264 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2>«i S. X. Oct. 6. '60. 



induced to make more satisfactory inquiry ; but 

 we suspect that the interminable dispute about the 

 " Old Corrector " has engrossed the attention of 

 the admirers of the immortal bard so much that 

 they have no time at present for anything else. That 

 the point may not be entirely forgotten, perhaps 

 you will place on record some remarks, hastily 

 penned some years since, which were originally 

 printed in the columns of the Ayr Observer : — 



We are not satisfied that the assassination of 

 Duncan by the hand of Macbeth is made out. 

 The "Chronicum Rythmicum," a document we 

 readily take as evidence, has these lines ; speaking 

 of Duncan it goes on — 



" A Finleg natus, percussit eum Macabeta 

 Vulneri letali, rex apad Elgin obit." 



This does not indicate such a murder as that per- 

 petrated by Robert de Bruce on the Eed Comyn 

 before the high altar in Dumfries, but rather re- 

 sembles death following by the means of a deadly 

 wound inflicted by Macbeth or his adherents, in 

 the course of some conflict which terminated against 

 Duncan. Barbarous as the age was, a murder 

 under trust — such as that represented to have 

 taken place atGlammis — would have been viewed 

 with disgust and indignation ; and it is not sup- 

 posable that the ancestors of the present genera- 

 tion could have had less respect for the rights of 

 hospitality than the Arabs of the desert. A man 

 who ruled so ably for seventeen years, and who 

 probably would have died in his bed King of Scot- 

 land but for the English invasion, would never 

 have been tolerated had he been the villain de- 

 picted by the imaginative Boece. 



Every respect was paid to the remains of Dun- 

 can, which were transferred from the place of his 

 death at Elgin, by order of the new monarch, to the 

 regal cemetery at lona. 



The Chartulary of the Priory of St. Andrews 

 was, a few years ago, presented to the members of j 

 the Bannatyne Club, as the contribution of the 

 now deceased O. Tyndal Bruce, Esq., of Falkland, i 

 The original, now belonging to Lord Panmure, ' 

 had been in the keeping of Andfo of Wynton, 

 and had been judicially produced by him in Dec. i 

 1413, as to certain law matters affecting the rights j 

 of the Priory. 



. Wynton is the most veracious chronicler we 

 possess of the earlier history of Scotland. Even 

 Pinkerton, the universal fault-finder, respects him. 

 It is in the volume of St, Andrew's Charters that 

 the remarkable entry occurs which proves that 

 Macbeth was king, and Gruoch, Jilia Bodhe, was 

 Queen " of the Scots." We are fully warranted 

 in assuming that Winton had documents and in- 

 formation which support him in what he asserts. 

 There is a singular contrast in the way in which 

 he treats of Macbeth. The weird sisters vanish 

 into air. Instead of thi?, an on dit is given that 

 Macbeth dreamed he was to be king ; there is 



also a long story "of his mother having been be- 

 guiled by the devil, who was the real father of the 

 regicide. These are given merely as traditionary 

 reports, originating, no doubt, under the Canmore 

 rule, Malcolm^being desirous to blacken the repu- 

 tation of the man he slew, and who had a better 

 title to the crown than he — a natural son accord- 

 ing to Wynton — could possibly have had. 



But when Wynton comes to facts he speaks 

 without hesitation. Thus he positively asserts 

 that Gruoch, the widow of Duncan, was espoused 

 by Macbeth, and that they reigned together — the 

 latter assertion being directly supported by the 

 St. Andrew's Charter-book. No doubt this asser- 

 tion is particularly startling, but that does not 

 make the fact the less true. 



Gruoch was the reputed wife of the Marmor of 

 Moray, who was burnt by Malcolm IT. — an usur- 

 per, much more clearly proved than Macbeth, and 

 who murdered Kenneth V., a worthy who had 

 previously slain Constantine IV., the son of Culen 

 (the Old King Coul of Scottish song). If the 

 lady was heiress in the direct line of the crown — 

 we don't suppose that Malcolm II. would have 

 much hesitation in slaying the husband — whose 

 claim to the throne jure uxoris must have been 

 formidable, and uniting her to his nephew, Dun- 

 can — in this way uniting the conflicting claims. 



Wynton tells us that the venerable Duncan, 

 being harboured by the Miller of Forteviot, fell 

 in love with his daughter, who bare hira a son — 

 Malcolm Canmore. This must have taken place 

 before the uncle's death, and it Is not unlikely 

 that his marriage with Gruoch did not interfere 

 with this liaison. The bastardy of Malcolm is 

 treated by the chronicler as undoubted, and we 

 know no distinct authority showing his legitimacy. 

 We are inclined to think that the story of the 

 Miller's daughter is not very fai* from the truth. 

 One thing is plain enough — no historian, except- 

 ing Wynton, informs us what became of IDuncan's 

 widow after the husband's death. 



The relationship of Macbeth to Duncan Is 

 puzzling in the extreme. Wynton says he was 

 his nephew. May not his mother have been a 

 sister of Malcolm II. ? This is mere conjecture, 

 but that he had some claim on the crown I have 

 little doubt ; and this he, like Henry VII., made 

 effectual by espousing the heiress of line. It is 

 worthy of notice, too, that so secure was he of the 

 affections of his subjects, that he went on a pil- 

 grimage to Rome, as had been done by other 

 royal and noble persons at that time. How could 

 a tyrant, and one possessing by violence, have 

 ventured to leave his own territories for months ? 

 The fact is doubted by Hailes, but it is too 

 strongly authenticated to admit of cavil. It 

 would be interesting to ascertain if there are any 

 Papal records of the period laetween 1037 and 

 1053 existing at Rome. 



