Macbeth MacFindley (MacFindlach, of Moray) b. about 1017 d. 15 August 1057

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Events

about 1017 birth:

religion: Celtic Orthodox

before 1040 title: Tánaise Ríg

between 1040 and 1057 title: King of Scotland

before 1057 child birth: ♂ Farquar MacBeaton [Macbeth] b. before 1057

15 August 1057 death: battle at Lumphanan

burial: Island of Iona

Notes

This person is given by some authors as a "make believe" person

Please do not modify this record without special precautions.A study of the Scottish clan genealogies following the death of Macbeth reveal that his legacy survived in the lineage of the Stewart kings. Because of this, Shakespeare and Elizabethan (Tudor) historians had a vested interest in rewriting history to legitimize the Plantagenet/Tudor claim at the expense of the Norman/Stewarts. Unlike these latter writers, no near contemporary source mentions Macbeth as a tyrant. The Duan Albanach, which survives in a form dating to the reign of Malcolm III calls him "Mac Bethad the renowned". The Prophecy of Berchán, a verse history which purports to be a prophecy, describes him as "the generous king of Fortriu", and says:

“ The red, tall, golden-haired one, he will be pleasant to me among them; Scotland will be brimful west and east during the reign of the furious red one."

In 1052, Macbeth received a number of Norman exiles from England in his court, perhaps becoming the first king of Scots to introduce Norman feudalism to Scotland. A careful study of Scottish surnames compared with the Domesday registry reveal that a great number of Norman nobles that accompanied William the Conquerer had in fact already preceeded him in the prior generation and and were already firmly established in their lands and fiefdoms in Scotland, Northern Wales and Northumberland prior to 1066.

In research sources of Nigel Tranter is found accounts that during Macbeth's trip to Rome to petition the Pope for reconciliation on behalf of the Celtic Catholic Church, Macbeth traveled in his Norman [identified as his brother] kinsman's longships. The kinsman in question would have been his brother-in-law Robert FitzRichard Everaux (the Devil). Robert, was the the husband of Macbeth's half sister Harelete, and the father of William the Conquerer. William's mother Arlette (Harelete) was a daughter of Doda (Doada) MacMalcoluim by her first marriage to the French noble Fuhlburt Tonnerre d'Falaise who died in 1017. Doada returned to Scotland where she was married to Findlaech of Moray as his second "Norse/ (Norman)" wife. By Findlaech, Doada bore a son, Maelbaetha MacFindlach (Macbeth), who inherited from his father the Pictish title Mormaer of Moray, and was elected by the Scottish nobles as regent and successor to his uncle Duncan MacMalcouim.

Following the Death of Duncan in 1040, there was some question as to the succession due to the minority of Duncan's son Malcolm. This represents a clear conflict in culture and tradition. Some nobles preferred the Malcolm's brother as regent, while the majority of the nobles preferred Macbeth due to his reputation but also due to his stronger claim to the throne. They argued that MacBeth's regency which bring about a unification of the lineages and lay to rest the various claims of the competing clans. The latter arguement won the day and not only was Macbeth elected as regent, but in the end he was given the title Ard Rí Alban (or High King of Scotland).

As the son of the king's sister, William the Conquer0r was recognized by a contingent of Scottish Nobles (with Pictish heritage) as the unofficial Tánaise Ríg with a legitimate claim to the throne of Scotland through the Pictish laws of Tanistry. In response to the ensuing political unrest in the British Isles resulting from Atheling support for the invasion of Scotland (with aims to restore Malcolm III to the throne of Scotland) William unites the Norman and French nobles to press his claim to for a united England and Scotland by invading England in 1066. (This by virtue of his wife Matilda's claim to the Atheling legacy, as well as his own to the throne of Scotland.)

[edit] Sources

1. ↑ Macbeth Research Bibliography - #The Book of Deer
   1. The Chronicon Scotorum
   2. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
   3. The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba [Duan Albanach]
   4. The Prophecy of Berchan
   5. The Domesday Registry
   6. Tranter, Nigel MacBeth the King Hodder & Stoughton, 1978.
   • Barrow, G.W.S., Kingship and Unity: Scotland 1000–1306. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, (corrected ed.) 1989.
   • Byrne, Francis John, Irish Kings and High-Kings. Batsford, London, 1973.
   • Duncan, A.A.M., The Kingship of the Scots 842–1292: Succession and Independence. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2002.
   • Hudson, Benjamin T., The Prophecy of Berchán: Irish and Scottish High-Kings of the Early Middle Ages. Greenwood, London, 1996.
   • McDonald, R. Andrew, Outlaws of medieval Scotland: Challenges to the Canmore kings, 1058–1266. Tuckwell, East Linton, 2003.
   • Sellar, W.D.H., "Moray: to 1130" in Michael Lynch (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Scottish History. Oxford UP, Oxford, 2001.

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