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The real Duncan and Macbeth - Kings of Scotland

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Duncan and MacBeth - famous names thanks to Shakespeare and the Scottish Play, 'Macbeth'. But how historically accurate is Shakespeare's story, if at all?

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It's commonly held that Shakespeare wrote his plays for the monarchs of England. There are many stories, mostly apocryphal, that connect this play to that monarch; for example, one popular story says that Queen Elizabeth, upon learning that John Falstaff dies in Henry V, demanded that Shakespeare write a new play for Falstaff, one in which he falls in love- resulting in The Merry Wives of Windsor (whether or not this is a true story, it's definitely entertaining). But there's one play that was clearly written with a monarch in mind. Shakespeare's Macbeth was pretty obviously a nod (and not a subtle one) to King James I.

There are a lot of reasons to say this. For one thing, the play is entirely set in Scotland, based on Scottish history and legend, and populated with Scotsmen. James I of England was actually from Scotland as well; he ruled over both England and his own home country, where he was called James VI. Though there are other Scottish characters in Shakespearean plays, there are none with so many as in Macbeth.

Then there's all the supernatural elements. James I was an avid scholar of all things strange, weird, and superstitious. In 1597, the king published a book called Daemonologie; it was a study of witchcraft, necromancy, demons, werewolves, vampires, and all sorts of other spooky things. In fact, much of the witchcraft in Macbeth was actually taken directly from Daemonologie, probably as a form of flattery to the king himself. It goes further than that, though. Witchcraft seems to have been a real obsession of James, as he was heavily involved in a series of witch trials in 1590. Supposedly, a coven of witches were trying to personally attack him, which was high treason, so James had them tracked down, forced them to confess to witchcraft, tortured them, and had them burned at the stake. So it's no wonder that the witches in Macbeth are so demented and evil! Shakespeare wanted to make it clear that he was on the king's side in the whole witch debacle.

King James was widely considered paranoid (can you tell from the witch thing?). Throughout his whole reign, he was terrified that he would be assassinated. He was very harsh with treasonous criminals and he constantly seemed to fear usurpation. And to be fair, he had some real reasons to be afraid of all of that. When Queen Elizabeth I died, she left no children behind, which meant England fell into a crisis. The English throne only came to James because he was technically the closest relative. Even so, Elizabeth never formally acknowledged him as her heir, so he never felt fully secure on the throne. Not only that, but Elizabeth had executed his mother years before, so he had more reason to fear the English. In 1605, James uncovered an assassination attempt against him: the Gunpowder Plot. The plan was for a group of dissatisfied Jesuits to blow up the House of Lords when James was there. After discovering the plot, James arrested and executed the conspirators. The whole incident only served to feed the fire of his paranoia.

Because of the Gunpowder Plot, most scholars today date Macbeth to 1606, just after the plot. There seem to be a few references to it in the play: for instance, the porter at Macbeth's castle, in a little joke to himself, says "Knock, knock! Who's there, in th' other devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God's sake yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator" (2.3.7-12). Equivocation, which is both lying and telling the truth at the same time, was used as a defense by one of the conspirators at the Gunpowder Plot trial, so Shakespeare could easily be alluding to that in order to get further into the king's good graces (Globe Research Team, "The Gunpowder Plot and Shakespeare's Macbeth," Shakespeare's Globe Blog, November 5, 2014).

Besides that, Macbeth is full of other references to James' fears. King Duncan, a beloved, good king, is assassinated by one of his noblemen- something that seems to have been a great fear for James. Not only that, but the nobleman was consorting with witches and demons- another fear. So Shakespeare punishes Macbeth for his treason and evil behavior in the play; Macbeth himself becomes increasingly paranoid, he gets haunted by the ghosts of those he's wronged, and he ends up beheaded and hated by all of Scotland. Shakespeare wanted Macbeth to get his just desserts so that James would be appeased.

