The Last Great Scottish KingMcbeth Essay Research

Paper

The last great Scottish king The eleventh century of Scotland was a disordered era. The royal crown usurped nine times. Kenneth III continued from tenth century to be the first king in the eleventh century. In 1005, Malcolm II killed Kenneth III and became the king. Twenty-nine years later(1034) Duncan I helped to slew his grandfather Malcolm II and became next ruling Monarch. In 1040, Mecbeth killed and captured the crown from Duncan I who was his first cousin. Malcolm III Canmore slew Macbeth and took the crown in 1057. After that there were four more throne changes until the beginning of the twelfth century. Thus there were many kings in this medieval era; however, only one king is call the “last great king of Scotland”, whose name is ‘Macbeth’. Baby Macbeth was born about A.D.1000 into Scotland rife with complications and intrigue. His name ‘Macbeth’ resulted from Gaelic word ‘Macbethad’ which means ’son of Life’. Other countries, such as Anglo-Saxon, Norway, and England, invaded Scotland several times. There were also a number of instances of revolt. Kenneth III and Malcolm II, who were kings during Macbeth’s infancy, were mediocre rulers so that they did not eliminate dangers to Scotland effectively. Therefore the problems continued during the reign of Duncan I. Duncan I was an incapable king who was weak and idle. Macbeth killed Duncan in what was reputed to be a fair duel. Macbeth’s father was not lineage of the royal family. However, Macbeth could assert succession to the crown because of his mother(Malcolm II’s daughter) and his wife’s(granddaughter of Kenneth III) lineage. Moreover, he was a hero of Scotland and already had enough power because of his was political popularity. Modern historians consider Reign of Macbeth a time of peace prosperity. Under Macbeth’s ruling, north and south Scotland were united and it seemed that he established a stable Scottish kingdom. Macbeth appears, contrary to popular belief, to have been a wise monarch who ruled Scotland successfully for seventeen prosperous years. Coming to power, in a time where differing peoples, who were trying to adjust to unity at the same time but did not want to give up their own ways of life, which were not always compatible with those of their neighbors, he organized troops of men to patrol the wilder countryside and enforced law and order. An example of how stable the kingdom was under MacBeth, is that he was able to make a pilgrimage to Rome in 1050 and was able to return to find his kingdom quiet and went on to enjoy seven more years of successful rule.

MacBeth was killed in the year of 1057. Malcolm, one of two sons of Duncan I, who was brought up in exile in England raised an army and invaded Scotland and reached deep into Aberdeenshire. At the battle of Lumphanan, he defeated MacBeth who was slain in battle and after some further resistance, Malcolm became king of Scotland, calling himself Malcolm III. During this research, I realized Macbeth who was a real king of Scotland was not the same Macbeth portrayed in the Shakespeare’s play. Although the play ‘Macbeth’ is an excellent work of art and fiction, it is far from reality. It gives a good impression of Duncan, but a bad version of Macbeth. Although Shakespeare does not wright the true story of the king Macbeth in his play, depicts usurpation that occurs commonly in medieval period. I come to may attention that Shakespeare, in fact, portrays Macbeth in such way intentionally to please English who were not so friendly to Scottish. Nowadays, Some Scottish believe if the king Macbeth had won the battle with Malcolm III, England would have been called Scotland instead.