When looking into the story of Macbeth, you have to first divest yourself of everything you learned from Shakespeare! There was no late-night murder, no witch's spell, and no deceitful Lady Macbeth pulling the strings behind the scenes. Macbeth was a real king, and a fairly good one as early Scottish kings went! First, some background.
Malcolm II
Malcolm II, king of the Pictish kingdom of Alba, or Scotia, was a descendent of Kenneth MacAlpin. He gained the throne by murdering Alexander III. This was actually a fairly common occurrence among early Scottish kings; of the 13 kings of Alba between 859 and 1005, 7 were killed. Malcolm had some success as a warrior and defeated the Angles at Carham. His ally in that fight was Owen the Bald of the Strathclyde Britons.
When Owen died, Malcolm made his own grandson, Duncan, the new king, thus joining Strathclyde to Scotia and creating the first truly Scottish kingdom. For the first time, the name 'Scot' was being used to describe the people of the kingdom. The people of this far-flung kingdom had different customs, different styles of architecture, and they dressed differently, but for all their differences, for the first time, they were part of a single kingdom, under a single leader.
When Malcolm II died in 1034 his grandson, Duncan, became the new king. But his accession was not universally accepted. The northern Scots acclaimed their own leader, Macbeth, as king. The two claimants met in battle in 1040, and Macbeth was victorious. Macbeth then ruled a united kingdom of Scotland for 17 years.
The defeated Duncan's son, also named Malcolm, appealed to Edward the Confessor, King of England, for help in regaining his father's crown. In a struggle that lasted several years, Malcolm ultimately defeated MacBeth and took the throne as Malcolm III. He is better known to history as Malcolm Canmore.
