The Real Macbeth in Scotland's History

MacBeth

A True Story

By Fiona Watson

Quercus, 320pp.

Reviewed: 12 June, 2010

There was a real King MacBeth of Scotland, more complex, and more interesting, than Shakespeare’s eloquent but fatally flawed villain. Scottish historian Fiona Watson has spent years scanning the annals and records from Scotland, Ireland, England and Scandinavia to unpick the centuries of biased misreporting in search of him.

The real MacBeth died in 1058 after ruling Scotland for seventeen years. His reign was characterized by peace and prosperity, a rare thing in those bloodthirsty times. He was actually the first ever king of a Scotland united in the boundaries that we now recognise, and also the last Gaelic-speaking king before the permanent takeover of Anglo-Saxon and Norman dynasties.

People’s lives then depended on the ability of local warlords to enrich them, or protect them, in an environment where raiding, rape and pillage were normal. Any lord or king who was unsuccessful would be replaced, commonly by murder, as readily as the modern sacking of a football coach or CEO.

MacBeth had gained power by force of arms from Duncan, but Watson argues that this was consistent with the “best practice” statecraft of the time. Duncan had just led Scotland into a failed invasion of England, and his replacement would have been welcomed and entirely expected. MacBeth’s claim to the throne was equal to any, and his method of asserting it not exceptional.

So why the bad rap?

Duncan had been the first King appointed on the principle of primogeniture – his descent from the previous King Malcolm. This was a break from the Scottish tradition of rotating the monarchy among several families with royal claims – including MacBeth’s own ancestors.

A prosperous MacBeth could afford the huge expense, and the political risk, of a pilgrimage to Rome.  Pope Leo IX was in the process of reorganizing the hierarchies of the Roman Catholic Church across all of Europe, so Watson surmises that MacBeth hoped to persuade the Pope to confirm Scottish nationhood by appointing a separate Archbishop for Scotland.

This may be what really provoked the English King Edward to overthrow MacBeth. Regime change has a long history.

Shakespeare’s patron was James Stuart, just appointed James I of England on principles of primogeniture. The 16th Century “histories” had been edited to apply this principle, retrospectively, to MacBeth’s era. In history, Banquo only appears in accounts written 500 years after the events of Macbeth. Banquo was invented to provide an ancient lineage for the Stuart dynasty, including Shakespeare’s King James.

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