Thanks to Shakespeare’s play of c. 1605, Macbeth is regarded as one of the great villains of history. Shakespeare took his Macbeth from Holinshed’s Chronicles; Holinshed in turn took his information from Hector Boece’s Scotorum Historiae (1527). Boece is a notoriously unreliable source and was writing in any case to bolster the claim of James I to the Scottish throne, while Shakespeare was obliged to flatter his descendant James VI, who became James I of England in 1603 (it was claimed that both Jamies were descended from Banquo, but Banquo may never have existed).
The character and reign of the real Macbeth was quite different, however. After defeating Duncan I in battle in 1040 (Duncan may well have been a young warrior rather than Shakespeare’s saintly old buffer), Macbeth, king of Moray, became king of all Scotland. The 11th century was a tough time to be a Scottish monarch. Apart from incessant struggle against rival claimants to the throne, and with many minor powers all with quite literal axes to grind, the kingdom also lay open to attacks from the Orkney Vikings in the north (though Earl Thorfinn was an ally of Macbeth’s, such alliances could dissolve with opportunity), and from the Northumbrian kingdom in the south. It may seem odd to think of Macbeth as a player on the European stage, never mind undertake a pilgrimage to Rome, but such was the case. Europe was undergoing dramatic shifts of power; the pathways of dynastic struggle ran across the Atlantic and North Sea as well as by land, and Scotland was by no mans a negligible state. Macbeth was the first, but not the last, Scottish monarch to take Norman knights into his service.
Pope Leo IX became Pope in 1049 and was also acquainted with Norman power, but with the receiving end of that power. Norman invaders were causing great strife in Southern Italy and Sicily, and the new Pope did what he could to alleviate the strife. It was also a tough time to be a Pope. Macbeth travelled to Rome in 1050, scattering money ‘like seed’ to the poor, it was said. There is no record of his conversation with Pope Leo IX; doubtless, as the 1913 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia delicately puts it, he ’may be thought to have exposed the needs of his soul to that tender father’. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia is not known for its forthright criticism of the papacy, but even by its own standards, the description of Leo IX is highly reverential: in childhood he was ‘saintly’, and he had trouble reading from a book that turned out to be stolen.
The historical Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople not long before he died, thus causing an un-healable rift between the Catholics and the Orthodox, and was much more like the powerful lord portrayed by Kingsley Amis in his fine story about Macbeth’s meeting with the Holy Father, ‘Affairs of Death’. As is the case with George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman novels, it is often to the fiction writers we turn for the best insights into historical figures, and Amis’ version of the encounter is a compelling one. His Leo IX is a steely character, looking for gifts from his northern visitor. Macbeth is a sad man, haunted by guilt over the blood on his hands, but also keen to tell the Pope that now ‘Scotland is safe and at peace. This has not been customary’. Indeed it was not customary, and Macbeth’s rule was popular. Thanks to his deals, promises and threats, the realm lived free from war while he ruled (It is possible that Macbeth visited Rome twice, and Amis sets the meeting in 1053 rather than the documented date of 1050).
What Happened Next
Leo IX led an army against the Normans in 1053, was defeated. and died a broken (or at least very frustrated) man in 1054. Macbeth had a good innings for a medieval Scottish king, reigning for 17 years before being killed in battle in 1057 against Duncan’s son, Malcolm III. In a development still not really understood, Macbeth’s stepson Lulach took the throne. Lulach’s father had been killed by Macbeth and it is possible he fought in alliance with Malcolm; in any case, Malcolm ambushed and killed him in 1058. Scottish history at this time begins to resemble a series of The Sopranos, with Macbeth’s rule being looked back to as a time of peace and plenty. Macbeth may be one of the many Scottish (and Norwegian and Irish) kings buried on Iona.
See also 1052: Edward the Confessor meets William the Bastard