Cromarty History Society, Victoria Hall, Cromarty, Tuesday 20th February, 7:30pm

Speaker: Liz Broumley.

Of Macbeth, did one of the weird sisters actually say

“Lo, yondyr the thayne of Crwmbarthy”?

Was this a king under whose reign

“the land did prosper mightily”?

Macbeth was king of Alba, one of the areas the we now call Scotland from 1040 to 1057, he took power towards the end of a turbulent time as Scots, Gaels, Norse, Picts and Anglo-Saxons fought for power across northern Britain. The scant contemporary record suggest he was a skilful king with enough control of his realm to become the first ever King of
Scotland to make a pilgrimage to Rome. When he was beaten in battle there was enough respect from his enemies for him to be buried with honour in Iona. So why is Shakespeare’s depiction of him so bleak? What had happened to the story of Macbeth between his death and his reincarnation in the Scottish play? This talk will look at the emergence of Scottish narratives about Macbeth and the reasons that might lie behind the creation of a myth that in Macbeth “Something wicked this way comes.” As for Macbeth being Thain of Cromarty, well I will present the evidence but you, the jury, must decide!