A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
In English Drayton's Polyolbion is written in this measure, and the concluding line of the Spenserian stanza is an Alexandrine. In France the verse fell into disuse during the early part of the sixteenth century, but was again revived by Jean Antoine de Baïf, one of the poets of the Pléiade. Jodelle introduced the verse into the drama, and Ronsard made it very popular. French epics and dramas being confined to this verse, it is therefore called the heroic.
Alexandro′pol, formerly a Russian town and fortress in the Transcaucasian government of Erivan, near the highway from Erivan to Kars; now belonging to Armenia; it has silk manufactories. Pop. 48,938.
Alexan′drov, a town of Russia, government of Vladimir, with a famous convent, in the church of which are interred two sisters of Peter the Great; manufactures of steel and cotton goods. Pop. 7179.
Alex′isbad, a bathing-place of Germany, Anhalt, in the Harz Mountains, with two mineral springs strongly impregnated with iron.
Alex′is Mikhai′lovitsh (son of Michael), second Russian Tsar of the line of Romanov, born in 1629, succeeded his father Mikhail Feodorovitsh in 1645, and died in 1676. He did much for the internal administration and for the enlargement of the empire; reconquered Little Russia from Poland, and carried his authority to the extreme east of Siberia. He was father of sixteen children, the most famous of them being Peter the Great and his sister Sophia.
Alexis Petro′vitsh, eldest son of Peter the Great and Eudoxia Lopukhina, repudiated in 1698, was born in Moscow, 1690, and died in 1718. He opposed the innovations introduced by his father, who on this account disinherited him by a ukase in 1718, and when he discovered that Alexis was paving the way to succeed to the crown he had his son tried and condemned to death. A few days afterwards Alexis died, after having received twenty-five strokes with the knout, leaving a son, afterwards the Emperor Peter II.
Alex′ius Comne′nus, Byzantine Emperor, was born in 1048, and died in 1118. He was a nephew of Isaac the first emperor of the Comneni, and attained the throne in 1081, at a time when the Empire was menaced from various sides, especially by the Turks and the Normans. From these dangers he managed to extricate himself by policy or warlike measures, and maintained his position till the age of seventy, during a reign of thirty-seven years. His daughter Anna wrote a life of him (The Alexiad), which is one continuous eulogy, but all the Latin historians are very severe on him.
Al′fa. See Esparto.