STIRLING, WILLIAM ALEXANDER, EARL OF (c. Scottish poet and statesman, generally known as William Alexander, was born at Menstrie House, near Stirling, about 1567, and probably educated at Stirling Grammar school. He may also have been to the universities of Glasgow and Leyden. He followed James VI. to England, where he became one of the gentlemen-extraordinary of Prince Henry's chamber. For the prince he wrote his Paraenesis to the Prince . . . (004), a poem in eight-lined stanzas on the theme of princely duty. He was knighted in 1609; in 1614 he was appointed master of requests, and in July 1615 to a seat in the Scottish privy council. In 1613 he began a correspondence with Drummond of Hawthornden. In 1621 he received from James I. enormous grants of land in America, including Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and was appointed lieutenant-governor of the new colony which, however, was ceded to the French in 1632. (See NOVA SCOTIA : History.) From 1626 till his death he was the king's secretary for Scotland, and in 163o was created viscount Stirling and Lord Alexander of Tullibody. In 1631 he edited and published a translation of the Psalms said to be by James I. In 5639 he became earl of Dono van. He died on Feb. 12, 1640, in London.
Alexander's poetical miscellanies and minor verse include Aurora, containing the first fancies of the author's youth (1604) An Elegie on the Death of Prince Henrie, and shorter pieces. He also wrote four tragedies, Darius (1603) ; Croesus (1604) ; The Alexandrean (16o5), and Julius Caesar (1607) ; the first two of which were published together in 1604 as the Monarchicke Tragedies; they are didactic poems or dialogues rather than plays, but they contain some fine soliloquies. Of Alexander's heroic poem
Jonathan only the first book was written. Domesday, or The Great Day of the Lord's Judgment (1614) is a dreary production, in 12 books or "hours," in eight-lined stanzas. A collected edition of his work appeared in 1637, with the title Recreations with the Muses (folio), but did not include Aurora and the Elegie. A com plete modern reprint The Poetical Works, etc., was published in 3 vols. (Glasgow, 1870).
His Encouragement to Colonies was edited for the Bannatyne Club by David Laing (1867), and by Edmund F. Slafter, in Sir W. Alexander and Amer. Colonization (Prince Society, Boston, Mass., 1865). See also E. F. Slafter, The Copper Coinage of the Earl of Stirling, 1632 (1874) The Earl of Stirling's Register of Royal Letters relative to the Affairs of Scotland and Nova Scotia from 1615-1635 (edit. C. Rogers, with biographical introduction ; C. Rogers, Memorials of the Earl of Stirling (1877) ; the introduction to the Works (187o) referred to above; the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, passim.; and the bibliography for William Drummond (q.v.) of Hawthornden.