Macbeth’s Connection with King James I and the Gunpowder Plot

Some say, Shakespeare, wrote Macbeth in response to the foiled Gunpowder Plot in 1605, for the Scottish play is full of references that resonate with King James I and the plotters’ downfall after being found guilty of treason. But why?

Due to the enormity of the failed regicide and what could have transpired if the Catholic extremists had succeeded, it is likely the event would have caused a stir of divided opinion and suspicion among the contemporary folk. Even failing to receive communion after The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was seen as being a treacherous act which Shakespeare’s eldest daughter found out three months after Fawkes’ death in 1606. Among twenty-one other people in Stratford-upon-Avon, Susana was charged for not taking Communion on Easter Sunday. Fortunately, the charges were dropped. However, with Shakespeare being such a famous figure, there’s a strong possibility that this scandal would have heightened suspicion. His connection with Catholicism through his family and his close ties with the King would have certainly raised a few red flags in court.

As the King was Shakespeare’s acting company’s patron, Shakespeare needed nobility’s co-operation to continue being funded and still be seen as relevant. This is because many within the acting company, known widely as The King’s Men, were financially dependent on the court’s requirement for performing arts - especially as the bubonic plague kept interrupting their work schedule. To keep up appearances, Shakespeare used his writing skills to convince the court that he had never desired to conspire against the crown. He went as far as centring the Scottish play around historical figures from the eleventh century that was related to King James I. It has been considered that Macbeth’s ally, Banquo, Thane of Lochaber was King James’ ancestor. In the play, Shakespeare passes that connection to the audience through the three witches who foretold Banquo that he was not destined to be King himself, but his descendant would be: hinting towards the first Stuart King of England, King James; King of Scotland and England. In the aftermath of this knowledge, Macbeth, fuelled with ambition had his loyal friend killed. However, Banquo’s son escaped Macbeth’s murderous plot which ironically mirrored that of his descendant King James’ own escape from the Gunpowder Plot in 1605.

With the intention to perform the tragedy at court, Shakespeare expressed his loyalties further by portraying King Duncan in the play as courageous and godlike, ‘His silver skin laced with his golden blood’ (2.3). This was the complete antithesis to the real King Duncan who was seen by his contemporaries as a weak and powerless King, compared to the character of the true Macbeth who was a popular king during his reign.

Shakespeare rewrote history in favour of the crown as well as for dramatic effect. The downfall of Macbeth after he forcibly took the throne would have pleased King James I, for he was a true believer in divine right. Due to the social unrest between the Catholics and the Monarch after the Gunpowder Treason Plot, it was seen as a reminder to all that were as ambitious as Macbeth that tampering with the crown’s succession would only lead to demise. Fear would have already set in, having witnessed the wrath of King James I during Guy Fawkes’ public execution.

At the time of Macbeth, witches were prominent across Europe. They were blamed for sickness, death and natural disasters. King James was particularly obsessed with hunting down witches ever since his voyage back to Scotland with his bride, Anne of Denmark, was hit by a terrible storm in 1589 that could have endangered their lives. It was the stir of suspicion among the crew that the storm was the work of witchcraft that roused the King’s fear of sorcery.

His fear of witchcraft resulted in years of witch hunting and trials across Scotland throughout the 1590s which led to mass executions by means of hanging, drowning, strangulation with a garrotte and burning on the stake.

The King of Scotland went as far as to publish a thesis on witchcraft, titled Daemonologie in 1597 and republished again when he became King of England in 1603, succeeding Queen Elizabeth I.

It is believed Shakespeare developed his three weird witches in Macbeth from the King’s philosophical dissertation on the use of dark magic. It is also argued that the shipwreck tale the witches discuss in act one, scene three whereby the first Witch says: ‘Though his bark cannot be lost / Yet it shall be tempest-tossed,’ (l,24-25) is a direct reference to the Royal’s near-death experience back in 1589.

The lines which would have been performed over sound effects of thunder and lightning simply clarify that witches don’t have the power to physically kill or sink a ship, but they do have the power to cause those onboard danger by manipulating the elements. Shakespeare describes the witches to be more meddling outcasts than murdering hags, suggesting what they do and say is simply to shake and test one’s mental strength. In doing so, he highlights that all humans are in control of their actions.

Though there is no doubt that the witches' meddling was to blame for Macbeth’s madness after planting the prophecy in his mind, it was Lady Macbeth that was the ultimate mastermind behind the killing of King Duncan; concluding, that her persistence was necessary for the prophecy to be fulfilled.

She does this by requesting to her husband that he should not only ‘look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t’ (1.5). Though Lady Macbeth’s words were used to encourage her husband to seize the opportunity to kill the King whilst he was a guest in their home, it’s clear it was also a direct reference to the Gunpowder Plot. For, the image of flowers and serpents coincide with King James’ medal he had made specifically to commemorate the foiled attempt on his life in 1605.

The serpent hiding amongst the flowers symbolises the deceit and disloyalty of the Catholic extremists found hidden in the shadows of his nation’s capital. As the design of the commemorative medal would have been well known to Shakespeare’s audience, it was important to include these images near the beginning of the play to fully demonstrate his loyalty to the crown and its association with recent events.

Therefore, it goes without saying that Shakespeare wrote Macbeth to publicly honour and compliment the King directly in an attempt to remove all suspicion from himself. To his consolation, the most popular play of treason did just that for he continued to write and act in The King’s Men until he retired in 1613 at the age of forty-nine, sadly passing away ten years after Guy Fawkes in 1616.