Explore the theme of kingship in the play 'Macbeth'

‘Macbeth’ is a play written by Shakespeare in 1606. It is about a brave, noble soldier called Macbeth, who won a battle against the Norwegians’. On his return he meets three evil witches who tell him prophecies, claiming he would be the next King of Scotland. Macbeth then broke the Divine Right, murdering Duncan, innocent women and children. Eventually, Macbeth is attacked and killed by the English. Malcolm becomes king and helps Scotland recover. When Shakespeare wrote ‘Macbeth’, people believed in two concepts. The first being, The Divine Right of Kings, the belief that the king was appointed by God and that the king conveyed God’s message. The other concept was The Chain of Being,where every person or element was shown in a hierarchal form and that the world of the heavens, man and nature were linked. ‘Macbeth’ is about four kings, these are; Duncan, Macbeth, Malcolm and Edward the Confessor. ‘Macbeth’ begins and ends with the rightful king in reign.
The first king in ‘Macbeth’ is Duncan. The qualities Duncan possessed whilst king of Scotland varied.Throughout the play it is evident that Duncan values his subjects; he refers to Macbeth, as, ‘valient cousin, worthy gentleman’. At the beginning of the play, Duncan punishes the traitorous Cawdor and rewards Macbeth, for his bravery in battle. ‘No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death and with his former title greet Macbeth.’ This demonstrates that Duncan ruled justly and fairly.Duncan is trusting; ‘He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust’, here Duncan talked about the old Thane of Cawdor, who betrayed him. Italso proves that Duncan is too trusting and foolish to trust instantaneously. However, it is good that Duncan is a trusting ruler.In contrast, the prime reason why Duncan is a successful king is because he is divinely appointed by God. This becomes clear when Duncan, with Macbeth’s help, is able to defeat the Norwegians’, who have greater