ALEXANDER, ST., patriarch of Alexandria from 311 to 326, contributed to bring about the condemnation of Arius at the Council of Nice; festival, Feb 26.

ALEXANDER, SOLOMON, first Protestant bishop of Jerusalem, of Jewish birth, cut off during a journey to Cairo (1799-1845).

ALEXANDER III., pope, successor to Adrian IV., an able man, whose election Barbarossa at first opposed, but finally assented to; took the part of Thomas a Becket against Henry II. and canonised him, as also St. Bernard.  Pope from 1159 to 1181.

ALEXANDER VI., called Borgia from his mother, a Spaniard by birth, obtained the popehood by bribery in 1492 in succession to Innocent VIII., lived a licentious life and had several children, among others the celebrated Lucretia and the infamous Caesar Borgia; d. in 1503, after a career of crime, not without suspicion of poison.  In addition to Alexanders III. and VI., six of the name were popes:  Alexander I., pope from 108 to 117; Alexander II., pope from 1061 to 1073; Alexander IV., pope from 1254 to 1261; Alexander V., pope from 1409 to 1410; Alexander VII., pope from 1653 to 1667, who was forced to kiss his hand to Louis XIV.; Alexander VIII., pope from 1689 to 1691.

ALEXANDER I., king of Scotland, son of Malcolm Canmore and Margaret, sister of Edgar Atheling, a vigorous prince, surnamed on that account The Fierce; subdued a rising in the North, and stood stoutly in defence of the independent rights of both Crown and Church against the claim of supremacy over both on the part of England; d. 1124.

ALEXANDER II., of Scotland, successor of William the Lion, his father, a just and wise ruler, aided the English barons against John, and married Joan, the sister of Henry III.; d. 1249.

ALEXANDER III., son of the preceding, married a daughter of Henry III., sided with him against the barons, successfully resisted the invasion of Haco, king of Norway, and on the conclusion of peace gave his daughter in marriage to Haco’s successor Eric; accidentally killed by falling over a cliff near Kinghorn when hunting in 1285.

ALEXANDER I., emperor of Russia, son and successor of Paul I., took part in the European strife against the encroachments of Napoleon, was present at the battle of Austerlitz, fought the French at Pultusk and Eylau, was defeated at Friedland, had an interview with Napoleon at Tilsit in 1813, entered into a coalition with the other Powers against France, which ended in the capture of Paris and the abdication of Napoleon in 1814.  Under his reign Russia rose into political importance in Europe (1777-1825).

ALEXANDER II., emperor of Russia, son and successor of Nicholas I., fell heir to the throne while the siege of Sebastopol was going on; on the conclusion of a peace applied himself to reforms in the state and the consolidation and extension of the empire.  His reign is distinguished by a ukase decreeing in 1861 the emancipation of the serfs numbering 23 millions, by the extension of the empire in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and by the war with Turkey in the interest of the Slavs in 1877-78, which was ended by the peace of San Stephano, revised by the treaty of Berlin.  His later years were clouded with great anxiety, owing to the spread of Nihilism, and he was killed by a bomb thrown at him by a Nihilist (1818-1881).