THE MALLEABLE MACBETH: UNDERSTANDING THE EVOLVING IMAGE OF AN OBSCURE MEDIEVAL KING A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Guelph by RYAN SKIERSZKAN DAVIDSON In partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts April 2008 © Ryan Skierszkan Davidson Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-41811-6 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-41811-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada ABSTRACT THE MALLEABLE MACBETH: UNDERSTANDING THE EVOLVING IMAGE OF AN OBSCURE MEDIEVAL KING Ryan Skierszkan Davidson Advisor: University of Guelph, 2008 Professor Elizabeth Ewan This thesis investigates the changing historical perceptions of the Scottish king Macbeth (r. 1040-1057) in relation to the development of Scotland's constitutional identity between 1000 and 2000 A.D. Macbeth's historiographical transformation from a fairly ordinary king in the eleventh century to a usurping tyrant during the later medieval and Enlightenment periods, and then to a peaceful prince and nationalist hero in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is the result of successive generations of historians reinterpreting their country's history in order to justify the political ideologies of their contemporary communities. This metamorphosis not only demonstrates history writing's susceptibility to political forces, as well as how the myth of Macbeth has changed over time, but provides for us a comprehensive and linear, one-thousand-year example of the way in which Scotland's self-perception as a distinct nation has adapted according to the modernizing political process. Some of the writers included in this study are Marianus Scottus, John of Fordun, Andrew Wyntoun, Hector Boece, David Hume, Walter Scott, C. C. Stopes, Ruaraidh Erskine and Nick Aitchison. Acknowledgements The completion of this project would not have been possible without the assistance of a number of exceptional and gifted individuals. I am forever indebted to my advisor Dr. Elizabeth Ewan whose wisdom and expert insights helped me to navigate through one thousand years of Scottish history. Her remarkable kindness and enthusiasm were perhaps the greatest assets I had in producing this paper. It was a tremendous honour to have worked with her. Many thanks and apologies are in order to Dr. Graeme Morton who was in the unfortunate position of trying to teach this medievalist about post- union Scotland. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Dr. Alan Gordon and Dr. Susannah Humble Ferreira for challenging me to see my arguments from a different perspective. Special thanks to Dr. Peter Goddard who was an incredible help during my two years in the program. I have a long-standing debt to Dr. Michael Keefer who encouraged me to continue my studies at the graduate level and who has always been willing to assist me in my academic endeavours. I owe considerable thanks to my esteemed colleague Yvan Prkachin whose beard alone has been inspirational. I would like to thank my family, Jane and 'The Neil' for their continuous encouragement, and both my grandfathers for their interest in all things historical. Finally, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my partner Hilary (who now knows more about Macbeth than she would care to) for her incredible support and patience - my great excuse to avoid duties around the house has come to an end. 1 Table of Contents Chapter One All there is to know about the 'furious Red one', 1000-1300 Chapter Two A guidebook on how to manufacture a tyrannical image for an obscure eleventh-century monarch, 1300-1500 Chapter Three Humanists de-humanizing Macbeth, 1500-1707 Chapter Four The paradoxical Macbeth: a 'hateful Usurper' who brought peace, justice and prosperity to his people, 1707-1900 Chapter Five How historical is the 'historical Macbeth', 1900-2008 Bibliography li Chapter One: All there is to know about the 'furious Red one', 1000-1300 When Nick Aitchison published his Macbeth: Man and Myth in 1999 the Scottish historical community breathed a collective sigh of relief: "finally." Finally a proper analysis of the history of Scotland's most notorious king had been written seeking not to tarnish his name, nor revive his character as a Celtic hero, but simply to provide an accurate description of what we can know about a medieval monarch who ruled almost one thousand years ago. Macbeth, an otherwise obscure eleventh-century Scottish king has long found himself the focus of much perverted historical investigation. So few contemporary documents describing Macbeth's kingship have survived that you could fit everything there is to know about him on a post-it note, with plenty of room left over to list your groceries. We know he reigned from 1040 to 1057, defeated and killed King Duncan to capture the crown, quelled a rebellion led by Duncan's father Crinan in 1045, visited Rome in 1050, was defeated by Earl Siward of Northumbria in 1054 at the behest of Edward the Confessor, and was killed by Malcolm III, son of Duncan in 1057. He also made a land donation to the Church of St. Serf at some point during his seventeen-year reign. Anything beyond this is speculation at best. Not only is there a minimal amount of surviving sources, but these extant records also happen to be quite ambiguous by nature. While this deficiency in detail may frustrate today's historian seeking to uncover the 'historical Macbeth', historians of the past found in the enigmatic characterization of Macbeth a rather attractive prospect - an open canvas on which to paint whatever they desired. In this fashion Macbeth has been portrayed as a tyrannical monster by medieval chroniclers and Renaissance humanists, an equitable and 1 just prince by nineteenth-century romanticists, and a nationalist hero by twentieth-century Celtic revivalists. Macbeth, in effect, became a powerful tool for the historian because of his malleability; he could be recast and reshaped to suit any ideology. This flexibility is the most intriguing aspect of Macbeth, not so much his history, which, no doubt will always be the subject of much scholarly debate, but his historiography, which is an invaluable one-thousand-year-long example of how history is written in accordance with the evolution of contemporary political principles. The historiography of Macbeth is not only useful to understanding the conflicting popular imagery of the king, but provides for us a window into Scotland's self-perception as a nation along constitutional lines. In Macbeth: Man and Myth, Nick Aitchison looks to uncover the myth-making historiographical process that Macbeth's image was forced to endure. If we are to agree with those who reviewed the author's monograph, we would believe that the "book surveys the scarce chronicle and archaeological sources on Macbeth and his reign, as well as charts developments and changes in the myths about Macbeth from the eleventh century through the twentieth."1 Aitchison, however, fails to meet this end. While his discussion of the historiography of Macbeth, pre-Shakespeare, is quite well rounded, it is indeed missing some compelling features that are crucial to understanding the mythologizing of the king. For instance, Aitchison completely overlooks the association between Macbeth and Moray separatism - a link that demonstrably affected the medieval writer John of 1 R. M. Wood, review of Macbeth: Man and Myth, by Nick Aitchison, Sixteenth Century Journal 31, no. 3 (2000): 909. Similarly, Julia Rudolph writes, "this book sets out not only to counter the mythology that has long surrounded this Scottish king, but also to explain how these myths developed over the course of 900 years, perpetuated even today by modern historians as well as modern film makers and novelists" (Julia Rudolph, review of Macbeth: Man and Myth, by Nick Aitchison, The Historian 65, no. 2 (2002): 486). 2 Fordun's perception of the eleventh-century monarch, and thus contributed to the chronicler's antagonistic interpretation of Macbeth's reign. Furthermore, Aitchison neglects to analyze the mini-treatise on proper kingship found in Walter Bower's Scotichronicon (1440s), entitled The duty of a king is threefold, which appears between the reigns of Duncan I and Macbeth as a 'how to' guide to proper kingship for James II.