Is Macbeth Historically Accurate

Macbeth Findlàich is famously known from Shakespeare and the Scottish Play, 'Macbeth'. Shakespeare did many plays on historical events but not very historically accurate. He exaggerated a lot in his plays and switched a few things around, 'Macbeth' being one of these plays. This Scottish play deals with evil, darkness, prophecies, desires, and the feelings after getting what was wanted. This paper will cover a little bit about Duncan, King of Scotland during 1034-40, how Macbeth became King of Scotland, Malcolm, Duncan's son defeating Macbeth and what role the Scottish Play by Shakespeare plays in this historical event. The current king of Scots Malcolm II, son of Kenneth II, was considered more ruthless than the rules themselves at the time. He did not have a son to inherit the throne after him so he choose his daughter's son, Duncan (Cavendish,2004). During these times the successors did not have to be direct son's of the king; they could be brothers, grandsons, nephews, etc. In 1034, Malcolm was killed in Glamis and Duncan succeeded. Duncan was not greybeard as represented in the Scottish play, he actually was about the same age as Macbeth. Yet, he had a much weaker character and was a terrible leader. During Duncan's ruling, battles after battles were lost, tainting the prestige of Scotland. An

In the play Macbeth was killed in Dunsinane whereas in reality Macbeth was defeated and killed at Lumphanan in 1057 (Johnson,2015). A fiction detail in the Scottish play was that Macbeth reign was only a year whereas in reality, he ruled for 17 years and then was defeated. A fact of Macbeth was that he actually had a claim to the throne through his father, who was a Mormaer of Moray and his mother, who was a descendent from a king somewhere down the line. Yet, in the Scottish play Shakespeare made it seem as Macbeth had to kill the king to claim the