Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/38

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ALEXANDER III.— ALEXANDER.
21

ALEXANDER III. (Alexandrovitch), Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, who succeeded to the throne on the murder of his father by Nihilist conspirators on March 13, N.S. 1881, was born March 10, 1845. Since his elevation to the throne he has seldom appeared in public, but has lived in the closest retirement at Gatchina, being in constant dread of the machinations of the secret societies of Socialists. His coronation took place at Moscow, May 27, 1883. He married, in 1866, Mary-Féodorovna (formerly Mary Sophia Frederica Dagmar), daughter of Christian IX., King of Denmark.


ALEXANDER I., Prince of Bulgaria, is the son of Prince Alexander of Battenberg (Hesse), brother of the late Empress of Russia, and was born April 5, 1857. His mother, born Countess von Kauck, was the daughter of a former Polish Minister of War, and was raised to the rank of Princess on her morganatic marriage with the ruler of Hesse. The Prince of Bulgaria is a second son of this union, an elder brother serving in the English Navy. Prince Alexander served with the Russian army during the war with Turkey. Part of the time he rode in the ranks of the 8th Regiment of Uhlans, and he was also attached to the staff of Prince Charles of Roumania, as well as to the Russian head-quarters. He was present with Prince Charles at the siege of Plevna, and crossed the Balkans with General Gourko. Soon after returning to Germany from the Russo-Turkish campaign he was transferred from the Hessian Regiment of Dragoons, to which he had belonged, to the Prussian Life Guards, and did garrison duty in Potsdam. He was elected hereditary Prince of Bulgaria by the Assembly of Notables at Tirnova, April 29, 1879, and by a vote of the Grand National Assembly on July 13, 1881, he was invested with extraordinary legislative powers for seven years. He was appointed an honorary Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath in June, 1879.


ALEXANDER, Lieut.-Gen. Sir James Edward, C.B., of Westerton, co. Stirling, eldest son of the late Mr. Edward Alexander, of Powis, co. Clackmannan (a descendant of the Alexanders of Menstrie, afterwards Earls of Stirling), was born in 1803, and educated at the oolleges of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Sandhurst. Having entered the army, he held several staff and other appointments in India, at the Cape, and in North America, and took part in the Burmese, Persian, Turkish, Portuguese, and Kaffir wars. He was employed in 1836–7 on an expedition of discovery in the interior of Africa, receiving for his services the honour of knighthood, and he also explored for the government in the forests of America. He commanded the 14th regiment at the siege and capture of Sebastopol, and held a command in New Zealand during the war. Sir James is the author of several volumes of travel, including "Excursions in Western Africa," "An Expedition into Southern Africa," "Explorations in British America," "Sketches in Portugal," "Transatlantic Sketches," "Travels from India to England," "Travels through Russia and the Crimea," and of "Translations from the Persian," a "Life of the Duke of Wellington," and "Passages in the Life of a Soldier." Sir James, who is a lieutenant-general in the army, has been decorated for his public services with several foreign orders and war medals, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Scottish Antiquaries, and of the Royal Geographical and Royal Asiatic Societies. In 1875 he proceeded to Egypt to arrange for the transport of Cleopatra's Needle to London. He was nominated a C.B. in 1873.


ALEXANDER, Stephen, LL.D., born at Schenectady, New York,