Macduff & Macbeth, The story behind the play

[Aon_Daonna]

Being here on the lovely coast of Fife and seeing MacDuff castle daily it couldn't end up much differently but in me being interested in it's History.
This Castle was one of the first stone-built castles of it's time here. The larger tower was still standing (and being used as storage by the Fife Council) until 1967 when it was knocked down by the Council, they probably wouldn't be able to do that today.

The Castle was built by MacDuff, mormaer (could be translated to Earl) of Fife (he is reputed to be of the blood of a pictish king having the title Dubh before his name, he actually preferred to be called Thane though). He was once imprisoned in his own castle but knowing it he easily made his way out.

In 1040 the Scottish King Duncan I. was murdered by his cousin Macbeth (it wasn't the first time murder let to the succession to the throne). His sons fled to the court of Edward the Confessor and pleaded for help. Macbeth was the mormaer of Moray (which seemed to have their hands in just about everything ) and for a time he seemed to be a better king than his cousin Duncan had been but became very anxious of all men who were in power as well. He had his once friend and ally Banquo murdered and withdrew to his strong hill-fortress Dunsinane. He started strengthening his defences and ordered every lord in Scotland to provide labourers and teams of oxens.

He had feared MacDuff already, as he was one of the most influential men in Scotland at that time, but when he discovered that MacDuff had sent the weakest team of oxens he set about to make MacDuff bend his neck beneath the yoke instead. Friends warned the Thane about this danger and MacDuff fled from the castle. He crossed the Tay and rode to warn his family in the castle at Rires in Fife.
He told his wife to bar the gates of the castle behind him and rode on south to the Firth of Forth. He was hidden by some fishermen in a cave now called "MacDuff Cave".
As Macbeth arrived in Rires he discovered that the bird had flown out and here the story differs. The legend I first read said that Macbeth burnt down the wooden castle after he murdered MacDuff's wife and son. Another one said instead he turned around, thwarted and returned to Dunsinane.

MacDuff went on to England to beg Malcolm, Duncan's heir to come back and re-take the throne for himself. Malcolm was suspicious of MacDuffs intentions at first and presented himself as degenerated, filled with decadence and discord. Horrified the Thane struggled to come to terms with this but as he saw the honesty of that man, Malcolm relieved him and helped his uncle Siward of Northumberland to prepare an Army, while MacDuff rode back to Scotland to raise support.

Together the armies forced Macbeth from Dunsinane and he fled to Lumphanan, where he was slain by MacDuff.

The noble Thane crowned Malcolm King of Scotland and earned himself honour with his deeds.


MacDuff himself could have become king, since he was also a grandson to Kenneth II, but he did not seem to want this responsibility.

If MacDuff killed Macbeth or not is not known, but Malcolm III, called Canmore, placed many honors on the family. The most important of all was to place the king on his throne at his coronation. This privilege stayed with the MacDuffs for three centuries, the last one known is Isabel, Countess of Buchan, who placed the crown on Robert Bruces head in 1306, standing in for her brother the Earl of Fife. She paid dearly for this though, two years later she was publicly displayed in a cage by the English together with Mary, Bruce's sister, in Roxburgh and Berwick.

[Aon_Daonna]

That's how the MacDuff family got to alot of their hereditary rights, including the protection from prosecution if the particular member of the family could reach a stone cross in northern Fife.