposed of the matter in the famous words: "If these writings of the
Greeks agree with the Koran they are useless, and need not be preserved; if
they disagree they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed". This story,
however, which rests solely on the authority of Abulfaragius, a writer who
lived six centuries later, is now generally discredited.
ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL or AGE, the school or period of Greek literature and
learning that existed at Alexandria in Egypt during the three hundred years
that the rule of the Ptolemies lasted (323-30 B.C.), and continued under
the Roman supremacy. Ptolemy Soter founded the famous library of Alexandria
(see above) and his son, Philadelphus, established a kind of academy of
sciences and arts. Many scholars and men of genius were thus attracted to
Alexandria, and a period of literary activity set in, which made Alexandria
for long the focus and centre of Greek culture and intellectual effort. It
must be admitted, however, that originality was not a characteristic of the
Alexandrian age, which was stronger in criticism, grammar, and science than
in pure literature. Among the grammarians and critics were Zenodotus,
Eratosthenes, Aristophanes, Aristarchus, and Zoilus, proverbial as a
captious critic. Their merit is to have collected, edited, and preserved
the existing monuments of Greek literature. To the poets belong Apollonius,
Lycophron, Aratus, Nicander, Euphorion, Callimachus, Theocritus, Philetas,
&c. Among those who pursued mathematics, physics, and astronomy was Euclid,
the father of scientific geometry; Archimedes, great in physics and
mechanics; Apollonius of Perga, whose work on conic sections still exists;
Nicomachus, the first scientific arithmetician; and (under the Romans) the
astronomer and geographer Ptolemy. Alexandria also was distinguished in
philosophical speculation, and it was here that the New Platonic school was
established by Ammonius of Alexandria (about A.D. 193), whose disciples
were Plotinus and Origen. Being for the most part Orientals, formed by the
study of Greek learning, the writings of the New Platonists are strikingly
characterized--for example, those of Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus, Iamblicus,
Porphyrius--by a mixture of Asiatic and European elements. The connection
of Neo-Platonism with Alexandria is, however, less than is commonly
supposed.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mahaffy, _Greek Life and Thought from the Age of
Alexander to the Roman Empire_; Kingsley, _Alexandria and her Schools_;
Vacherot, _Histoire critique de l'ecole d'Alexandrie_ (3 vols.).
ALEXANDRIAN VERSION. See _Codex Alexandrinus_.
ALEXANDRINE, in prosody, the name given, from an old French poem on
Alexander the Great, to a species of verse, which consists of six iambic
feet, or twelve syllables, the pause being, in correct Alexandrines, always
on the sixth syllable; for example, the second of the following verses:--
A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
In English Drayton's _Polyolbion_ is written in this measure, and the
concluding line of the Spenserian stanza is an Alexandrine. In France the
verse fell into disuse during the early part of the sixteenth century, but
was again revived by Jean Antoine de Baif, one of the poets of the Pleiade.
Jodelle introduced the verse into the drama, and Ronsard made it very
popular. French epics and dramas being confined to this verse, it is
therefore called the _heroic_.
ALEXANDRO'POL, formerly a Russian town and fortress in the Transcaucasian
government of Erivan, near the highway from Erivan to Kars; now belonging
to Armenia; it has silk manufactories. Pop. 48,938.
ALEXAN'DROV, a town of Russia, government of Vladimir, with a famous
convent, in the church of which are interred two sisters of Peter the
Great; manufactures of steel and cotton goods. Pop. 7179.
ALEX'ISBAD, a bathing-place of Germany, Anhalt, in the Harz Mountains, with
two mineral springs strongly impregnated with iron.
ALEX'IS MIKHAI'LOVITSH (son of Michael), second Russian Tsar of the line of
Romanov, born in 1629, succeeded his father Mikhail Feodorovitsh in 1645,
and died in 1676. He did much for the internal administration and for the
enlargement of the empire; reconquered Little Russia from Poland, and
carried his authority to the extreme east of Siberia. He was father of
sixteen children, the most famous of them being Peter the Great and his
sister Sophia.
