Macbeth: Context

Macbeth: Context

1. James I

   • The Divine Right of Kings
     • The belief that the power of monarchs was given directly by God, and thus monarchs were answerable only to God
       • Therefore any opposition to the King was an attack on God himself
   • Daemonology (demonology)
     • The study of demons or beliefs about demons (esp. the methods used to summon and control them)
     • King James I of England wrote a book about it called daemonologie
       • Wrote that witchcraft was a reality and that its practitioners must be punished
   • Believed he descended from Banquo

2. Witchcraft

3. Equivocation and the Gunpowder Plot

   • A plot to kill King James in 1605
     • Macbeth is, to some extent, a cautionary tale, warning any other potential regicides (king-killers) of the awful fate that will inevitably overtake them

4. The Succession Problem

   • C11th Scotland
     • Election by council of thanes
   • C17th England
     • James and the Divine Right of Kings