Alexander (redirected from Allistair)

Alexander, in Greek mythology

Alexander, in Greek mythology: see Paris.

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Alexander, in the Bible

Alexander, in the Bible.

1 Kinsman of Annas.

2 Son of Simon of Cyrene, probably a Christian.

3 Heretic condemned by Paul.

4 Coppersmith who did Paul harm.

5 Jew who tried to speak during a riot at Ephesus. The last three may be the same man. The Alexanders in the books of the Maccabees are Alexander the Great and Alexander Balas.

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Alexander, prince of Bulgaria

Alexander (Alexander of Battenberg), 1857–93, prince of Bulgaria (1879–86); second son of Prince Alexander of Hesse-Darmstadt and nephew of Alexander II of Russia. He served in the Russian army against the Turks (1877–78) and, backed by the Rus sian czar, was elected hereditary prince of Bulgaria under Turkish suzerainty. In 1885 the revolutionaries in Eastern Rumelia, also known as Southern Bulgaria, proclaimed the union of that province with Bulgaria. Alexander accepted the union, thus incurring the wrath of the Russian czar and Serbia. The latter declared war. Alexander was victorious and by an agreement with Turkey became governor of Eastern Rumelia, but he was forced to abdicate by a group of officers. He became an Austrian officer, and Ferdinand was elected to succeed him as prince.

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Alexander, king of Greece

Alexander, 1893–1920, king of the Hellenes (1917–20), second son of Constantine I. After his father's forced abdication, he succeeded to the Greek throne with the support of the Allies, who distrusted the sympathies of his elder brother George (later King George II). Alexander died of a monkey bite. His father, Constantine I, was restored to the throne shortly afterward.

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Alexander, prince of Serbia

Alexander (Alexander Karadjordjević) (kărəjôr`jəvĭch), 1806–85, prince of Serbia (1842–58), son of Karageorge (Karadjordje). He was elected to succeed the deposed Michael of Serbia. Weak and vacillating, he did not send troops to aid the Slavic minorities in Hungary during the revolution of 1848–49. He later submitted to Turkish and Austrian pressure in withholding his support from Russia in the Crimean War of 1854–56. Discontent with his ineffective government finally led his subjects to depose him and to recall Miloš as king. In 1868, Alexander was condemned to death in absentia by a Serbian court for his alleged part in the assassination of Michael, who had succeeded Miloš. Alexander was the father of Peter I of Yugoslavia.

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Alexander, king of Serbia

Alexander (Alexander Obrenović) (ōbrĕ`nəvĭch), 1876–1903, king of Serbia (1889–1903), son of King Milan. He succeeded on his father's abdication. Proclaiming himself of age in 1893, he took over the government, abolished (1894) the relatively liberal constitution of 1889, and restored the conservative one of 1869. He recalled his father in 1897, gave him command of the army, and permitted him to undertake a campaign against the pro-Russian Radical party. In 1900 he married Draga Mašin, the widow of a foreign engineer and a former lady-in-waiting (see Draga). The scandal of the marriage exasperated his opposition. In 1903, after Alexander had arbitrarily suspended and then restored the new liberal constitution that he had granted in 1901, he and his queen were assassinated by a clique of officers. Peter Karadjordjević was recalled as King Peter I, and the Obrenović dynasty came to an end.

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Alexander, king of Yugoslavia

Alexander, 1888–1934, king of Yugoslavia (1921–34), son and successor of Peter I. Of the Karadjordjević family, he was educated in Russia and became crown prince of Serbia upon the renunciation (1909) of the succession by his brother George. He led Serbian forces in the Balkan War of 1912, became regent in June, 1914, led the Serbian army in World War I, and became (Dec., 1918) regent of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia). In 1922 he married Princess Marie of Romania. After his accession increasing disorder arose from the Croatian autonomy movement. After the assassination (1928) of Stjepan Radić, the Croat Peasant party leader, Alexander in 1929 dismissed the parliament, abolished the constitution and the parties, and became absolute ruler. To emphasize the unity he hoped to give the country, he changed (Oct., 1929) its official name to Yugoslavia. Although he announced the end of the dictatorship in 1931 and proclaimed a new constitution, he kept power in his own hands. His authoritarian and centralizing policy brought him the hatred of the separatist minorities, particularly the Croats and Macedonians, as well as the opposition of Serbian liberals. In foreign policy he was loyal to the French alliance and to the Little Entente. In 1934 he debarked at Marseilles on a state visit to France. A member of a Croatian separatist organization fired on his car, assassinating the king and fatally wounding the French foreign minister, Louis Barthou. Alexander was succeeded by his young son, Peter II.

Bibliography

See study by S. Graham (1939, repr. 1972).

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Alexander

Harold (Rupert Leofric George), Earl Alexander of Tunis. 1891--1969, British field marshal in World War II, who organized the retreat from Dunkirk and commanded in North Africa (1943) and Sicily and Italy (1944--45); governor general of Canada (1946--52); British minister of defence (1952--54)