The Seal of Alexander II

                                        Alexander II King of Scots

King Alexander II inherited the Scottish throne on the death of his father William the Lion in 1214. The following year in 1215 in attempt to gain Northumbria he intervened in the civil war in England, leading an army there to join with the rebels against King John, King of England. This led to the sacking of Berwick by forces loyal to King John. In 1216 he acknowledged the challenger to the English throne King Louis VIII of France as his overlord for his lands in England. However, on the death of the unpopular King John the allies including Alexander II were forced to withdraw from England by the former rebels who now recognised John’s son Henry III as king. Alexander signed a peace treaty with Henry III in 1217 and married Henry’s sister. Twenty years later Alexander II signed the important Treaty of York with Henry III. Both sides accepted that the border between England and Scotland would now run between the Solway Firth in the west and the river Tweed in the east.

                                         Norway and the Western Isles

Having established a firm border with the King of England, Aleander II in the 1240’s turned to his other problem namely the Norwegian control of the Western Isles and of the western seaboard. He first offered to buy this territory from the Norwegian king Haakon IV but without success. Alexander then in 1249 assembled a naval and military force with which he intended to invade the Western Isles. However, before this could occur the king fell ill and died on the island of Kerrera, near the modern port of Oban.

                                                 Government

Alexander II continued the policies begun by David I a century before. The feudal system was again extended especially in the legal area. The number of sheriffdoms was increased and the existing laws were more strictly imposed. The economic transformation of Scotland continued with the founding of more royal burghs particularly that of Dumbarton in the 1220’s. All these developments were helped by the ongoing intermarriage between the existing elites and the newly arrived Anglo-Norman one.