Scottish history and legend contain a real life King Duncan, who was really murdered by Macbeth (the real Macbeth apparently was a decent king- that wouldn't have really worked for Shakespeare's play though). Banquo, too, was apparently a real figure. King James claimed descendance through him, so in Macbeth, when the Weird Sisters tell Banquo that "thou shalt get [beget] kings, though thou be none," Shakespeare was really trying to help legitimize James's place on the Scottish throne- he was saying that Banquo's descendants deserve to be king, therefore James has a rightful claim to the throne.

Even though Macbeth was written for King James I, it's really for all of us. The themes of triumph over evil, of greed and ambition, and of tyranny are all very important- they were relevant in Shakespeare's day, and they're relevant now. The reasons it was written aren't nearly as important as the words themselves. So don't miss your chance to see Macbeth this summer at the Festival. It's bound to be an amazing experience.

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King James I and Macbeth | Utah Shakespeare Festival

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It's commonly held that Shakespeare wrote his plays for the monarchs of England. There are many stories, mostly apocryphal, that connect this play to that monarch; for example, one popular story says that Queen Elizabeth, upon learning that John Falstaff dies in Henry V, demanded that Shakespeare write a new play for Falstaff, one in which he falls in love- resulting in The Merry Wives of Windsor (whether or not this is a true story, it's definitely entertaining).

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Citation: C N Trueman "James I and Witchcraft"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, . .

James I considered himself to be an intellect. In particular James saw himself as an expert on witchcraft, which was still an issue in Stuart England in so far as many did not share the same views as James.

The idea of black and witch witches can be traced back to Roman times. However in the sixteenth century a new Christian theory developed based on Christian theology, canon law and philosophical ideas. This theory was that a witch had made a deliberate pact with the devil - almost a form of a personal arrangement - but that a witch did not act alone. Therefore if one witch existed in a locality, there had to be more. This led to a shift in the persecution of witches. Whereas a village may have punished an individual in the past, now the Christian witch theory demanded that more be found within one locality. This resulted in many arrests for witchcraft as the difference between white and black witchcraft effectively ended. The authorities of the time believed that even healing had to be as a result of pact with the devil - so white witches were also persecuted. The arrest of one 'witch' almost certainly led to more arrests as torture was allowed to be used on suspects to find out the names of other witches within a locality.

There are no accurate figures for the arrest and punishment of witches in the early seventeenth century - which could indicate poor record keeping or simply that so many were arrested that records were never updated.

The wholesale persecution of witches started in Scotland in 1590 when James VI was king - the future James I of England. Witchcraft had been a criminal offence in Scotland prior to 1590 but action against suspected witches was limited. However after 1590 and in the last thirteen years of the reign of James, Scotland fully accepted the Christian witch theory so that when one witch was found, others were hunted out. Prior to 1590, it seems that witchcraft was seen as a minor issue by those in power. In 1583, the General Assembly complained that witchcraft carried no punishment despite being outlawed in 1563. Why did this change in 1590?

The issue may well have been James himself. James was well known to adopt a topical issue of the time and to develop an 'expert' knowledge of it. Prior to 1590 no Scottish theologian, philosopher or lawyer had shown any real interest in the whole idea of witchcraft and therefore to James it was not a fashionable topic. Some of the writings of James before 1590 do make reference to Satan and devils. However, Christina Larner views these as references to the Roman Catholic Church or to Catholic Spain - a common practice at this time.

Why is 1590 a key year? The year saw the start of a series of trials for treason. Three hundred witches were accused of gathering to plot the murder of James. It is known that James had a morbid fear of violent death. Therefore these trials were of especial interest to him and he suddenly developed a very keen interest in demonology and witchcraft.

Evidence for the 'crimes' remain patchy at best. Witches were accused of attempting to drown James by calling up a storm while he was at sea with his new wife. Other charges include trying to kill James by melting a wax effigy of him. They were also accused of performing perverted rituals in a church in Berwick - though it is not clear what this had to do specifically with trying to kill the king. However, it did point the way to witchcraft and it is thought that over one hundred witches were actually put on trial. It is said that a large number were executed but there is accurate no figure for this.

