Macbeth, High King of Scotland, P.B. Ellis: Hardback: 1st Edition: Scots History

Macbeth: High King of Scotland 1040 - 57 AD

By Peter Beresford Ellis.

Published by Frederick Muller Ltd, London, 1980. First Edition. Hardback cover with dustjacket (unclipped), 133 pages. Black & white photography included.

CONDITION
Overall good condition, just some scuffs and superficial scoring marks to the black gloss dustjacket - see photos. No names or writing.

MacBeth was the greatest, and the last, of Scotland's truly Gaelic Kings. From a loose federation of independent kingdoms, long fought over by Scots, Britons and Vikings, he forged a single realm over which he ruled unchallenged for seventeen years, until he was cut down in 1057, shortly after the Battle of Dunsinane. But historical tradition has largely ignored the singular and true achievement of MacBeth preferring to cast him as an evil murderer: a man whose ambition and treachery were responsible, as in Shakespeare's play, for the disintegration of his country.

This intriguing account looks behind the legends to the real MacBeth, drawing from such contemporary sources as the writings of the annalist Tighernach and the Orkneyinga Saga. The picture which emerges is far removed from the traditional image popularized by Shakespeare, but no less fascinating. MacBeth's reign was not, in fact, a time of bloodshed and disorder. Records show that he ruled well and generously, and, alone of Scottish kings, in 1050 he even made a pilgrimage to Rome to seek absolution from the Pope.

Yet MACBETH is, too, the story of a long and bitter feud between two rival families brilliantly narrated and set in the political and social contexts of the period. A struggle which culminated in a pitched battle at 'Torfness in which Duncan was at last defeated and MacBeth himself elected to the throne. But perhaps it was as much St, Berchan's
gloomy prophecy that assured his subsequent fame: 'On the floor of Scone will he vomit blood...'