 It is not clear if he ever obtained possession of the bishopric of Orkney, being opposed by the nominee of the Roman pope, probably John Pak of Colchester, and by the King of Norway with Orkney's metropolitan, the Archbishop of Trondheim.A letter from the Avignon pope, dated 12 February 1408, granted faculty to Alexander to be consecrated as Bishop of Orkney by three other bishops, "without prejudice to the archbishop of Nidaros to whom Orkney is accustomed to be subject".Alexander does not appear to have been consecrated by the time he was provided, on 4 May 1414, to the bishopric of Caithness.