While the witches were accused of classic witchcraft, the main issue as far as James was concerned was the plan to murder him - treason. The trials also had a major political aspect as there was an attempt to incriminate Earl Bothwell in the proceedings. One theory put forward is that the whole story was a plot made up by those nobles in Scotland who wanted to devalue the standing of Bothwell within Scotland - and expand theirs. However, this can not be proven.

Why did James become interested in the Christian witch theory - that witches worked in groups and had made a pact with the devil? It almost certainly occurred in 1589 when he visited Denmark to meet his future wife. It was in Denmark that James met a number of intellectuals and philosophers including the astronomer Tycho Brahe. Witches were actively hunted out in Denmark where the theory of a demonic pact had been widely accepted. The king's journey back to Scotland proved to be a very rough and stormy one and one ship was lost. Witches were blamed - working in both Scotland and Denmark. When the Danish court made a reciprocal visit to Scotland in 1590, the topic of witchcraft and sorcery may well have been a topic of conversation.

When he became king of England in 1603, James claimed never to have been responsible for pushing ahead with persecutions of witches. However, the evidence suggests differently. In 1591 he showed a particular interest in the trial of Mary Napier - arrested for consulting a witch and linked to treasonable activity. She claimed to be pregnant at the time of her arrest. Despite the 1563 law outlawing witchcraft, no one had ever been arrested in Scotland for consulting a witch. Yet James wrote to the court ordering them to find out if she was pregnant or not and that if she was not, she should be burned. That Napier was a friend of Bothwell's also indicates that James was willing to use witchcraft for political ends. The court acquitted Napier - much to the anger of James.

In 1597, James felt sufficiently knowledgeable about witchcraft that he wrote "Daemononlogie". This was an eighty page book that expounded his views on the topic and it was meant to add to the intellectual debate that was going on within Europe about witchcraft. The book has three sections on magic, sorcery and witchcraft and one on spirits and ghosts. Having produced this book, James decided to end the standing commission that had been established to hunt out witches. However, the persecution did not end. By the time he left for England in 1603, witches were still being arrested and of those arrested, half were executed. Between 1603 and 1625, there were about twenty witchcraft trials a year in Scotland - nearly 450 in total. Half of the accused were found guilty and executed.

However, in England James found a very different environment. The whole issue of demonic behaviour - the Christian witch theory - had never been readily accepted in England and James was quick to lose his self-imposed expert tag on witchcraft. He viewed England as a more civilised society where intellectuals discussed issues of a philosophical nature - but that did not include witchcraft. For James, any association with the topic was seen as a potential embarrassment. Prosecutions for witchcraft did occur in England while he was king - such as in Lancashire in 1612. However, the trials were covered in such detail by the press of the day that they gave the impression that such events were common when they were not. Midway through the reign of James in England, people could tell jokes about witchcraft - something no one would have done in Scotland in the 1590's when the thinking of James dominated policy. There was a 1604 Witchcraft Act which some believed was more harsh that the law introduced under Elizabeth I. However, only one clause in it was more draconian and that was execution for the first offence of raising evil spirits. However, it was never used in the reign of James and seems to have been only used once in 1645.

For James, witches hinted at a less than sophisticated society. In England he believed he was in a country where he could best show off his intellectual ability - but the topics did not include witchcraft or demonology.

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James I and Witchcraft - History Learning Site

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James I considered himself to be an intellect. In particular James saw himself as an expert on witchcraft, which was still an issue in Stuart England in so far as many did not share the same views as James. The idea of black and witch witches can be traced back to Roman times.

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James's obsession with witchcraft can be traced back to his childhood. The violent death of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, seems to have inspired a dark fascination with magic. "His Highness told me her death was visible in Scotland before it did really happen," related Sir John Harington many years later, being, as he said, "spoken of in secret by those whose power of sight presented to them a bloody head dancing in the air".