ALEXIS PETRO'VITSH, eldest son of Peter the Great and Eudoxia Lopukhina,
repudiated in 1698, was born in Moscow, 1690, and died in 1718. He opposed
the innovations introduced by his father, who on this account disinherited
him by a ukase in 1718, and when he discovered that Alexis was paving the
way to succeed to the crown he had his son tried and condemned to death. A
few days afterwards Alexis died, after having received twenty-five strokes
with the knout, leaving a son, afterwards the Emperor Peter II.
ALEX'IUS COMNE'NUS, Byzantine Emperor, was born in 1048, and died in 1118.
He was a nephew of Isaac the first emperor of the Comneni, and attained the
throne in 1081, at a time when the Empire was menaced from various sides,
especially by the Turks and the Normans. From these dangers he managed to
extricate himself by policy or warlike measures, and maintained his
position till the age of seventy, during a reign of thirty-seven years. His
daughter Anna wrote a life of him (_The Alexiad_), which is one continuous
eulogy, but all the Latin historians are very severe on him.
AL'FA. See _Esparto_.
ALFAL'FA, generally known in Britain as lucerne, a prolific forage plant
largely grown in California, &c.
ALFARA'BI, an eminent Arabian scholar of the tenth century; died at
Damascus in 950; wrote on Aristotelian philosophy, and compiled a kind of
encyclopedia.
AL'FENID, an alloy of nickel plated with silver, used for spoons, forks,
candlesticks, tea services, &c.
ALFIERI ([.a]l-f[=e]-[=a]'r[=e]), Vittorio, Count, Italian poet, was born
at Asti in 1749, and died in 1803. After extensive European travels he
began to write, and his first play, _Cleopatra_ (1775), being received with
general applause he determined to devote all his efforts to attaining a
position among writers of dramatic poetry. At Florence he became intimate
with the Countess of Albany, wife of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and on
the death of the prince she lived with him as his mistress. This connection
he believed to have served to stimulate and elevate his poetic powers. He
died at Florence and was buried in the church of Santa Croce, between
Macchiavelli and Michael Angelo, where a beautiful monument by Canova
covers his remains. He wrote twenty-one tragedies and six comedies. His
theatrical work has been rightly styled a creation of his pride as much as
of his genius; he endeavoured to turn the theatre into a platform and was
constantly preaching from the stage. Anxious to use his characters as
exponents of his theories, and to make them _talk_, he often forgot to make
them _act_. Alfieri himself admitted that he was writing with a view to
"teaching men how to become free, strong, generous, and passionate for real
virtue", but such an attitude is opposed to true art. His tragedies are
full of lofty and patriotic sentiments, but the language is stiff and
without poetic grace, and the plots poor. Nevertheless he is considered the
first tragic writer of Italy, and has served as a model for his successors.
Alfieri composed also an epic, lyrics, satires, and poetical translations
from the ancient classics. He left an interesting autobiography. The best
edition of his works is that published at Pisa (1805-13) in 22 vols.
ALFON'SO. See _Alphonso_.
AL'FORD, Henry, D.D., Dean of Canterbury, an English poet, scholar, and
miscellaneous writer, was born in London in 1810. After attending various
schools he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, graduated B.A. in
1832, was elected fellow in 1834, and next year became vicar of Wymeswold,
Leicestershire. In 1842 he was appointed examiner in logic and moral
philosophy to the University of London, and held the appointment till 1857.
He early began the great work of his life, his edition of the Greek
Testament with commentary, which occupied him for twenty years, the first
volumes being published in 1849, the fourth and last in 1861. In 1853 he
was transferred to Quebec Chapel, London, and in 1857 was appointed Dean of
Canterbury. He was the first editor of the _Contemporary Review_ (1866-70).
He died in 1871. Among other works he wrote _Chapters on the Poets of
Ancient Greece_, _Sermons_, _Psalms and Hymns_, _Homilies on the Acts of
the Apostles_, _Letters from Abroad_, _Poetical Works_, _Plea for the
Queen's English_.