ALEXANDER II

born , Baggio, near Milan died April 21, 1075 also called (until 1061) Anselm Of Baggio, or Of Lucca, Italian Anselmo Da Baggio, or Di Lucca pope from 1061 to 1073. He studied under Lanfranc at Bec. As bishop of Lucca he worked for the abolition of simony and the enforcement of clerical celibacy. Though he was elected pope, the German court nominated Peter Cadalus of Parma as Honorius II, and Alexander was not recognized by the empire until 1064. In 1062 the antipope was dropped by the German regents, and the schism ceased to be important. In cooperation with Hildebrand (later Pope Gregory VII) and St. Peter Damian, Alexander laid the foundations of a reform movement. born April 29 [April 17, old style], 1818, Moscow died March 13 [March 1, O.S.], 1881, St. Petersburg, Russia Russian in full Aleksandr Nikolayevich emperor of Russia (185581). His liberal education and distress at the outcome of the Crimean War, which had demonstrated Russia's backwardness, inspired him toward a great program of domestic reforms, the most important being the emancipation (1861) of the serfs. A period of repression after 1866 led to a resurgence of revolutionary terrorism and to Alexander's own assassination. born Aug. 24, 1198, Haddington, East Lothian, Scot. died July 8, 1249, Kerrera Island, Argyll Alexander II of Scotland king of Scotland from 1214 to 1249; he maintained peace with England and greatly strengthened the Scottish monarchy. Alexander came to the throne on the death of his father, William I the Lion (reigned 11651214). When the English barons rebelled against King John (reigned 11991216) in 1215, Alexander sided with the insurgents in the hope of regaining territory he claimed in northern England. After the rebellion collapsed in 1217, he did homage to King Henry III (reigned 121672), and in 1221 he married Henry's sister, Joan (d. 1238). In 1237 Henry and Alexander concluded an agreement (Peace of York) by which the Scots king abandoned his claim to land in England but received in exchange several English estates. The boundary of Scotland was fixed approximately at its present location. Meanwhile, Alexander was suppressing rebellious Scots lords and consolidating his rule over parts of Scotland that had hitherto only nominally acknowledged royal authority. In 1222 he subjugated Argyll. He died as he was preparing to conquer the Norwegian-held islands along Scotland's west coast. Additional reading S.S. Tatishchev, Imperator Aleksandr II, 2 vol. (1903), the standard life of Alexander II, is the prerevolutionary official biography. The fullest modern biography is C. de Grunwald, Le Tsar Alexandre II et son temps (1963). A short, concise life of the Emperor is W.E. Mosse, Alexander II and the Modernization of Russia (1958). Two popular biographies are S. Graham, Alexander II: Tsar of Russia (1935); and Martha E. Almedingen, The Emperor Alexander II (1962).