Two years after Mary's execution, another dramatic event deepened James's growing obsession with magic and witchcraft. In 1589 he was betrothed to Anne of Denmark, but she almost lost her life in a violent tempest when she set sail across the North Sea to meet her new husband. In an uncharacteristic show of chivalry, James resolved to sail across to Denmark and collect her in person. But on their return voyage the royal fleet was battered by more storms and one of the ships was lost. James immediately placed the blame on witches, claiming that they must have cast evil spells upon his fleet.

Anne of Denmark, queen consort of King James VI and I. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

As soon as he reached Scottish shores, James ordered a witch-hunt on a scale never seen before. No fewer than 70 suspects were rounded up in the coastal Scottish town of North Berwick on suspicion of raising a storm to destroy James and his new bride. Most of the suspects soon confessed - under torture - to concocting a host of bizarre and gruesome spells and rituals in order to whip up the storm. They included binding the severed genitalia and limbs of a dead man to the legs of a cat and then tossing it into the waves, whereupon "there did arise such a tempest in the sea, as a greater hath not been seen". On another occasion, Satan himself was said to have appeared to the witches and "promised to raise a mist, and cast the king into England, for which purpose he threw into the sea a thing like a foot-ball". They were swiftly convicted and put to death.

As soon as the North Berwick trials had ended, James commissioned Newes from Scotland, a pamphlet that relayed the whole saga in scandalised language aimed at intensifying popular fear of witches. But he did not stop there. With all the passion of a religious zealot, James set about convincing his subjects of the evil that lay in their midst. In 1597 James became the only monarch in history to publish a treatise on witchcraft: Daemonologie (literally, 'the science of demons') was the result of painstaking and meticulous work on James's part and must have taken years to complete. As well as to convince the doubters of the existence of witchcraft, the purpose of Daemonologie was to inspire those who persecuted witches with new vigour and determination. James described witchcraft as "high treason against God", which meant that all manner of horrors were justified in wringing confessions from the accused.

King James VI and I's treatise on witchcraft, 'Daemonologie', published in 1597. (Photo by Mary Evans Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo)

The fact that the treatise had been written by a king made it enormously influential. It is no coincidence that cases of witchcraft multiplied at an alarming rate in his kingdom thereafter.

Upon the death of Elizabeth I in March 1603 with no direct heirs, her throne passed to James. When he travelled south to take ownership of his new kingdom, the king of Scots was dismayed to find that his English subjects were far from sharing his witch-hunting fervour. By the end of Elizabeth's reign, the number of witchcraft trials and executions in England had declined significantly. There was also a growing scepticism about the existence of witches.

This was anathema to the new king, who was determined to drown out all dissenting voices within his new kingdom. During the first year of his reign, Daemonologie was reprinted twice. This prompted a rash of similar pamphlets aimed at whipping up popular fear of witches. As part of a state-controlled printing industry, they became one of the most valuable means by which James and his government could manipulate public opinion.

But these publications were just the tip of the iceberg as far as James's crusade against witches was concerned. In his view, the English law was by no means strict enough in prosecuting the crime. Barely a year after his accession, James therefore ordered that the Elizabethan statute on witchcraft be replaced by a much harsher version. Until now, those who practised witchcraft were severely punished only if they were found to have committed murder or other injuries through their devilish arts. However, James wanted the practice of any form of magic to be severely punished, regardless of whether it had caused harm to others.

The Witchcraft Act of 1604 made hanging mandatory for a first offence of witchcraft, even if the accused had not committed murder. And if the suspected witch was found to have the devil's mark on their body, this was enough to condemn them to death. The act stipulated: "If any person or persons... shall use practise or exercise any invocation or conjuration of any evil or wicked spirit, or shall consult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed, or reward any evil and wicked spirit to or for any intent or purpose... [they] shall suffer pains of death".

James's determination to stamp out witchcraft in all forms was brutally apparent: "All manner of practise, use or exercise of witchcraft, enchantment, charm or sorcery should be from henceforth utterly avoided, abolished, and taken away."

