Duncan I The Gracious King of Scots either killed in battle
by his own, or the men of Macbeth, or killed by Macbeth in
battle far from Macbeth's castle. Therefore, the consensus is
clear: Duncan I The Gracious King of Scots was not murdered
in Macbeth's castle as per the fictional drama of William
Shakespeare's play *Macbeth,* but according to contemporary
records c. 1040 there are three separate accounts, which differ
on the manner of death far from Macbeth's castle, but all
suggesting that he died as a warrior during battle, hence: killed.
[sources]: soc.gen-medieval archives, Feb 2008
From the Universal Chronicle of Marianus Scotus (c. 1028 - c. 1082)
MS. Vatican No. 830, as printed in Pertz. Mon. Germ. Hist. Script. v.
5, pp 556-558.
1040. Donnchad rex Scotiae in autumno occiditur (19 Kal Sept.) a duce
suo Macbethad mac Finnloech, cui successit in regnum annis 17.
"Donnchad, king of the Scots, was killed in the autumn, on 14 August,
by his dux Macbethad son of Findlaech; who succeeded to the kingdom
for seventeen years."
Source:
William F. Skene, , LL.D, ed., Chronicles of the Picts, Chronicles of
the Scots, and Other Early Memorials of Scottish History, (Edinburgh:
1867) p. 65
What the entry in the chronicle of Marianus Scotus shows, is that the
story of Macbeth personally killing Duncan was already prevalent
within a few years of the event and it is not an invention of later
interpreters or historians.
[source]:
The annals of Tigernach, contemporary with Marianus, state only that
the
young king Duncan was killed by his own men ("Donncadh mac Crínan,
aird-rí
Alban immatura etate a suis occissus est"), see
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100002/index.html. (T1040.1).
The contemporary source for the story that Duncan I was murdered by
Macbeth: From the Universal Chronicle of Marianus Scotus (c. 1028 - c.
1082) MS. Vatican No. 830, as printed in Pertz. Mon. Germ. Hist.
Script. v. 5, pp 556-558. 1040. Donnchad rex Scotiae in autumno
occiditur (19 Kal Sept.) a duce suo Macbethad mac Finnloech, cui
successit in regnum annis 17. "Donnchad, king of the Scots, was killed
in the autumn, on 14 August, by his dux Macbethad son of Findlaech;
who succeeded to the kingdom for seventeen years." See: T1040.1:
Donncadh mac Crínan, aird-rí Alban immatura etate a suis occissus
est:~translation: occissus, to be killed. The annals of Tigernach,
contemporary with Marianus, state only that the young king Duncan was
killed by his own men ("Donncadh mac Crnan, aird-r Alban immatura
etate a suis occissus est"), see
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100002/index.html(T1040.1).
Duncan was probably quite young when he became king of Scots, and
probably not of great competence. Little is known about his reign. In
1038 or 1039, Ealdred, Earl of Northumbria, invaded Strathclyde,
perhaps in an attempt to wrest it from the Scots. Duncan responded in
1040 with an attack on Durham. Like his grandfather's attack in 1006,
it ended in disaster, with Scottish forces fleeing, and Scottish heads
decorating the Durham marketplace. This defeat seems to have weakened
his authority so severely that Macbeth of the Cenel Loairn was able to
defeat and kill him in battle near Elgin on 16 August 1040.
William Shakespeare appears to deliberately mix fact and fiction in
the play. Apparently using Holinshed's *Chronicles of Scottish
History* as his source, Shakespeare sets the battle between Duncan and
MacBeth in 1040 at Birnam Hill in Perthshire, rather than Forres where
it actually took place. In the play MacBeth dies at Dunsinane whereas
in reality it was at Lumphanan where he was defeated and killed. As
for the personalities of the two main characters, Duncan and MacBeth,
again Shakespeare's portrayal is not historically correct. In the
play Duncan is portrayed as a strong, wise and elderly king whereas in
reality he was a weak and ineffective ruler. Shakespeare's Macbeth has
virtually no legitimate claim to the throne whereas the real MacBeth
had a respectable claim through his mother's side - indeed both
MacBeth and his wife were descended from Kenneth MacAlpin.
Shakespeare also gives MacBeth the title "Thane of Glamis" but in fact
Glamis was not known as a thanage in the 11th century. All in all,
the confusing mix of fact and fiction which runs through the play is
bewildering.
The early period of Duncan's reign was apparently uneventful, perhaps
a consequence of his youth. Macbeth (Mac Bethad mac Findláich) is
recorded as his dux, literally duke, but in the context -- "dukes of
Francia" had half a century before replaced the Carolingian kings of
the Franks and in England the over-mighty Godwin of Wessex was called
a dux -- this suggests that Macbeth was the power behind the throne.
In 1039, Duncan led a large Scots army south to besiege Durham, but
the expedition ended in disaster. Duncan survived, but the following
year he led an army north into Moray, traditionally seen as Macbeth's
domain. There he was killed, at Pitgaveny near Elgin, supposedly by
his own men led by Macbeth, on 14 August 1040. Duncan is depicted as
an elderly King in Macbeth by William Shakespeare. He is killed in
his sleep by the protagonist, Macbeth.
Duncan - King of Scotland (1034 - 1040): Duncan became King of
Scotland upon the death of Malcolm in 1034. He was a much weaker
character than Malcolm and a terrible leader. He led a disastrous
campaign into Northumbria and was forced to retreat ignominiously back
to Scotland. His cousin MacBeth, chief of the northern Scots, also had
a claim to the throne through his mother. MacBeth formed an alliance
with his cousin the Earl of Orkney, and they defeated and killed
Duncan near Forres in 1040 as warriors on the field of battle, not in
a castle while Duncan slept. MacBeth - King of Scotland (1040 -
1057): MacBeth, the Mormaer of Moray, claimed the throne on his own
behalf and that of his wife Grauch, and after the death of Duncan made
himself king in his place.
He was killed in the battle of armies at Bothnagowan (now
Pitgaveny), near Elgin on 14 August 1040. He was buried with his
ancestors in Iona. Donnchad mac Crínáin (Modern Gaelic: Donnchadh mac
Crìonain) anglicised as Duncan I, and nicknamed An t-Ilgarach, "the
Diseased" or "the Sick" (died 14 August 1040) was king of Scotland
(Alba). He was son of Crínán, hereditary lay abbot of Dunkeld, and
Bethóc, daughter of king Malcolm II of Scotland (Máel Coluim mac
Cináeda). Unlike the "King Duncan" of Shakespeare's Macbeth, the
historical Duncan appears to have been a young man. He followed his
grandfather Malcolm as king after the latter's death on 25 November
1034, without apparent opposition. He may have been Malcolm's
acknowledged successor or tánaise as the succession appears to have
been uneventful. An earlier source, a variant of the Chronicle of the
Kings of Alba (CK-I), gives Duncan's wife the Gaelic name Suthen.
aaron
