Macbeth: Detailed context (from BBC Bitezsize)

Political

Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606. It is important to understand the political

context in which it was written, as that is the key to the main theme of the play,
which is that excessive ambition will have terrible consequences. Shakespeare
was writing for the theatre during the reigns of two monarchs, Queen Elizabeth I
and King James I. The plays he wrote during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, such
as A Midsummer Night's Dream, are often seen to embody the generally happy,
confident and optimistic mood of the Elizabethans. However, those he wrote
during James's reign, such as Macbeth and Hamlet, are darker and more cynical,
reflecting the insecurities of the Jacobean period. Macbeth was written the year
after the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

When Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, she had no children, or even nephews or
nieces. The throne was offered to James Stuart, James VI of Scotland, who then
became James I of Britain. He was a distant cousin of Elizabeth, being
descended from Margaret Tudor, the sister of Elizabeth's grandfather, Henry VII.
James was the son of the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, who had been deposed
and imprisoned when he was a baby, and later executed on Elizabeth's orders.
Brought up by Protestant regents, James maintained a Protestant regime in
Scotland when he came of age, and so was an acceptable choice for England
which had become firmly Protestant under Elizabeth. However, his accession was
by no means a popular choice with everyone. Since he was not a direct
descendant of Elizabeth, there were other relatives who believed they also had a
strong claim and James feared that discontented factions might gather around
them. At first the Catholics had hoped James might support them, since his
mother had been such a staunch Catholic, but when they realised this would not
happen conspiracies developed, one of which was the Gunpowder Plot. Guy
Fawkes and his men tried to blow up James and his parliament in 1605. The
conspirators were betrayed, and horribly tortured on the rack until they
confessed. They were then executed in the most brutal fashion as a warning to
other would-be traitors. Shakespeare's play Macbeth is to some extent a
cautionary tale, warning any other potential regicides (king-killers) of the awful
fate that will inevitably overtake them.

Philosophical

Religious thinkers in the Middle Ages had upheld the idea of 'The Great Chain of
Being'. This was the belief that God had designed an ordered system for both
nature and humankind within which every creature and person had an allotted
place. It was considered an offence against God for anyone to try to alter their
station in life. After death, however, all would be raised in the kingdom of
heaven, if they respected God's will. Since royal rank was bestowed by God, it
was a sin to aspire to it. This doctrine – a convenient one for King James – was
still widely held in Shakespeare's day.

Although his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was a beautiful and charming
woman, James I was aware he was ugly and lacking in the charisma which
inspired loyalty. But he was an intelligent and well-educated man, and espoused
various beliefs which he felt would keep his position secure. One of these was
the so-called 'divine right of kings'. This was the belief that the power of
monarchs was given directly by God, and thus monarchs were answerable only
to God. Any opposition to the King was an attack on God himself, and therefore
sacrilege, the most heinous of sins. The anointing ceremony at the coronation
made the King virtually divine. All the Stuart kings strongly supported the belief
in their 'divine right' to rule as it was an effective safeguard of their position.
They even claimed Christ-like powers of healing. In Macbeth, Shakespeare
alludes to King Edward of England successfully healing the sick: 'such sanctity
hath heaven given his hand'. Queen Anne was the last British monarch who used
'the Queen's touch' in this way.

Historical
Shakespeare's plot is only partly based on fact. Macbeth was a real eleventh
century Scottish king, but the historical Macbeth, who had a valid right to the
throne, reigned capably in Scotland from 1040 till 1057. He succeeded Duncan,
whom he had defeated in battle, but the real Duncan was a weak man, around
Macbeth's own age, not the respected elderly figure we meet in the play. In
reality, Macbeth was succeeded by his own stepson, not by Duncan's son,
Malcolm, who came to the throne later. The Stuart kings claimed descent from
Banquo, but Banquo is a mythical figure who never really existed. Shakespeare
found his version of the story of Macbeth in the Chronicles of Holinshed, a
historian of his own time. Holinshed does include a Banquo in his version, but he
is also a traitor who assists Macbeth in the murder. As a tribute to the Stuarts,
and James in particular, Shakespeare presents Banquo as a wise, noble and
regal figure who arouses jealousy in Macbeth as much for his own good qualities
as for the promise the witches make to him of founding a dynasty.
Shakespeare and the Court
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare's acting company was called
the 'Chamberlain's Men', and it is known that they performed for the court. After
the accession of James they changed their name to the 'King's Men' as a tribute
to him. The patronage of the King and court was obviously valuable to
Shakespeare. In Macbeth, Shakespeare seeks to flatter and please the King in
various ways. Macbeth, the character who usurps the place of a lawful King, is
shown as losing everything as a result – he becomes hated and demonised by all
his subjects, as does his wife, who supports him in his crime. Banquo, whom the
Stuarts claimed as their ancestor, is presented in a completely positive light.
When the witches show Macbeth the future, he sees a line of kings descended
from Banquo that seems to 'stretch out to the crack of doom'. This flatters King
James with the promise of a long-standing dynasty, although in fact James's
father, Charles I, would be executed, and the Stuart line was to die out with
Queen Anne in 1714.
Shakespeare also included other enthusiasms of the King in the play. James had
written a book called Basilikon Doron, which looks at the theme of kingship. In
the book, James identifies the ideal king as one who does his duty to God and to
his country and who is also a man of spotless personal integrity. In the play,
Shakespeare, too, explores this topic, with the character of Malcolm representing
the template of the ideal king. In addition, the idealised portrait of Edward the
Confessor, the 'holy king' who has the power literally to heal his people, would
come across to a contemporary audience as an indirect tribute to James himself.
James was also very interested in the supernatural, and had written a paper
called Daemonologie on the subject. During his reign as King of Scotland, James
is known to have been directly involved in some witch trials at North Berwick.
Women were regularly burnt as witches, and Shakespeare presents his witches
unequivocally as powerful and evil emissaries of the devil. In his day, the
majority of the general public believed in witches and the power of the
supernatural, and the witch scenes would have been taken very seriously.