James's new subjects were eager to curry favour with him by echoing his hatred of witches. In the same year that the new Witchcraft Act was passed, Christopher Marlowe's dark morality play, The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, was published. This had first been performed in around 1588, five years before the playwright's death, and was one of the most shocking portrayals of witchcraft ever to be performed. Audiences were so aghast at the horrors that unfolded before them on stage that some claimed to have been driven mad by it, and on occasion real devils were said to have appeared on stage, "to the great amazement of both the actors and spectators".

As well as terrifying people into avoiding any dabbling with necromancy, the play also intensified their hatred and fear of witches. It can have been no coincidence that it was published in the very year that James I began his crusade against witchcraft in England.

An illustration of the 1616 cover to 'The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus'. Christopher Marlowe's first edition was printed in 1604. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Other playwrights were quick to follow suit. Ben Jonson devised a number of masques for the entertainment of the king and his court. The 'antimasque' to his Masque of Queens included the presentation of a group of witches who represented "the opposites to good fame".

The playwright had clearly done a great deal of research, for he referenced a range of current and classical demonological works as his sources. He set out detailed instructions for the staging of the antimasque, describing the entering on stage of 11 witches "some with rats on their head; some on their shoulders; others with ointment pots at their girdles; all... making a confused noise, with strange gestures". One of their number was "naked armed, bare-footed, her frock tucked, her hair knotted, and folded with vipers; in her hand a torch made of a dead man's arm, lighted; girded with a snake".

But the most famous of all the literary works inspired by witchcraft, winning widespread acclaim in its day and ever since, was Shakespeare's Macbeth. Deliberately short in length (James was known to have little patience for sitting through long plays), it is significant that the occasion of its inaugural performance was a visit by Queen Anne's brother, the king of Denmark, in 1606, given that it was James's voyage to his wife's native land that had prompted his obsession with witchcraft.

Shakespeare wove in several references to this voyage in the play, such as when the First Witch claims that she set sail in a sieve, just as one of the North Berwick witches was accused of doing. The line "Though his bark cannot be lost/Yet it shall be tempest-tossed" almost certainly alluded to James's near-death experience in 1589.

All the leaders of the English judiciary would have been present at this important state occasion, and this was exactly the sort of play that would inspire within them the same witch-hunting fervour as their royal master. The drama centred around Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, who murdered King Duncan to seize the throne of Scotland after three witches prophesied Macbeth's succession.

Whether the witches thus caused the overthrow of the natural succession or merely brought out Macbeth's inherent evil was left to the audience's imagination. Either way, the play both confirmed and introduced new elements to the stereotypical view of a witch, with her spells, familiars and inherent evil. It also spawned two of the most-quoted lines in English literary history:
"Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."
Macbeth instilled fear among those watching that witchcraft was not just a satanic confederacy, but a conspiracy against the state. The latter notion was all too readily accepted in England at this time because the play was performed just a few months after one of the most notorious conspiracies in history: the gunpowder plot.

Within the space of three short years, England had been catapulted from the 'golden age' of the Virgin Queen into one of the darkest and most dangerous periods of its history.
Tracy Borman is author of Witches: James I and the English Witch Hunts (Vintage, 2014). To find out more about Tracy, visit www.tracyborman.co.uk. This article was first published by History Extra in 2016

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Shakespeare's Macbeth and King James's witch hunts

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The witch hunts that swept across Europe between 1450 and 1750 are one of the most controversial and terrifying phenomena in history, resulting in the trial of around 100,000 people (most of them women), a little under half of whom were put to death.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Three witches enter the scene with a creepy fanfare of thunder and lightning. The first witch asks when they'll all three meet again, and the second and third agree to meet on the heath after "the battle's lost and won," but before sunset. It turns out they'll have another in the party: none other than Macbeth.

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Three witches enter the scene with a creepy fanfare of thunder and lightning. The first witch asks when they'll all three meet again, and the second and third agree to meet on the heath after "the battle's lost and won," but before sunset. It turns out they'll have another in the party: none other than Macbeth.