MYTHOLOGISING MAC BETHAD

Little is known for certain about the historical Mac Bethad, king of Scots from 1040 to 1057. It is generally accepted among historians that he was born c.1005, held the title of mormaer of Moray from 1032 until his death, married his cousin’s widow at some point and later ruled as king of Scots until his death. Other elements of his life and kingship are uncertain. There is evidence Mac Bethad, following the death of his father, spent the remainder of his youth in the court of Malcolm II (r.1005-34), during which time he may have met with King Cnut. Following this, Mac Bethad may have been responsible for the burning of his cousin, Gilla Comgáin, and 50 of his men alive in 1032, possibly as some kind of revenge for the murder of Mac Bethad’s father some twelve years earlier. It was Comgáin’s widow, Gruoch, who Mac Bethad later married, adopting his cousin’s son, Lulach, in the process.

After this, details of Mac Bethad’s life and kingship become even more muddied. Medieval chronicler Marianus Scotus describes Mac Bethad as making a pilgrimage to Rome where he ‘scattered money like seed to the poor’, but many historians doubt this pilgrimage actually took place. Finally, it is generally accepted that Mac Bethad’s life and kingship came to an end in 1057, soon before Malcolm III (r.1058-93) ascended to the throne after three years of intermittent conflict. What is known, or at least suspected, of the historical Mac Bethad’s life and kingship is composite: pieced together from small fragments of surviving medieval sources, most of which present Mac Bethad in a positive light and his kingship as a time of prosperity. So how did the name Mac Bethad become almost synonymous with tyranny? This is, without a doubt, predominantly due. It was Shakespeare’s which made Mac Bethad famous, though it is not Shakespeare’s which first presented the historical Mac Bethad as a murderer and a tyrant.