Macbeth Emerges

Abstract Macbeth’s elevation as king of all the Scots was an unlikely achievement. When his father Finlay son of Rory was slain in 1020, he was merely another unsuccessful prince. Macbeth, however, survived and in less than a decade he succeeded his cousin Malcolm as king. At the beginning of his reign he was forced into political affairs in Scandinavia when Cnut of England and Denmark negotiated with him to side with the Danes as they fought for control of Scandinavia. Immediately this put Macbeth in opposition with his cousin Jarl Thorfinn of the Orkney Isles, who not only was a supporter of Cnut’s foe St. Olaf of Norway but was also casting covetous eyes on northern Scotland. Yet it was Macbeth, not Thorfinn, who became the king of the Scots.