context

Question 1

holinshed’s historie of scotlande: 3 changed

Answer 1

1. macbeth was originally a good king for 10 kings
   ↳ macbeth is changed to be cruel & tyrannical, this makes the play more interesting
2. the weird sisters were originally called ‘goddesses of destine’
   ↳ they are now just weird sisters, this gives macbeth agency over his own actions, by reducing the power of the witches, shakespeare delegitimises their power, this may have done to appeal to the audience and monarch of the time
3. banquo collaborated with macbeth to kill duncan
   ↳ in shakespeare’s version, banquo is not an accomplice to the murder and is an honourable man, shakespeare may have changed to please king james I (patron of shakespeare) as he believed he could trace his lineage to banquo
   Chronicles is mainly legend).
   For this reason, Banquo had to be good.

Question 2

shakespeare & king james

Answer 2

-macbeth was written during the reign of king james I, who was a supporter of and a patron of Shakespeare’s work
-shakespeare was greatly influenced by the king

Question 3

facts about king james I

Answer 3

-in some ways the life of King James I can be referred to as a Scottish tragedy
-there was a significant amount of uncertainty at the end of queen elizabeth’s reign because she had no heir
-in the life of James his parents were Mary I, Queen of Scots and his father was Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
-his mother, was imprisoned and forced to abdicate the throne and so a one-year-old James VI became the king of scotland and never saw his mother again
-later in 1587, when james was 31, his mother was executed by Queen Elizabeth I and prior to this
-when James took his position as the King of Scotland he made an alliance with Elizabeth I securing his place as her successor.

Question 4

daemonologie

Answer 4

-king james I book about supernatural & witchcraft
-james I firmly believed that witchcraft was an act of satan and the way one became one was by making a deal with the devil to get some sort of supernatural power
-the purpose of the book was not just to provide evidence for witchcraft for those who did not believe; it was also for those who did believe to inspire them to carry out witch hunts

Question 5

divine right of kings

Answer 5

-the idea that the king was chosen directly by God

-james I believed in the divine right of kings, so he believed that he was chosen by God to be the king of england

Question 6

great chain of being

Answer 6

-an ideological belief
-everything had a fixed place, according to its important and spiritual nature
-this hierarchy started with God, under whom came angels then the king
-the king should rule commoners, who should accept their place
-macbeth’s actions distort the natural order of the universe, setting off chaos and bloodshed

-in the great chain of being, the king is the closest being to God on Earth
-because of this close relationship, it was the role of the king to enact the will of God - which james believed was to rid the earth of witchcraft, and therefore witches

Question 7

king james’ trip

Answer 7

-anne of denmark went on a trip to meet him before he had become king of england
-due to rough weather she was unable to complete the journey
-james decided to go on the journey to get his betrothed himself, but on the way, he and his men were attacked by the deadly weather
-james believed that the only cause of this was witchcraft
-when james returned to scotland, he launched a witch hunt on a large scale

Question 8

king james misogyny

Answer 8

-while james was a religious fanatic, it can be argued that that was not the origin of all his strong beliefs on witchcraft
-king james I was deeply misogynistic
-evidence can be found in ‘Daemonologie’ he said that only women could be witches because they were the ‘weaker sex’ and so could be easily entrapped by the snares’ of the devil
-James I, saw the Bible as evidence of this belief (in adam and eve, eve was the one that was tricked by the serpent, it shows that women are more easily influenced and persuaded to the side of evil)

Question 9

the gunpowder plot

Answer 9

-failed conspiracy by some Catholics to assassinate the king and parliament
-so an attempt to kill the one God had chosen was not just a worldly sin but actually a sin against God
-james I believed that the gunpowder plot was an act of witchcraft
-catholics used equivocation to hide their religion without lying outrightly