Douglas, who served as Lord Chancellor of Scotland between 1493 and 1498, encouraged the relationship between his niece Marion and the young King James IV.

[2] Alexander became a close friend of James IV's queen consort Margaret Tudor, often included at her table playing cards in the early days of her marriage, before his departure for Europe.

By September 1502 he was archdeacon, when his uncle James, Duke of Ross died in 1504 his father the King nominated him as the new Archbishop of St Andrews.

He received a superb education firstly from James Watson, later Dean of the Arts faculty at St Andrews, and latterly from Patrick Paniter whom he seemed to have been close to.

In Padua he studied rhetoric and Greek under Erasmus who wrote a moving obituary after young Alexander's death at the Battle of Flodden.