Widely different in character from his peaceful and indolent predecessor was the next king who filled the throne of Scotland. To a purity of life, a fondness for the devotional exercises and austerities of the age, and a reverential demeanour towards the clergy--qualities which he inherited from his mother--Alexander united the high courage and warlike bearing of his father; whilst his own restless ambition and indomitable will involved him in continual contests throughout his reign, and earned for him the appellation of the Fierce. In many points he resembled his sister the queen of England; and the same lavish generosity towards strangers, with the same somewhat ostentatious display of charity in feeding, clothing, and washing the feet of the poor, to which “the Scottish Esther” (as she is sometimes called) in vain endeavoured to incite her youthful brother David, formed in Alexander a striking contrast to his haughty and imperious bearing towards the great body of his subjects. Naturally viewing with a jealous eye the dismemberment of his kingdom for the advantage of his younger brother, he refused at first to carry out the bequest of Edgar until David threatened to support his rights by the sword; when the fear of the mail-clad auxiliaries, whom the long residence and popularity of the Earl at his sister’s court would have enabled him to call to his aid, at length extorted from Alexander a tardy and reluctant recognition of his brother’s claims upon Scottish Cumbria.[207] The effects of the new king’s determination to enforce submission to his will, soon became apparent in a simultaneous rising of the ancient enemies of his family, who must have recovered much of their former power during the anarchy and confusion resulting upon the death of Malcolm the Third. Donald Bane was perhaps indebted to the crown for their support, and his immediate successor was not of a disposition to curb the increasing independence of his powerful and refractory Mormaors; but Alexander, accustomed to the ideas of feudalism with which he had become acquainted at the English court, was deterred by no fear of consequences from exacting a very different species of obedience from that which had satisfied the peaceful Edgar; and his measures for controlling the disaffection of his subjects resulted, before long, in a rebellion in the north.