| (măkbĕth´) , d. 1057, king of Scotland (1040-57). He succeeded his father as governor of the province of Moray c.1031 and was a military commander for Duncan I. In 1040 he killed Duncan in battle and seized the throne. Possibly of royal descent himself, he acquired a direct claim to the throne through his wife, Gruoch; she was a granddaughter of Kenneth III, who had been overthrown by Duncan's ancestor Malcolm II. Macbeth represented northern elements in the population who were opposed to the ties with the Saxons advocated by Duncan. Macbeth was defeated in 1054 by Macbeth Pictures , earl of Northumbria, who regained the southern part of Scotland on behalf of Malcolm Canmore, Duncan's son. Malcolm himself regained the rest of the kingdom after defeating and killing Macbeth in the battle of Lumphanan. He then succeeded to the throne as Pictures . William Shakespeare's version of the story comes from the accounts of Raphael Holinshed and Hector Boece. |
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Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, Copyright (c) 2005. |
If you were to ask any foreigner to name a Scots king, he would eventually mention Macbeth, and his knowledge would be based on Shakespeare’s famous play. However, Shakespeare’s drama was written more than 500 years after the real Macbeth was on the throne and the plot of the fictitious drama has somewhat overshadowed the true life of Macbeth. Pictures, Macbeth pictures
05/2005
